Thomas Chippendale

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Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779), an English cabinetmaker, was one of the most distinguished of all furniture designers. His "Director" was the first comprehensive design book for furniture ever to appear, and it remains probably the most important.

The son of a joiner and the grandson of a carpenter, Thomas Chippendale was born at Otley, Yorkshire, on June 5, 1718. There is a tradition that as a young apprentice he made the dollhouse at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, and also worked at Farnley Hall near Otley. He moved to London and married in 1748; his eldest son, also named Thomas, was born in 1749. In 1753 Chippendale went into partnership with James Rannie and took residence on St. Martin's Lane, where he remained until his death.

Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director appeared in 1754. This work, containing 160 plates and some descriptive notes, was intended to serve as a trade catalog and guide to clients. Its special significance is that it forms an important expression of the gay and lively rococo taste which became fashionable in the mid-18th century in the reaction against the somewhat ponderous character of early Georgian furniture. All three aspects of the rococo style were represented: the French, the Gothic, and the Chinese. At one time it was believed that many of the designs in the Director were not the work of Chippendale, but Anthony Coleridge (1968) suggests Chippendale himself was responsible for the original drawings. The Director was so successful that a second edition appeared in 1755 and a third edition, revised and enlarged, in 1762.

One of Chippendale's important early commissions was the furnishing of Dumfries House in Scotland in 1759. This house was the first independent work of the architect Robert Adam, and it was probably here that the long association between the two men began. Both were members of the Society of Arts, to which Chippendale was elected in 1760.

The Director was the principal inspiration behind the characteristic mahogany furniture of the mid-18th century, and Chippendale's designs were used, often in greatly simplified form, by innumerable provincial and rural craftsmen. The most distinguished furniture produced from the Chippendale workshops, however, was the handsome marquetry pieces inspired by the neoclassic designs of Robert Adam. It was for many years hotly debated whether Chippendale ever actually made furniture to the architect's designs, but that he did so is conclusively proved by Chippendale's bill of July 9, 1765, for the supply to Sir Lawrence Dundas of armchairs and sofas which correspond exactly to an Adam design dated 1765. It appears that henceforth Chippendale absorbed the Adam manner so successfully that the architect had the fullest confidence in leaving the design of movable articles to Chippendale, who supplied furniture in the neoclassic style to Harewood House, Newbey Hall, and Nostell Priory, all in Yorkshire, and to other houses with which Adam was concerned. The pair of important satinwood and mahogany marquetry china cabinets at Firle Place, Sussex, is in Chippendale's neoclassic style (ca. 1770).

Chippendale died in London in November 1779. His eldest son continued the family business.

Further Reading

The first monograph on Chippendale was Oliver Brackett, Thomas Chippendale: A Study of His Life, Work, and Influence (1924). This was superseded by the monumental study of Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture: The Work of Thomas Chippendale and His Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste (1968). Two volumes of selections of Chippendale designs were published by Alec Tiranti, with notes and preface by R. W. Symonds: Chippendale Furniture Designs (1948) and The Ornamental Designs of Chippendale (1949).

The first systematic account of Chippendale and his contemporaries was Ralph Edwards and Margaret Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers (1944; rev. ed. 1955); this work was partially superseded by later studies. Chippendale's designs are discussed in Peter Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century (1958). For the most comprehensive general account of Chippendale's furniture in the Adam style see Clifford Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and Other NeoClassical Furniture (1966). Other useful works are Ralph Fastnedge, English Furniture Styles from 1500 to 1830 (1955), and Helena Hayward, ed., World Furniture: An Illustrated History (1965).

Additional Sources

Gilbert, Christopher, The life and work of Thomas Chippendale, London: Studio Vista, 1978.

Chippendale, Thomas (1718-79). Cabinet-maker and designer, the son of a Yorkshire joiner, he set up business in London about the 1750s. Chippendale designed an extensive range of furniture, carpets, wallpapers, and brassware, from the elaborate yet delicate for the homes of gentry, to the simple and unpretentious for their servants' quarters. In 1754 he published The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director which influenced style in Europe and America.

A provincial Chippendale-style chair with elaborate "Gothick" tracery splat back

Thomas Chippendale (Otley, near Leeds baptised 16 June [O.S. 5 June] 1718 - November 1779) ^[1] was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. He went to London in 1749 where, in 1754, he became the first cabinet-maker to publish a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director. Three editions were published, the first in 1754, followed by a virtual reprint in 1755, and finally a revised and enlarged edition in 1762, by which time Chippendale's illustrated designs began to show signs of Neoclassicism.

Chippendale was much more than just a cabinet maker, he was an interior designer who advised on soft furnishings and even the colour a room should be painted. He worked in partnership initially with the upholsterer James Rannie and later with Rannie's assistant, Thomas Haig, but artistic control of the luxurious furnishings that came from his premises in St. Martin's Lane was firmly in Chippendale's hands.

"A Design for a State Bed" from the Director, 1762

In 1978, Christopher Gilbert was able to identify from among over sixty known clients twenty-six documented commissions where surviving furniture by Chippendale could be identified, much of it still in the aristocratic houses for which it was made. Chippendale furniture was supplied to Blair Castle, Perthshire, for the Duke of Atholl (1758); Wilton House, for Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke (c 1759-1773); Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, for Sir Roland Winn, Bt (1766-85); Mersham Le Hatch, Kent, for Sir Edward Knatchbull, Bt (1767-79); furnishings for the royal family and for the actor David Garrick both in town and at his villa at Hampton, Middlesex; Normanton Park, Rutland and other houses for Sir Gilbert Heathcote Bt (1768-78) that included the management of a funeral for Lady Bridget Heathcote, 1772; Harewood House, Yorkshire, for Edwin Lascelles (1767-78); Newby Hall, Yorkshire, for William Weddell (c 1772-76); Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, for Lord Irwin (1774); Paxton House, Berwickshire, Scotland, for Ninian Home (1774-91); Burton Constable Hall, Yorkshire for William Constable (1768-79); Petworth House, Sussex and other houses for George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1777-79), to name only the most outstanding commissions.

He collaborated in furnishing interiors designed by Robert Adam and at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, and Melbourne House, London, for Lord Melbourne, with Sir William Chambers (c. 1772-75).

"Two Bookcases", from the Director, 1754

His workshop was continued by his son, Thomas Chippendale, the younger (1749-1822), who worked in the later Neoclassical and Regency styles, "the rather slick delicacy of Adam's final phase", as Christopher Gilbert assessed it.^[2] A bankruptcy and sale of remaining stock in the St. Martin's Lane premises in 1804 did not conclude the firm's latest phase, as the younger Chippendale supplied furniture to Sir Richard Colt Hoare at Stourhead until 1820 (Edwards and Jourdain 1955: 88).

Recognizably "Chippendale" furniture was produced in Dublin and Philadelphia, as might be expected, but also in Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Hamburg. Catherine the Great and Louis XVI both possessed copies of the Director in its French edition. (Gilbert 1978, xvii). As a folk hero of English craftsmanship, he is enshrined as a full-size sculpted figure standing among other notables adorning the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

A Chinese Chippendale desk

His designs became very popular again during the middle to late 19th century, leading to widespread adoption of his name in revivals of his style, so much so that dealers spoke of "Chinese Chippendale", "Gothic Chippendale", and even "Irish Chippendale". Many of these later designs that attach his name bear little relationship to his original concepts.

Thomas Chippendale's workshop, in Otley, West Yorkshire.

The "Chinese Chippendale" chair is characterized with having a pagoda roofline, dragon motifs, and flipped up ears on the top. The body of the chair has fretwork, a stretcher for carving, a drop in seat with an exposed wooden apron. Its legs are sober in the back and square in section, on block feet. The "Gothick Chippendale" chair has a cupid's bow crest rail, highly pierced splat, and a stretcher that is for show rather than function. The chair also has a completely covered seat as opposed to the drop in seat. The legs are straight or square but do not sit on feet. This chair has a masculine and rectilinear quality. The "Neo-classical Chippendale" chair is a lyre back chair. The integrated crest rail at the top has flipped up ears. There is a boss, or circular decorated motif, often incorporated into the design of this chair. The central splat is in the shape of a lyre. Greek and Roman motifs are often also incorporated into the chair. This chair differs from the Gothick Chippendale by having a drop in seat. It is similar to the Chinese Chippendale by having an exposed apron.

There is a statue and memorial plaque dedicated to Chippendale outside the old Prince Henry's Grammar School in Manor Square, in his home town of Otley, near Leeds, Yorkshire.

See also

• List of furniture designers
• Chinese Chippendale (architecture) for architectural details inspired by Chippendale's work

Notes

1. ^ "Thomas Son of John Chippindale of Otley joyner bap ye 5th" (Otley, Yorkshire Parish Register, June 1718). He was buried 16 November 1779, according to the records of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, in the burying ground now occupied by the National Gallery. Details of Chippendale's life are drawn from Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale (New York: Macmillan) 1978, "Biographical Essay".
2. ^ Gilbert 1978:I,122.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thomas Chippendale

• The Chippendale Society
• Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, first edition, 1754 – online as part of the University of Wisconsin's Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture.
• Ralph Edwards and Margaret Jourdain, 1955. Georgian Cabinet-Makers.
• Christopher Gilbert, 1978. The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan) 1978.. The standard work.
• Thomas Chippendale - The Legend!

Persondata
NAME	Chippendale, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British cabinet-maker
DATE OF BIRTH	1718-06-05
PLACE OF BIRTH	Otley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH	November 1779
PLACE OF DEATH

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