In Dutch furniture of this time one sees the reproduction of the Napoleonic fashion—­the continuation of the Revolutionists’ classicalism.  Many marqueterie secretaires, tables, chairs, and other like articles, are mounted with the heads and feet of animals, with lions’ heads and sphinxes, designs which could have been derived from no other source; and the general design of the furniture loses its bombe form, and becomes rectangular and severe.  Whatever difficulty there may be in sometimes deciding between the designs of the Louis XIV. period, towards its close, and that of Louis XV., there can be no mistake about l’epoch de la Directoire and le style de l’Empire. These are marked and branded with the Egyptian expedition, and the Syrian campaign, as legibly as if they all bore the familiar plain Roman N, surmounted by a laurel wreath, or the Imperial eagle which had so often led the French legions to victory.

It is curious to notice how England, though so bitterly opposed to Napoleon, caught the infection of the dominant features of design which were prevalent in France about this time.

[Illustration:  Nelson’s Chairs.  Designs Published by T. Sheraton, October 29th, 1806.]

Thus, in Sheraton’s book on Furniture, to which allusion has been made, and from which illustrations have been given in the chapter on “Chippendale and his Contemporaries,” there is evidence that, as in France during the influence of Marie Antoinette, there was a classical revival, and the lines became straighter and more severe for furniture, so this alteration was adopted by Sheraton, Shearer, and other English designers at the end of the century.  But if we refer to Sheraton’s later drawings, which are dated about 1804 to 1806, we see the constrained figures and heads and feet of animals, all brought into the designs as shewn in the “drawing room” chairs here illustrated.  These are unmistakable signs of the French “Empire” influence, the chief difference between the French and English work being, that, whereas in French Empire furniture the excellence of the metal work redeems it from heaviness or ugliness, such merit was wanting in England, where we have never excelled in bronze work, the ornament being generally carved in wood, either gilt or coloured bronze-green.  When metal was used it was brass, cast and fairly finished by the chaser, but much more clumsy than the French work.  Therefore, the English furniture of the first years of the nineteenth century is stiff, massive, and heavy, equally wanting in gracefulness with its French contemporary, and not having the compensating attractions of fine mounting, or the originality and individuality which must always add an interest to Napoleonic furniture.

[Illustration:  Drawing Room Chair.  Design published by T. Sheraton, April, 1804.]

[Illustration:  Drawing Room Chair.  Design published by T. Sheraton, April 1, 1804.]