Neo-Classical Furniture: Adam, Hepplewhite and Sheraton

Taking Adam’s influence as its starting point, this lecture (or study day) charters the spread of neo-classical design and decoration on furniture from that of the most fashionable and wealthy to that of the upwardly mobile middle and professional classes of the late 18^th century.  Many fashionable items such as semi-circular, fold-over, Pembroke and Sofa tables lent themselves to economical manufacture and decoration in the neo-classical style –a fact exploited successfully by the thriving furniture trade of the period. Whereas Adam’s work is associated solely with the very wealthy, by the 1790s it had been transformed, through the designs and craftsmanship of Hepplewhite, Sheraton and countless other skilled cabinet-makers into something of practical appeal and use to a very much wider market.