Thomas Shearer in point of time, the first published document to show it. Shearer, like many of his contemporaries, was much given to devising "harlequin" furniture. He was a designer of high merit and real originality, and occupies a distinguished place among the little band of men, often, like himself, ill-educated and obscure of origin, who raised the English cabinet-making of the second half of the 18th century to an illustrious place in artistic history. 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
European hand fans in the 18th century century. During this time the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers tried to grow the English fan trade, but their success was small in comparison to the French industry. There were two main types of fans seen in Europe during the 18th century: the rigid (or fixed) fan and the folding fan. As its name implies, the rigid fan is stiff. Possible fan shapes are a leaf, a rectangle, or an oval. The fan is attached to a base where it is held. The folding fan was the most popular in Europe during the 18th century, a time known as the