There was, however, made about this time by Gillow, to whose earlier work reference has been made in the previous chapter, some excellent furniture, which, while to some extent following the fashion of the day, did so more reasonably.  The rosewood and mahogany tables, chairs, cabinets and sideboards of his make, inlaid with scrolls and lines of flat brass, and mounted with handles and feet of brass, generally representing the heads and claws of lions, do great credit to the English work of this time.  The sofa table and sideboard, illustrated on the previous page, are of this class, and shew that Sheraton, too, designed furniture of a less pronounced character, as well as the heavier kind to which reference has been made.

[Illustration:  “Canopy Bed” Design Published by T. Sheraton, November 9th, 1803.]

[Illustration:  “Sister’s Cylinder Bookcase.”  Designed by T. Sheraton, 1802.]

[Illustration:  Sideboard, In Mahogany, with Brass Rail and Convex Mirror at back, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1802.]

[Illustration:  Sofa Table, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1804.]

A very favourable example of the craze in England for classic design in furniture and decoration, is shown in the reproduction of a drawing by Thomas Hope, in 1807, a well-known architect of the time, in which it will be observed that the forms and fashions of some of the chairs and tables, described and illustrated in the chapter on “Ancient Furniture,” have been taken as models.

There were several makers of first-class furniture, of whom the names of some still survive in the “style and title” of firms of the present day, who are their successors, while those of others have been forgotten, save by some of our older manufacturers and auctioneers, who, when requested by the writer, have been good enough to look up old records and revive the memories of fifty years ago.  Of these the best known was Thomas Seddon, who came from Manchester and settled in Aldersgate Street.  His two sons succeeded to the business, became cabinet makers to George IV., and furnished and decorated Windsor Castle.  At the King’s death their account was disputed, and L30,000 was struck off, a loss which necessitated an arrangement with their creditors.  Shortly after this, however, they took the barracks of the London Light Horse Volunteers in the Gray’s Inn Road (now the Hospital), and carried on there for a time a very extensive business.  Seddon’s work ranked with Gillow’s, and they shared with that house the best orders for furniture.

Thomas Seddon, painter of Oriental subjects, who died in 1856, and P. Seddon, a well-known architect, were grandsons of the original founder of the firm.  On the death of the elder brother, Thomas, the younger one then transferred his connection to the firm of Johnstone and Jeanes, in Bond Street, another old house which still carries on business as “Johnstone and Norman,” and who some few years ago executed a very extravagant order for an American millionaire.  This was a reproduction of Byzantine designs in furniture of cedar, ebony, ivory, and pearl, made from drawings by Mr. Alma Tadema, R.A.