massive, and heavy, equally wanting in gracefulness with its French
contemporary, and not having the compensating attractions of fine
mounting, or the originality and individuality which must always add an
interest to Napoleonic furniture.

[Illustration: Drawing Room Chair. Design published by T. Sheraton,
April, 1804.]

[Illustration: Drawing Room Chair. Design published by T. Sheraton,
April 1, 1804.]

There was, however, made about this time by Gillow, to whose earlier work
reference has been made in the previous chapter, some excellent furniture,
which, while to some extent following the fashion of the day, did so more
reasonably. The rosewood and mahogany tables, chairs, cabinets and
sideboards of his make, inlaid with scrolls and lines of flat brass, and
mounted with handles and feet of brass, generally representing the heads
and claws of lions, do great credit to the English work of this time. The
sofa table and sideboard, illustrated on the previous page, are of this
class, and shew that Sheraton, too, designed furniture of a less
pronounced character, as well as the heavier kind to which reference has
been made.

[Illustration: "Canopy Bed" Design Published by T. Sheraton, November
9th, 1803.]

[Illustration: "Sister's Cylinder Bookcase." Designed by T. Sheraton,
1802.]

[Illustration: Sideboard, In Mahogany, with Brass Rail and Convex Mirror
at back, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1802.]

[Illustration: Sofa Table, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1804.]

A very favourable example of the craze in England for classic design in
furniture and decoration, is shown in the reproduction of a drawing by
Thomas Hope, in 1807, a well-known architect of the time, in which it will
be observed that the forms and fashions of some of the chairs and tables,
described and illustrated in the chapter on "Ancient Furniture," have been
taken as models.

There were several makers of first-class furniture, of whom the names of
some still survive in the "style and title" of firms of the present day,
who are their successors, while those of others have been forgotten, save
by some of our older manufacturers and auctioneers, who, when requested by
the writer, have been good enough to look up old records and revive the
memories of fifty years ago. Of these the best known was Thomas Seddon,
who came from Manchester and settled in Aldersgate Street. His two sons
succeeded to the business, became cabinet makers to George IV.,