All lovers of antique furniture are sufficiently familiar with the name of Thomas Chippendale, but this name has been of late years used so carelessly that it has become a generic term for all the mahogany furniture of the first half of the Eighteenth Century, and the “Chippendale chair” that is recognized as typical is the one with a pierced and carved back and claw-and-ball foot. This is an erroneous interpretation of the Chippendale style. Chippendale was a cabinet-maker, and doubtless made furniture for his patrons in the old style that had been in vogue since 1714; but the tastes for the Chinese and Gothic, as well as the Louis XV. rock-and-shell work had already been formed, and Chippendale claims more originality than he is entitled to when he says: “In executing many of the Drawings, my Pencil has but faintly copied out those Images that my Fancy suggested.”
It is clear then that the only way to understand and define Chippendale is to go directly to his book, there to learn what kind of furniture he made and wanted to make. The first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director was published in 1754. A third edition appeared in 1762, when some of the patterns of the first book were dropped and many new plates were added. The title-page of the latter shows very plainly that Chippendale had turned his attention to almost every object for household use.
“The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director being a large collection of the most elegant and useful designs of Household Furniture in the most Fashionable Taste, including a great variety of Chairs, Sofas, Beds and Couches; China-Tables, Dressing-Tables, Shaving-Tables, Bason-Stands and Tea-Kettle Stands; Frames for Marble Slabs, Bureau-Dressing-Tables and Commodes; Writing-Tables and Library-Tables; Library Book-Cases, Organ Cases for private Rooms or Churches, Desks and Bookcases; Dressing and Writing Tables with Book-Cases, Toilets, Cabinets and Cloaths-Presses; China Cases, China-Shelves, and Book-Shelves; Candle-Stands, Terms for Busts, Stands for China Jars and Pedestals; Cisterns for Water, Lanthorns and Chandeliers; Fire-Screens, Brackets, and Clock-cases; Pier-glasses and Table-Frames; Girandoles, Chimney-Pieces, and Picture Frames; Stove-Grates, Boarders, Frets, Chinese-Railing and Brass-Work for Furniture, and other Ornaments.... The whole comprehended in Two Hundred Copper Plates, neatly engraved, calculated to improve and refine the present taste, and suited to the Fancy and Circumstances of Persons in all degrees of Life.” He ends his Preface to both editions as follows: “Upon the whole, I have given no Design but what may be executed with Advantage by the Hands of a skilful Workman, though some of the Profession have been diligent enough to represent them (especially those after the Gothick and Chinese manner) as so many specious Drawings, impossible to be worked off by any mechanick whatsoever. I will not scruple to attribute this to Malice, Ignorance and Inability; and I am confident I can convince all Noblemen, Gentlemen, or others, who will honour me with their Commands, that every Design in the Book can be improved, both as to Beauty and Enrichment, in the Execution of it, by Their Most Obedient Servant, Thomas Chippendale.”
Our accurate knowledge of Chippendale and of his work outside his own book is very meagre. He was evidently at work during the reign of George I. and was probably busiest when he published his book of designs in 1754. An examination of the plates contained in this collection of drawings shows that Chippendale cared more about the carving and ornaments than the forms themselves. He does not seem to have been an inventor of a style. Sheraton shares this view. The latter writes in 1791:
“I have seen one (book of design) which seems to have been published before Chippendale’s. I infer this from the antique appearance of the furniture, for there is no date to it; but the title informs us that it was composed by a society of Cabinet-makers in London.
“Chippendale’s book seems to be next in order to this, but the former is without comparison to it, either as to size or real merit. Chippendale’s book has, it is true, given us the proportions of the Five Orders, and lines for two or three cases, which is all it pretends to relative to rules for drawing; and, as for the designs, themselves, they are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit, according to the times in which they were executed. After Chippendale’s work, there appeared, in the year sixty-five, a book of designs for chairs only, though it is called The Cabinet-Maker’s real Friend and Companion, as well as the Chair-maker’s. The succeeding publication to this seems to be Ince and Mayhew’s Book of Designs in Cabinet and Chair Work, with three plates containing some examples of foliage ornaments, intended for the young designer to copy from, but which can be of no service to any learner now, as they are such kind of ornaments as are wholly laid aside in the cabinet-branch, according to the present taste. The designs in cabinets and chairs are, of course, of the same cast, and therefore have suffered the same fate; yet, in justice to the word, it may be said to have been a book of merit in its day, though much inferior to Chippendale’s, which was a real original, as well as more extensive and masterly in its designs.”
Strange to say, the book Sheraton thinks the earlier, came out six years after Chippendale’s and contains designs that differ little in general form from those in the Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.
PLATE XXXVII
It cannot fail to strike any one who examines Chippendale’s designs carefully that he was beyond everything else a carver and a decorator. Although he was most particular about proportion and joinery, he took the greatest delight in ornamentation, caring far more for his ornate carving and swags of drapery than for his wood, or his materials. Indeed, he nearly always desires his handsome pieces to be gilded, or painted, or japanned; and he says nothing whatever about textiles, although his beds and sofas with canopies are so dependent upon festoons and curtains for their effect. The covers upon his “French chairs” often exhibit Chinese subjects, flowers, Æsop’s fables, or the gallant Watteau-like scenes; and we may conclude that the printed silks and satins of the day were too familiar to need any detailed description.