Evening star., 1938-05-03

%! famous pieces.
The name of "ChippendaIe" is
known to all of us; there was good
furniture before his day, and fine fur
niture after it, but as there Is great
interest in the Georgian era and a
new fashion for furnishings of the
18th century we will jump into the
very middle of things with the fur
niture which is known as after the
manner of Chippendale.
; Thomas Chippendale was born in
17l8 in a little Yorkshire village in
England. His father was joiner and
his mother the daughter of a mason.
He grew up to study with his father
and surpass him at his own trade.
Thomas came to London in 1748 and
set up shop as cabinet and chair
maker. Under the direction of Robert
Adam he had worked on the estates
of several of the influential young
.noblemen of the day. With their sup
port, both financial and personal, the
young Thomas Chippendale enjoyed
immediate and amazing popularity
and success in London.
Within six years he had married,
and was about to publish a book,
which he called The Gentleman and
Cabinetmakers' Director" which con-
tanned nearly 200 drawings, all bear
ing Chippendales name, and was such
a success that in l755 a second edi-
ton was printed and in 1862 third.
Though Chippendale made very little
furniture from this book 1t was re-
sponsible for the widespread fame of
his name
In 1855 he had a f1ourishing factory,
for We note that his shop was de-
stroyed by fire and % carpenters
chests were burned. These chests
would have been in the possession only
OF high-class workers. In addition to
these artisans there would have been
numerous apprentices and underlings
who did small work. He must have
been we'll liked and respected, as we
find his name as member of the
Society of Arts" along with Sir
Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, DR..
johnson and other important men of
the day.
HIS book, which then, as now. was
called "The Director" was sold
in the Colonies, and chairmakers in
Philadelphia and New York had ref
erence to it. AS the years have gone
on many interesting things have come
to light about this book. In the first
place, none of the drawings in the
book are actually working drawings.
No piece of furniture made from these
plans would stay together or even stand,
as the sketches were evidently made
by some one who knew nothing about
the practical side of furniture making.
How could man who was the finest
chairmaker the world has ever known
have made drawings that would not
work? We know that Chippendale
worked almost entirely from the de-
signs Of Robert Adam and that he
admitted that he had made only one
set of chairs from a drawing in the
Director that had been satisfactory
Why did he go to the expense of pre-
pairing the plates for this portfolio
when engarvings in those days were a
costly luxury? Were there press agents
as long ago as that?
In 1919 the Metropolitan Museum
bought a collection of sketches in
leather cover that had been purchased
for moderate sum at a sale in Eng
land. After some research they turned
out to be the original drawings from
which ITO of the plates were engraved
for the Director" This brought to
light the fact that not less than six
different persons had made the draw
ings. 1t would seem that Mr. Chippen-
dale had collected all available designs
in use in the cabinetmakers' shops
at the time, compiled them in a port
folio and preserved them for posterity
In his book.