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HEPPLEWHITE, GEORGE (d. 1786)
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See also:HEPPLEWHITE, See also:GEORGE (d. 1786) , one of the most famous See also:English See also:cabinet-makers of the 18th See also:century. There is practically no See also:biographical material See also:relating to Hepplewhite. The only facts that are known with certainty are that he was apprenticed to See also:Gillow at See also:Lancaster, that he carried on business in the See also:parish of See also:Saint See also:Giles, Cripplegate, and that See also:administration of his See also:estate was granted to his widow Alice on the 27th of See also:June 1786. The See also:administrator's accounts, which were filed in the See also:Prerogative See also:Court of See also:Canterbury a See also:year later, indicate that his See also:property was of considerable value. After his See also:death the business was continued by his widow under the See also:style of A. Hepplewhite & Co. Our only approximate means of identifying his See also:work are The Cabinet-Maker and See also:Upholsterer's See also:Guide, which was first published in 1788, two years after his death, and ten designs in The Cabinet-maker's See also:London See also:Book of Prices (1788), issued by the London Society of Cabinet-Makers. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to earmark any given piece of See also:furniture as being the actual work or See also:design of Hepplewhite, since it is generally recognized that to a very large extent the name represents rather a See also:fashion than a See also:man. Lightness, delicacy and See also:grace are the distinguishing characteristics of Hepplewhite work. The massiveness of See also:Chippendale had given See also:place to conceptions that, especially in regard to chairs—which had become smaller as hoops went out of fashion—depended for their effect more upon inlay than upon See also:carving. In one respect at least the Hepplewhite style was akin to that of Chippendale—in both cases the utmost ingenuity was lavished upon the See also:chair, and if Hepplewhite was not the originator he appears to have been the most See also:constant and successful user of the See also:shield back. This elegant See also:form was employed by the school in a See also:great variety of designs, and nearly always in a way artistically satisfying. Where Chippendale, his contemporaries and his immediate successors had used the cabriole and the square See also:leg with a See also:good See also:deal of carving, the Hepplewhite manner preferred a slighter leg, See also:plain, fluted or reede'l, tapering to a See also:spade See also:foot which often became the " spider leg " that characterized much of the See also:late 18th-century furniture; this form of leg was indeed not confined to chairs but was used also for tables and sideboards. Of the dainty See also:drawing-See also:room grace of the style there can be no question. The great See also:majority of See also:modern chairs are of Hepplewhite See also:inspiration, while he, or those who worked with him, appears to have a clear claim to have originated, or at all events popularized, the winged easy-chair, in which the sides are continued to the same height as the back. This is probably the most comfortable type of chair that has ever been made. The backs of Hepplewhite chairs were often adorned with galleries and festoons of See also:wheat-ears or pointed See also:fern leaves, and not infrequently with the See also:prince of See also:Wales's feathers in some more or less decorative form. The frequency with which this badge was used has led to the See also:suggestion either that A. Hepplewhite & Co. were employed by George IV. when prince of Wales, or that the feathers were used as a See also:political See also:emblem. The former suggestion is obviously the more feasible, but there is little doubt that the feathers were used by other makers working in the same style. It has been objected as an See also:artistic flaw in Hepplewhite's chairs that they have the See also:appearance of fragility. They are, however, constructionally See also:sound as a See also:rule. The painted and japanned work has been criticized on safer grounds. This delicate type of furniture, often made of satinwood, and painted with wreaths and festoons, with amorini and musical See also:instruments or floral motives, is the most elegant and pleasing that can be imagined. It has, however, no elements of decorative permanence. With comparatively little use the paintings See also:wear off and have to be renewed. A piece of untouched painted satin-See also:wood is almost unknown, and one of the essential charms of old furniture as of all other antiques is that it should retain the See also:patina of See also:time. A large proportion of Hepplewhite furniture is inlaid with the See also:exotic See also:woods which had come into high favour by the third See also:quarter of the 18th century. While the decorative use upon furniture of so evanescent a See also:medium as paint is always open to See also:criticism, any form of See also:marquetry is obviously legitimate, and, if inlaid furniture be less ravishing to the See also:eye, its beauty is but enhanced by time. It was not in chairs alone that the Hepplewhite manner excelled. It acquired, for instance, a speciality of See also:seals for the tall, narrow Georgian See also:sash windows, which in the Hepplewhite See also:period had almost entirely superseded the more picturesque forms of an earlier time. These window-seats had ends See also:rolling over outwards, and no backs, and despite their skimpiness their elegant simplicity is decidedly pleasing. Elegance, in fact, was the See also:note of a style which on the whole was more distinctly English than that which preceded or immediately followed it. The smaller Hepplewhite pieces are much prized by collectors. Among these may be included See also:urn-shaped See also:knife-boxes in See also:mahogany and satinwood, charming in form and decorative in the extreme; inlaid See also:tea-caddies, varying greatly in shape and material, but always appropriate and See also:coquet; delicate little See also:fire-screens with shaped poles; painted work-tables, and inlaid stands. Hepplewhite's bedsteads with carved and fluted pillars were very handsome and attractive. The See also:evolution of the dining-room See also:sideboard made rapid progress towards the end of the 18th century, but neither Hepplewhite nor those who worked in his style did much to advance it. Indeed they somewhat retarded its development by causing it to revert to little more than that See also:side-table which had been its See also:original form. It was, however, a very delightful table with its undulating front, its many elegant spade-footed legs and its delicate carving. If we were dealing with a less elusive See also:personality it would be just to say that Hepplewhite's work varies from the extreme of elegance and the most delicious simplicity to an unimaginative See also:commonplace, and sometimes to actual ugliness. As it is, this See also:summary may well be applied to the style as a whole —a style which was assuredly not the creation of any one man, but owed much alike of excellence and of defect to a school of cabinet-makers who were under the See also:influence of conflicting tastes and changing ideals. At its best the See also:taste was so See also:fine and so full of distinction, so See also:simple, modest and sufficient, that it amounted tc See also:genius. On its See also:lower planes it was clearly influenced by commercialism and the See also:desire to make what tasteless See also:people preferred. Yet this is no more than to say that the Hepplewhite style succumbed sometimes, perhaps very often, to the eternal enemy of all See also:art—the uninspired banality of the See also:average man. (J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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