A chair is shown in Illustration [180], which has features of several styles. The legs are French and the width of the seat; the splat joins the seat in the manner of Chippendale; the anthemion design of the splat is in the Adam style and the carving on the top rail, but the rail is Hepplewhite’s.
Illus. 180.—Hepplewhite
Chair, 1785.
It is probably an early Hepplewhite chair, made before his own style was fully formulated, and the combination has resulted in a beautiful chair. It belongs to J. J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore.
Illus. 181.—Hepplewhite
Chair, 1789.
The chair in Illustration [181] is also in Mr. Gilbert’s collection. Although the shield back is generally accredited to Hepplewhite, Adam made it before him and it was used by the other chair-makers of his time. This chair shows very strongly the Adam influence in the carved and reeded legs and the fine carving, which is called guilloche, upon the arms and around the back and the frame of the seat.
Illus. 182.—Hepplewhite Chair,
1789.