s Sideboard, c.1791-1811 - Hull Museums Collections

Sideboard, c.1791-1811

This sideboard would have stood against the wall in someone’s dining room. The drawers would have held cutlery and table linens like napkins.

The four oval patterns decorating the front contrast with the dark mahogany wood. They have been made by ‘inlaying’ pieces of light coloured wood. Inlaying means to set pieces of material such as wood or ivory into the surface of an object. The inlaid pieces make a pattern that is level with the sideboard’s surface.

This sideboard’s design was probably inspired by ‘The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book’ by Thomas Sheraton. Thomas was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1751. He worked as a furniture maker and moved to London around 1790.

There is no evidence that Thomas made furniture during his time in London. His trade card says he taught ‘perspective, architecture and ornaments, making designs for cabinet-makers’. He supported himself mainly through his work as an author. ‘The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book’ was published in four parts in 1791 to 1794.

Sheraton’s Drawing Book aimed to teach people about drawing, geometric representation, architecture and perspective. As an experienced cabinet maker, he drew designs for pieces of furniture to illustrate his points. Soon the Drawing Book was in great demand among furniture makers who wanted to copy Sheraton’s designs. 600 English cabinet makers and joiners subscribed to the Drawing Book.

Thomas Sheraton’s name became applied to the distinctive style of furniture illustrated in his designs. This style of furniture was mainly popular in the late Georgian period, until 1811. Many pieces of furniture survive from this period that were either copied from or influenced by his designs.

Sheraton’s Drawing Book contains an illustration of a sideboard similar to this one. The illustration shows two small drawers on either side of the sideboard and a drawer in the centre. They all have circular handles, just like this sideboard.