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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1905 



The Dining -Room of the Past and Present 



By Alice M. Kellogg 



BACKWARD glance into the latter part 

 of the eighteenth century gives us a con- 

 trasting view of the dining-room of the past 

 with that of the present. 



Thomas Sheraton, an English designer of 

 furniture, who helped to make that early 

 period a famous one for the household art of his country, 

 described a " dining parlour " of his own furnishing as hav- 

 ing " a large glass over the chimney-piece, with sconces for 

 candles. At each end of the room a large sideboard nearly 

 twelve feet in length, standing between a couple of Ionic 

 columns worked in composition to imitate fine variegated 

 marble. In the middle a large range of dining tables stand- 

 ing on pillars with four claws each." The general style of 

 furnishing, he concludes, " should be in substantial and use- 

 ful things, avoiding trifling ornaments and unnecessary dec- 

 orations." 



A Hepplewhite Sideboard in an Old Colonial Room in Salem, Mass. 



The compartment is closed by a flexible sliding partition. Observe 

 the attractive effect of the mirror and the old silver 



Sheraton's ideas and ideals for the dining-room were in 

 accord with those of other English cabinet workers, Chip- 

 pendale, Robert Adam and his brother, Heppelwhite and 

 Shearer, each of whom contributed his individual touch to 

 the different articles of furniture. 



A plain side table, without a drawer, was Chippendale's 

 introduction to the sideboard that was invented in later years 

 by Thomas Shearer. " This piece of furniture, by its great 

 utility," said Hepplewhite, " procured for it a very general 

 reception, and the conveniences it affords render a dining- 

 room incomplete without a sideboard." Sheraton and Hep- 

 pelwhite, with its originator, lavished each his utmost skill 

 on the construction of the sideboard, and with so true an art 

 that our present generation returns to their models for 

 inspiration. 



The characteristic marks of the Sheraton sideboard are 

 similar to the well-known lines of the Louis XVI furniture, 



Sheraton Sideboard, Showing the Effect When Placed Before 

 Tapestry Paper Hangings 



both showing a reaction from the overloaded ornament of 

 the earlier French reigns. The slender fluted or square legs, 

 brass railings at the back, plain front and trim outline of the 

 Sheraton sideboard have combined to make it, as some one 

 says, " the acme of stability and refinement." 



To Hepplewhite the sideboard offered an opportunity 

 not so much for creative work as for presenting for the need 

 of the hour the patterns that were most in vogue at that time, 

 with certain practical devices of his own for interior arrange- 

 ments. Our own careful contrivances for meal-time com- 

 fort are not so startlingly new when we compare them with 

 those that were provided for British homes of the eighteenth 

 century by Heppelwhite. 



In the graceful serpentine-front sideboard, with concave 

 or convex doors, ornamented with delicate inlaid lines, there 

 were drawers for storing table linen, compartments for wine 

 bottles, and a slide to pull out to form an extra shelf for 

 serving. A knife case, too, was also devised for the top of 

 the sideboard, sometimes made of mahogany, sometimes 

 shaped in copper that was painted and japanned. 



Various accessories for the sideboard — coasters on which 

 to rest the decanters, spoon holders, tea chests and tea cad- 

 dies, cellarettes or wine coolers — were not overlooked in this 

 period of house furnishing. 



A Sheraton Sideboard in a New England Home 



