CHIPPENDALE PIECRUST TABLE
The French styles were the result of many designers working upon common lines; but in England during the last half of the eighteenth century certain noted individual cabinetmakers set the fashion, and for a period of years the designs of Chippendale, Heppelwhite, and Sheraton were each in turn recognized as the established vogue.
Thomas Chippendale began business in London on his own account about 1735, and evidently rapidly built up a very flourishing establishment, inasmuch as the “Gentleman and Cabinet-maker’s Director,” which he published in 1754, contains a wide variety of designs suitable only for wealthy customers.
CHIPPENDALE SETTEE—FRETWORK
The “Director” contains many designs that are fantastic, and many that are difficult and even impossible to execute. Fortunately Chippendale’s fame does not rest upon these designs, made to catch the eyes of his richer patrons, but upon the pieces actually made, and it is refreshing to see how much finer are these latter, evolved by the trained craftsman, understanding every limitation and every possibility of his material. Chippendale’s chairs represent by far the best expression of his genius. Starting with the modified Dutch forms introduced by William and Mary and Queen Anne, in which the cabriole leg with ball and claw feet and the flowing curved back with solid splat are the prominent features, he soon developed an individual style marked by great dignity, strength, and originality. His earliest chairs are perhaps the finest. In these the cabriole leg is always employed, and the side frames of the back curve outward as they run up to more or less pronounced ears at the top. The top rail takes more or less of a cupid bow shape, and the central splat fills in the inclosed space. It is in the design of these central splats and the inclosed framework that Chippendale is at his best. The almost inexhaustible variety of figure in these pierced and interlaced centers, always in the happiest relation to the framework, gives the principal interest to these chairs, and stamps Chippendale as one of the great masters of design.
CHIPPENDALE ARMCHAIR
Chippendale’s styles represent many influences. His early work was patterned closely upon Queen Anne models; but with the “Director” appeared many examples of Gothic and fretted furniture. The Gothic, unsuitable as it was for domestic use, obtained little vogue; but the ornamentation of chairs and tables, either by open or, more commonly, applied fretwork, was popular for a dozen years or more, and is characteristic of some of Chippendale’s most successful if not most showy productions.