Thomas Shearer Thomas Shearer Thomas Shearer was an 18th-century English furniture designer and cabinet-maker. Shearer was a craftsman and the author of most of the plates in "The Cabinet Maker's London Book of Prices and Designs of Cabinet Work", issued in 1788 "for the London Society of Cabinet Makers." The majority of these plates were republished separately as Designs for Household Furniture. They exhibit their author as a man with an eye at once for simplicity of design and delicacy of proportion. Indeed, some of his pieces possess a dainty and slender elegance which has never been surpassed in the history of
William Henry Chippendale William Henry Chippendale William Henry Chippendale (14 August 1801 – 3 January 1888) was an English actor, known in particular for his portrayal of old men. He was born in Somers Town, London, on 14 Aug. 1801, and received some education at the high school, Edinburgh, in which city his father made his first appearance on 25 July 1814 as Polonius. Chippendale was placed with James Ballantyne to learn printing, and asserted, in error or oblivion, that he 'read' some of the Waverley manuscripts. He was subsequently apprenticed to John Ballantyne the auctioneer. He claimed to have played the Page