Thomas Sheraton Thomas Sheraton Thomas Sheraton (1751 – 22 October 1806) was a furniture designer, one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite. Sheraton gave his name to a style of furniture characterized by a feminine refinement of late Georgian styles and became the most powerful source of inspiration behind the furniture of the late 18th century. Sheraton was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. He was apprenticed to a local cabinet maker and continued working as a journeyman cabinet maker until he moved to London in 1790, aged 39. There
Chair-maker furniture. In the country manufactories it is otherwise; yet even these pay some regard to keeping their workmen constantly at the chair, or to cabinet work. The two branches seem evidently to require different talents in workmen, in order to become proficients." In Paris, a chair-maker was a "menuisier", or joiner: guild regulations forbade "menuisiers" to engage in cabinet making. Some "menuisiers" produced the planed and carved wood paneling for rooms ("boiseries"), while others, "menuisiers en sièges", produced the frames for seat furniture, which would be upholstered by other craftsmen, such as "huissiers". Chair-maker Since the mid-17th century a chair-maker,