Not till we come to Plate 21 do we find designs of which we can tolerably well judge, in the shape of a pair of very reasonably formed Chinese-French chairs with arms. There is to be noticed a certain thickness and clumsiness about Manwaring's pierced chair-splats in many cases. From Plate 28 we gather that he uses the term Back-stool' to designate an armless upholstered chair. On Plate 29 is a dreadful Gothic pair, with inordinately thin work all over their backs, but two hall chairs on Plate 33 are perhaps most extraordinary in proportion and detail. The back of one is simply a huge architectural volute adorned with foliage. There follows a succession of about twenty plates mostly of hall, or parlour, or bedchamber chairs, which are simply grotesque. Their characteristic is that the backs are so huge and the legs so short that there is no proportion between the two parts. Corrected in this respect it is not improbable that some of them made fairly good chairs, as there seems in spite of all drawbacks to have been a demand for Manwaring's designs. This is perhaps to be attributed to the comparative cheapness of his books. Such tall folios as those of Chippendale were not to be bought by every country cabinetmaker.

However this may be, Manwaring's plates of chairs in The Chair-Maker's Guide reappear in Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste . . . by a Society of Upholsterers, Cabinet-Makers, etc! Of this there are four parts, each of which has for title, 'Upwards of one Hundred New and Genteel Designs, Being all the most approved Patterns of Household Furniture. . . .'In the second edition the first twenty-eight plates are these chairs of Manwaring, after which come some very respectable slab-tables, library, dressing, and toilet, card and 'claw,' writing and sideboard tables, all in the manner called after Chippendale. All these, Plates 29-41, if executed and still existing, would be ascribed to Chippendale without misgiving by their owners, unless they happened to refer to the book from which they come, and would not be worse furniture designs than some of those to which Chippendale has put his name. Some, indeed, of the scrolls and curves on cabinets and clothes-presses, as in Plate 44, are rather heavy, but Plate 48 shows a really pretty and well-proportioned china-shelf design. There are some unassuming 'Pediment Bookcases' which are occasionally somewhat spoilt by cushion-moulded friezes (of. Plate 67), but an 'open Pediment Bureau and Bookcase' on Plate 70 is very good.

Part three is chiefly concerned with lanterns and 'Corniches,' stands and beds, terms, pedestals, trays, and chimneypiece decorations of French-Chinese style. The last part shows frates, frets, fenders, balconies, door tops, and sign-oard irons which are often excellent. It seems very evident that several different hands were engaged upon the designs for this book, which varies so much in merit.

The large folio of Ince and Mayhew shows an interesting difference from the other furniture-books. It is addressed to a French public as well as an English. There is a double title-page, one in French printed in reddish brown, the other English and printed in black. There are two different designs of an elaborate rococo character. The French title has at bottom, 'Par Ince & Mayhew. Ebdnistes et Tapisseurs dans Broad Street pres de Golden Square a Londres.' There is no date, and the dedication is to George Spencer, Duke of Marlborough: 'May it please your Grace, Being sensible of your Grace's extensive Knowledge in the Arts and Sciences, but more particularly in drawing, and your being ever willing to promote and encourage Industry and Ingenuity, will justly account for our presumption in claiming the protection of so worthy a Patron to this Work, which if so fortunate as to merit your Grace's approbation will be esteem'd as the greatest Honour ever conferred on your Grace's most Respectful most Obedient and very faithful Servts, Mayhew & Ince.'