in
his books. The name of Robert Adam is not mentioned, and this seems
particularly unpleasant when one thinks of the latter's undoubted
influence on Sheraton's work. Sheraton's unfortunate disposition
probably helped to make his life a failure.

It is very sad to see such possibilities as his not reaping their true
reward, for poverty dogged his steps all through life, and he was always
struggling for a bare livelihood. His books were not financially
successful, and at last he gave up his workshop and ceased to make the
furniture he designed. He was an expert draughtsman and his designs were
carried out by the skillful cabinet-makers of the day. Adam Black gives
a very pitiful account of the poverty in which Sheraton lived, and says:
"That by attempting to do everything he does nothing." His "nothing,"
however, has proved a very big something in the years which have
followed, for Sheraton is responsible for one of the most beautiful
types of furniture the world has known, and although his life was hard
and bitter, his fame is great.

Sheraton took the style of Louis XVI as his standard, and some of his
best work is quite equal to that of the French workmen. He felt the lack
of the exquisite brass and ormolu work done in France, and said if it
were only possible to get as fine in England, the superior
cabinet-making of the English would put them far ahead in the ranks. To
many of us this loss is not so great, for the beauty of the wood counts
for more, and is not detracted from by an oversupply of metal ornament,
as sometimes happened in France. "Enough is as good as a feast."
Sheraton, at his best, had beauty, grace, and refinement of line without
weakness, lightness and yet perfect construction, combined with balance,
and the ornament just sufficient to enhance the beauty of the article
without overpowering it. It is this fine work which the world remembers
and which gave him his fame, and so it is far better to forget his later
period when nearly all trace of his former greatness was lost.

[Illustration: A Sheraton bureau with a delightful little
dressing-glass.]

Sheraton profited by the work of Chippendale, Adam, and Hepplewhite, for
these great men blazed the trail for him, so to speak, in raising the
art of cabinet-making to so high a plane that England was full of
skilled workmen. The influence of Adam, Shearer, and Hepplewhite, was
very great on his work, and it is often difficult to tell whether he
or He