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Early American Colonial Furniture with Thomas Sheraton and Duncan Phyfe English and Early American Colonial Furniture History

 

Sheraton and Phyfe Compared

IN THIS closing chapter we are concerned with the work of two men who were widely different, vet had much in common. The family of Phyfe came not far from Inverness, in the extreme north of Scotland, emigrating, while Duncan was only a boy, to America, settling first at Albany, coming down the Hudson, later to lower New York into what is now the Fulton Street and Broadway district.

Thomas Sheraton hailed from farther south, almost on the borders of England and Scotland, being a native of Stockton-on­Tees in County Durham. He was already well advanced in life when he left his home city to seek fame and fortune in London. The latter he was never destined to achieve, his life in the metropolis being spent in poverty and disappointment. His two books, which concern us here, were "The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book" and "The Cabinet Dictionary." The former represents the true style which we now know as Sheraton, the latter being in the later and inferior manner, the so-called English Empire, which Sheraton was forced to adopt. It is in this English Empire where Sheraton was undoubtedly the teacher of Duncan Phyfe, although his own style was also extensively followed in New York State by the cabinetmakers of the early nineteenth century.

Sheraton was a trained cabinetmaker (and his designs are always severely practical, in consequence) and in this particular lie was the fellow craftsman with Phyfe and his early American colonial furniture, but he was also a designer, which Phyfe was not. On the other hand, there is evidence to show that Sheraton never followed his trade during his London life, gaining his living (and a very poor one at that) as a teacher of drawing, a publisher of books, and an itinerant preacher of Baptist doctrines.

Early American Colonial Furniture Hepplewhite And Sheraton

Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton borrowed from French sources, but the former was the more catholic, adapting from the Louis XV and the Louis XVI styles indifferently. The latter preferred therestrained simplicity of the Louis XVI style, with the square back and the turned leg to chairs, and, in these details, Sheraton is distinct in his style, whereas in sideboards, tables, and similar pieces, there is very little, if any, line of demarcation between the Hepplewhite and the Sheraton. The latter also did influence the early American colonial furniture of his time, both in England and America, and had something new to offer to the cabinet trade, whereas it is more than probable that the former merely consolidated the patterns of the trade of his time, giving them artistic permanence in book form. Hepple­white was a practising cabinetmaker, which Sheraton was not, and he died in 1786, two years before his "Guide" was published. Sheraton, on the other hand, saw three editions of the "Drawing Book" through the press, altering, improving and adding with each succeeding issue.

Outline of Sheraton's Life

THOMAS SHERATON was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1750, but he was already in his fortieth year when lie came to London. He had projected, if not completed, his "Drawing Book" used by furniture makers early American colonial furniture  before he left County Durham, and his list of subscribers seems to show that he obtained many of these by personal canvass, probably making his long journey in stages, very likely on foot. The first edition appeared in London in 1791, the second in 1793 and the third in 1802. For the first he obtained 522 subscribers in all. "The Cabinet Dictionary" appeared in  1803 and in the following year lie issued the first, and only part of an ambitious publication, projected in 125 folio numbers, entitled "The Cabinetmaker's, Upholsterer's and General Artist's Encyclopedia," but he died on October 2nd, 18o6 with the undertaking unfulfilled. The "Little Corporal" was leaving his mark on Europe at this period, and the time was unpropitious for large publishing ventures concerned with the arts of peace.

Makers Of Early American Colonial Furniture: Phyfe’s Life

DUNCAN PHYFE had the typical solidity of the Scot. He learned his trade in his father's shop in Albany as a boy of sixteen, and later on came to 'New York and established himself first at Broad Street. and afterwards at 35 Partition Street (now that part of Fulton Street which lies west of Broadway), making fine furniture in the English Empire style of Sheraton and Thomas Hope, where his craftsmanship and selected lumber earned him considerable renown among the wealthy of the city of that day. In 1795 Partition Street was re-christened Fair Street, a fact which has led some writers astray as indicating a removal instead of the renaming of a street.

In 1837 the firm was called "D. Phyfe & Sons" and in 1840 "D. Phyfe & Son," which seems to indicate the death of one of the sons, but there is no exact record of this. In 1897 the elder Phyfe retired, and lived at 193 Fulton Street (east of Broadway) until his death in 1854. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Born in 1768, in Loch Fannick, near Inverness, Scotland, he came to America in his fifteenth year, and lived to the ripe age of eighty-six.

So much of this early American colonial mahogany furniture in the English Empire manner has been labeled "Duncan Phyfe" on the mere style-resemblance, that in justice to Phyfe, it must be pointed out the mere style is no criterion whatsoever. Phyfe's choice of fine mahogany, and the manner of his carving (the latter possibly; dictated by the extreme hardness of the former) are unmistakable when one has made a study of authentic examples, and what little I have succeeded in mastering of this subject I owe to that pains­taking student, and ardent collector of Phyfe's work, R. T. Haines Halsey of New York City, whose knowledge is surpassed only by his modesty. I wish he had been available to write this chapter, while I was engaged on this paper.

Contemporaries

IF Phyfe made fine quality early American colonial furniture but he was no original designer, Sheraton was no cabinetmaker during his fifteen years of life in London. There is another designer-cabinetmaker who has been too much neglected, as he was, possibly, the creator of what we know as the "Sheraton style." This was Thomas Shearer, whose "Designs for Household Furniture" appeared in 1788, three years before Sheraton's "Drawing Book." Shearer had only a small shop, but he did make furniture in London, and many of the so-called "Sheraton" pieces may be Shearer's work. Another notable firm was Seddon, Sons and Shackleton, of Aldersgate Street in the City of London, who had an establishment of considerable size, and much of Robert Adam's fine furniture came from this factory. But for the accident that they neglected to publish a trade catalogue or book of designs (the two were often synonymous) we might have a "Seddon style" at the present day, with far greater reason, in actual work realized in wood, than a "Chippendale," a "Hepplewhite" or a "Sheraton," which shows the mistakes which one makes in neglecting to consider posterity.