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CHIPPENDALE, THOMAS (d. 1979)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 238 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHIPPENDALE, See also:THOMAS (d. 1979) , the most famous of See also:English cabinetmakers. The materials for the See also:biography of Chippendale are exceedingly scanty, but he is known to have been the son of Thomas Chippendale I., and is believed to have been the See also:father of Thomas 'Chippendale III. His father was a See also:cabinet-maker and See also:wood-See also:carver of considerable repute in See also:Worcester towards the beginning of the 18th See also:century, and possibly he originated some of the forms which became characteristic of his son's See also:work. Thus a set of chairs and settees was made, apparently at Worcester, for the See also:family of See also:Bury of Knateshill, at a See also:period when the See also:great cabinetmaker could have been no more than a boy, which are practically identical with much of the work that was being turned out of the family factory as See also:late as the 'sixties of the 18th century. See also:Side by side with the See also:Queen See also:Anne or See also:early Georgian feeling of the first See also:quarter of the 18th century we find the interlaced splats and various other details which marked the Chippendale See also:style. By 1727 the See also:elder Chippendale and his son had removed to See also:London, and at the end of 1749 the younger man—his father was probably then dead—established himself in Conduit See also:Street, See also:Long See also:Acre, whence in 1753 he removed to No. 6o St See also:Martin's See also:Lane, which with the addition of the adjoining three houses remained his factory for the See also:rest of his See also:life. In 1755 his workshops were burned down; in 176o he was elected a member of the Society of Arts; in 1766 his partner-See also:ship with See also:James Ranni was dissolved by the latter's See also:death. It has always been exceedingly difficult to distinguish the work executed in Chippendale's factory and under his own See also:eye from that of the many copyists and adapters who throughout the second See also:half of the 18th century—the See also:golden See also:age of English furniture—plundered remorselessly. Apart from his published designs, many of which were probably never made up, we have to depend upon the very few instances in which his See also:original accounts enable us to earmark work which was unquestionably his. For Claydon See also:House, the seat of the Verneys in See also:Buckinghamshire, he executed much decorative work, and the best See also:judges are satis- fied that the See also:Chinese bedroom there was designed by him.

At Harewood House, the seat of the See also:

earl of Harewood in See also:Yorkshire, we are on firmer ground. The house was furnished between 1765 and 1971, and both See also:Robert See also:Adam and Chippendale were employed upon it. Indeed, there is unmistakable See also:evidence to show that certain work, so closely characteristic of the See also:Adams that it might have been assigned to them without hesitation, was actually produced by Chippendale. This may be another of the many indications that Chippendale was himself an imitator, or it may be that Adam, as architect, prescribed designs which Chippendale's cabinetmakers and carvers executed. Chippendale's bills for this Adam work are still preserved. Stourhead, the famous house of the Hoares in See also:Wiltshire, contains much undoubted Chippendale See also:furniture, which may, however, be the work of Thomas Chippendale III.; at See also:Rowton See also:Castle, See also:Shropshire, Chippendale's bills as well as his See also:works still exist. Our other See also:main source of See also:information is The See also:Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, which was published by Thomas Chippendale in 1754. This See also:book, the most important collectionof furniture designs issued up to that See also:time in See also:England, contains one See also:hundred and sixty engraved plates, and the See also:list of subscribers indicates that the author had acquired a large and distinguished See also:body of customers. The book is of See also:folio See also:size; there was a second edition in 1759, and a third in 1762. In the rather bombastic introduction Chippendale says that he has been encouraged to produce the book " by persons of distinction and See also:taste, who have regretted that an See also:art capable of so much perfection and refinement should be executed with so little propriety and elegance." He has some severe remarks upon critics, from which we may assume that he had already suffered at their hands. Perhaps, indeed, Chippendale may have been hinted at in the See also:caustic remarks of See also:Isaac See also:Ware, surveyor to the See also:king, who bewailed that it was the misfortune of the See also:world in his See also:day " to see an unmeaning scrawl of C's inverted and looped together, taking the See also:place of See also:Greek and See also:Roman elegance even in our most expensive decorations. It is called See also:French, and let them have the praise of it!

The See also:

Gothic See also:shaft and Chinese See also:bell are not beyond nor below it in poorness of See also:imitation." It is the more likely that these barbs were intended for Chippendale, since he was guilty not only of many essays in Gothic, but of a vast amount of work in the Chinese See also:fashion, as well as in the flamboyant style of See also:Louis XV. The Director contains examples of each of the See also:manners which aroused the scorn of the king's surveyor. Chippendale has even shared with See also:Sir See also:William See also:Chambers the obloquy of introducing the Chinese style, but he appears to have done nothing worse than " conquer," as See also:Alexandre See also:Dumas used to See also:call it, the ideas of other See also:people. Nor would it be See also:fair to the See also:man who, whatever his occasional extravagances and absurdities, was yet a great designer and a great transmuter. to pretend that all his Chinese designs were contemptible. Many of them, with their geometrical lattice-work and carved See also:tracery, are distinctly elegant and effective. Occasionally we find in one piece of furniture a See also:combination of the three styles which Chippendale most affected at different periods—Louis XV., Chinese and Gothic—and it cannot honestly be said that the result is as incongruous as might have been expected. Some of his most elegant and attractive work is derived directly from the French, and we cannot doubt that the See also:inspiration of his famous ribbon-backed See also:chair came directly from some of the more See also:artistic performances in See also:rococo. The See also:primary characteristic of his work is solidity, but it is a solidity which rarely becomes heaviness. Even in his most lightsome efforts, such as the ribbon-backed chair, construction is always the first See also:consideration. It is here perhaps that he differs most materially from his great successor See also:Sheraton, whose ideas of construction were See also:eccentric in the extreme. It is indeed in the chair that Chippendale is seen at his best and most characteristic. From his See also:hand, or his See also:pencil, we have a great variety of chairs, which, although differing extensively in detail, may be roughly arranged in three or four See also:groups, which it would sometimes be rash to See also:attempt to date.

He introduced the cabriole See also:

leg, which, despite its antiquity, came immediately from See also:Holland; the claw and See also:ball See also:foot of See also:ancient See also:Oriental use; the straight, square, uncompromising early Georgian leg; the carved lattice-work Chinese leg; the pseudo-Chinese leg; the fretwork leg, which was supposed to be in the best Gothic taste; the inelegant rococo leg with the curled or hoofed foot; and even occasionally the See also:spade foot, which is supposed to be characteristic of the somewhat later style of See also:Hepplewhite. His chair-backs were very various. His efforts in Gothic were sometimes highly successful; often they took the See also:form of fhe tracery of a See also:church window, or even of an ovalled See also:rose window. His Chinese backs were distinctly geometrical, and from them he would seem to have derived some of the inspiration for the frets of the glazed book-cases and cabinets which were among his most agreeable work. The most attractive feature of Chippendale's most artistic chairs —those which, originally derived from Louis Quinze See also:models, were deprived of their rococo extravagances—is the back, which, speaking generally, is the most elegant and pleasing thing that has ever been done in furniture. He took the old solid or slightly pierced back, and cut it up into a See also:light openwork See also:design exquisitely carved—for Chippendale was a carver before everything—in a vast variety of designs ranging from the elaborate and extremely elegant, if much criticized, ribbon back, to a comparatively See also:plain but highly effective splat. His armchairs, however, often had solid or stuffed backs. Next to his chairs Chippendale was most successful with settees, which almost invariably took the shape of two or three conjoined chairs, the arms, backs and legs identical with those which he used for single seats. He was likewise a prolific designer and maker of book-cases, cabinets and escritoires with doors glazed with fretwork divisions. Some of those which he executed in the style which in his day passed for Gothic are exceedingly handsome and effective. We have, too, from his hand many cases for long clocks, and a great number of tables, some of them with a remarkable degree of Gallic See also:grace. He was especially successful in designing small tables with fretwork galleries for the display of See also:china.

His mirrors, which were often in the Chinese taste or extravagantly rococo, are remarkable and characteristic. In his day the cabinetmaker still had opportunities for designing and constructing the four-See also:

post bedstead, and some of Chippendale's most graceful work was lavished upon the woodwork of pthe lighter, more refined and less monumental four-See also:poster, which, thanks in some degree to his initiative, took the place of the massive Tudor and the funereally hung Jacobean See also:bed. From an See also:organ See also:case to a washhand-stand, indeed, no piece of domestic furniture came amiss to this astonishing man, and if sometimes he was extravagant, See also:grotesque or even puerile, his level of achievement is on the whole exceedingly high. Since the revival of See also:interest in his work he has often been criticized with considerable asperity, but not always justly. Chippendale's work has stood the supreme test of posterity more completely than that of any of his rivals or successors; and, unlike many men of See also:genius, we know him to have been warmly appreciated in his lifetime. He was at once an artist and a prosperous man of business. His claims to distinction are summed up in the fact that his name has by See also:general consent been attached to the most splendid period of English furniture. Chippendale was buried on the 13th of See also:November 1779, apparently at the church of St Martin-in-the-See also:Fields, and See also:administration of his intestate See also:estate was granted to his widow See also:Elizabeth. He See also:left four See also:children, Thomas Chippendale III., See also:John, See also:Charles and See also:Mary. He was one of the assignees in See also:bankruptcy of the notorious See also:Theresa Cornelys of Soho Square, of whom we read in Casanova and other scandalous See also:chronicles of the time. Thomas Chippendale III. succeeded to the business of his father and grandfather, and ,for some years the See also:firm traded under the style of Chippendale & Haig. The factory remained in St Martin's Lane, but in 1814 an additional See also:shop was opened at No.

57 Haymarket, whence it was in 1821 removed to 42 JermynStreet. Like his father, Thomas Chippendale III. was a member of the Society of Arts; and he is known to have exhibited five pictures at the Royal See also:

Academy between 1 784 and 18oi. He died at the end of 1822 or the beginning of 1823. (J.

End of Article: CHIPPENDALE, THOMAS (d. 1979)

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