The parlour chairs (Fig. 253) are good examples of Chippendale furniture, and the chairs made in the so-called “Chinese style” (Fig. 254) are attributed to the elder Chippendale.
Fig. 254.—Chair in the Chinese Style, by Thomas Chippendale. (L.)
Sherraton and Heppelwhite are names of two other well-known cabinet-makers, who made excellent mahogany furniture in the last century, both of whom published works on the subject at the latter end of the century.
Fig. 255.—Stool and Chair, Carved and Gilt Mountings; Empire Style. (L.)
The names of Gillow, Lichfield, Lock, and Copeland are those of eminent English cabinet-makers and decorators of this period, the two former firms being still in existence in London.
Fig. 256.—Cabinet of Red Chased Lacquer (Japanese) and Porcelain Dish. (J.)
In France, after the Revolution (1792), a more decided phase of the dry and heavy classicisms was apparent in the furniture design and decoration of the period (1801). This return to classic heaviness has been attributed to the influence of the academic painter David, but is more likely to have been a pandering to the national worship of Napoleon and the French Empire. It seemed to have been the universal desire to make everything echo or reflect in some measure the glory of the Emperor Napoleon I. The meanest thing had some symbol or allusion by the way of decoration that should remind everybody of the greatness of the new monarch and of the French Empire, and consequently the heavy and ponderous style of that period was known as the “Empire Style.” The furniture of the Empire was usually made in mahogany, decorated with mountings in brass or bronze, of sphinxes, griffins, Roman emblems, and antique scrollery (Fig. 255).