Robert and James Adam were architects, trained in the classics. Their furniture was distinctly classical, and was designed for rooms in the Greek or Roman style. Noted painters assisted them in decorating the rooms and the furniture, and Pergolesi, Angelica Kaufmann, and Cipriani did not scorn to paint designs upon satinwood furniture. Matthias Lock and Thomas Johnson were notable as designers of frames for pier glasses, ovals, girandoles, etc. Thomas Shearer’s name was signed to the best designs of those published in 1788 in “The Cabinet-Makers’ Book of Prices.” His drawings comprise tables of various sorts, dressing-chests, writing-desks, and sideboards, but there is not one chair among them. He was the first to design the form of sideboard with which we are familiar. As Chippendale’s name is used to designate the furniture of 1750-1780, so the furniture of the succeeding period may be called Hepplewhite; for although he was one of several cabinet-makers who worked together, his is the best-known name, and his was probably the most original genius. His chairs bear no resemblance to those of Chippendale, and are lighter and more graceful; but because of the attention he paid to those qualifications, strength of construction and durability were neglected. His chair-backs have no support beside the posts which extend up from the back legs, and upon these the shield or heart-shaped back rests in such a manner that it could endure but little strain. Hepplewhite’s sideboards were admirable in form and decoration, and it is from them and his chairs that his name is familiar in this country. His swell or serpentine front bureaus were copied in great numbers here. His specialty was the inlaying or painting with which his furniture was enriched. Satinwood had been introduced from India shortly before this, and tables, chairs, sideboards, and bureaus were inlaid with this wood upon mahogany, while small pieces were veneered entirely with it. The same artists who assisted the Adam brothers painted medallions, wreaths of flowers or arabesque work upon Hepplewhite’s satinwood furniture. Not much of this painted furniture came to this country, but the fashion was followed by our ancestresses, who were taught, among other accomplishments, to paint flowers and figures upon light wood furniture, tables and screens being the pieces usually chosen for decoration. Thomas Sheraton published in 1791 and 1793, “The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book”; in 1803, his “Cabinet Dictionary”; in 1804, “Designs for Household Furniture,” and “The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist’s Encyclopedia,” which was left unfinished in 1807.