THE CABINET MAKER'S AND UPHOLSTERER'S DRAWING-BOOK. IN THREE PARTS

         SHERATON, Thomas.  THE CABINET MAKER'S AND UPHOLSTERER'S DRAWING-BOOK. IN THREE PARTS.                                                     

London: The Author, 1802, 1794 and 1796. 4to. Contemporary half-calf, marbled boards. Engraved frontispiece, viii, viii, 5-121, 172-175, (1), (ii), 177-446; (2), 60, (8); 24 pages, 121 engraved plates, several folding, double-paged, or larger. Third edition. [Heckscher, English Furniture Pattern Books, 20; Millard, Volume II, 75].

Three continuously paginated parts, plus an Appendix,  and Accompaniment in one volume.  A fine copy of the most complete edition of one of the great English furniture pattern books of the eighteenth century (the others being Chippendale's and Hepplewhite's) with an additional nine plates more than the first edition.  Not much is known about Sheraton, apart from his teaching activities in Soho and maybe Mayfair on a trade card advertising his lessons in perspective, architecture, ornaments and designs for cabinet makers. 

It was the first furniture pattern book to show Regency-style furniture, bringing to cabinet-makers everywhere the designs and knowledge of London, the furniture center of the world.  American craftsmen were soon copying the designs from Sheraton's book.  In America, Thomas Seymour, a prominent Boston cabinetmaker, owned a copy of the first edition before the end of the eighteenth century (now in the library of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts).  This complete copy includes the Appendix and The Accompaniment, most often lacking.  Our copy collates with a full complement of plates and is bound - as the Millard copy and many others - without the separate title leaves for each part.  Book label of Mary Addington on inside of front board and an armorial bookplate of Henry William Hoskins on front blank leaf.  Inscribed on title page, "Mary Addington 1805."  Very good.

 

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