Makers and Designers - Part 2

George Hepplewhite (died in 1786). George Hepplewhite's name is on a book of designs issued by his widow in 1788, but little else is known about him.

Gillow's. The firm of Gillow had workshops at Lancaster, Lancashire, and were prominent cabinet-makers during most of the eighteenth century. They had a showroom in Oxford Street, London (later the site of Waring and Gillow's showroom), and sent their finished goods south by sea. Late in the century they sometimes used a metal stamp with their name to mark their pieces, and are the only English firm known to have used this French method of marking before about 1820.

Thomas Sheraton (1751 to 1806). Little is known of the history of Thomas Sheraton. He was born at Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, and came to London. His famous book of designs, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, was published in four parts between 1791 and 1794, and his Cabinet Dictionary in 1803. Although he was trained to the trade as a youth, he is not known to have practised as a cabinet-maker.

William Moore (working between 1780 and 1815). After some years at work in London, Moore opened a business in Dublin, where he specialized in inlaid furniture in the Sheraton style, Much other furniture was made in Ireland during the eighteenth century, but it is often indistinguishable from its English counterpart. Mahogany tables on especially slim cabriole legs are considered usually to be of Irish make, but much research on this subject remains to be done.