The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopaedia 1804 - 1807

Curator: Well, isn't that sofa just begging for a scandal to unfold upon it? So proper and buttoned-up, but underneath… mischief! Editor: Indeed! The image we’re looking at is actually a page from Thomas Sheraton’s "The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopaedia," dating from between 1804 and 1807. It’s a print, showcasing the Neoclassical style through the clean lines of furniture design. I am really enjoying how decorative and ornamented sofas and furniture from that era used to be! Curator: You can almost hear the hushed whispers and feel the stiff fabrics. The engraving, all those precise lines... it’s beautiful, of course, but also confining, right? Like a social code made visible. Do you think that the drawing perfectly portrays what this particular craftsman intended to be? Editor: Absolutely. But I read the engraving quite differently. While I understand your point, seeing this piece, to me, offers an intimate glance into the lives of the wealthy elite and those who labored, often unseen, to create their status symbols. It speaks volumes about power and inequality. We need to contextualize furniture as more than functional or simply "beautiful," as you said earlier. How does our modern idea of a sofa—mass-produced and affordable to almost anyone—reflect how much social progress has evolved across generations, or hasn’t? Curator: Well, when I think of inequality, I also consider the labor that must have gone into *drawing* this image! To have such a knack to do so. All those precise, repeated motifs—it’s meditative. Like drawing a mandala, a form to perfection... Do you think Sheraton ever felt confined by his own self-imposed perfectionism, like a beautiful gilded cage of his own making? Editor: That's an interesting perspective; one that I hadn't considered, and definitely helps me to think more deeply and appreciate the artistry embedded in it! To really examine the human condition embedded in functional design objects as tools to reveal societal expectations. The level of ornamental sophistication and design principles embedded into creating luxurious, visually pleasing objects can often times lead back to discussions regarding our capitalist, power-fueled motives for the consumer class. Curator: Yes! To view it as functional... with layers of motives from various social contexts. Editor: Precisely. Food for thought, for us all.