Recent research has shown that there were three Thomas Chippendales. The first was a carver and picture-frame maker of Worcester at the end of the Seventeenth Century. His son, Thomas, the great Chippendale, was born in Worcester; and the father and the son settled in London about 1727. The latter became an eminent cabinet-maker and carver and in 1753 was established in St. Martin's Lane. In the next year the Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director was published. A second edition was published in 1759; and a third, in 1761, containing his famous designs for household furniture. In 1760, Chippendale was elected a member of the Society of Arts, whose members included Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edward Gibbon, David Garrick, Horace Walpole and John Wilkes. Thomas Chippendale II. died in 1799 and left four children, one of whom was a third Thomas, who also became a cabinet-maker and went into partnership with Thomas Haig. The firm of Chippendale and Haig lasted from 1779 until 1785.

In 1814, Thomas Chippendale III. opened a shop in the Haymarket and practically continued his father's business. Like his father, he was also a member of the Society of Arts. Chippendale III. did a great deal of work at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, in 1818-1819. He was also a painter and exhibited some pictures at the Royal Academy. Returning to the second Chippendale, an authority says: "His book of designs attracted much attention, the public appreciated his work and seems to have bought largely, but the true greatness of his productions was not recognized until nearly a century after his death. It is a curious fact that the greater portion of the furniture bearing the impress of his genius, or known to have been designed and made in his shops, is not illustrated in any of the three editions of the Director. The elegant ball-and-claw foot which is seen so constantly in connection with his chairs and tables is conspicuous by its absence, nor does this design appear in any of the illustrated works published by his contemporaries. Furniture is now made for the most part in large factories, machinery taking the place of the skilled craftsman. Designers leave to others the execution of their ideas.

"There is much difference of opinion whether Chippendale was the first to introduce into England the style which bears his name, or was simply one of the craftsmen who best succeeded in crystallizing and putting into concrete form the floating ideas fashionable at the time. Furniture of a specific school, known as Chippendale was executed all over the kingdom during a great part of the Eighteenth Century. A similar type of decoration was adopted by silversmiths, potters and engravers, and the English designs were widely imitated by contemporary craftsmen, both in our American and other colonies. In Ireland, also, much beautiful work was produced during the Chippendale period, and though no doubt based on the designs of the London makers, the Irish style of carving showed marked individuality. On the whole, it was heavier in design than the English and had a flatter surface." 1

Chair-Back, Chippendale, 1754

Plate XXIX - Chest of Drawers on Stand. Anglo-Dutch - Metropolitan Museum

The plates in Chippendale's book are in three styles: the Louis XV., the Gothic, and the Chinese. He was a marvellous carver and revelled in all the ornaments of fancy. We find the Chinese mandarin, pagoda, umbrella canopy with bells, monkey's head, long-tailed, long-billed bird, shell, fret, endive leaves, rams' heads holding swags of leaves, squirrel, mascaron, spiky thorn, lions' heads, the serpent among flowers, subjects from AEsop and Grecian mythology, dolphin, wyvern, cocatrice, attributes of music, war, hunting, the bull's head, the caduceus and the C, which some people persistently say is his initial, when it is only the scroll of the Louis XV. period, a return of the old ear-motive (see page 32). The carver's greatest skill was lavished on mirror and picture frames, girandoles, pier-tables and brackets; his china-shelves and cabinets received great attention and his open-work chairs are as highly valued to-day as any of the Eighteenth Century. The designs in his book were chiefly intended to be carved and gilded or japanned and lacquered. He seldom mentions mahogany. Chippendale made great use of drapery, and designed elaborate festoons and intricate mechanical devices for manipulating his curtains. Some of his furniture, which is labelled "French chair," or "sofa," he shamelessly took from Meissonnier, from whose books of design he appropriated bell-flowers, icicles, dripping water, cascades, leaves, feathers, shell-work and spiky thorns. As Matthias Darly, who engraved most of Chippendale's plates, lived much in Paris, the admirers of Chippendale may pin the thefts upon him, if they like.

1 Constance Simon.

Matthias Darly (or Darley) was a great friend of Chippendale's, and some critics think he had a very large share in Chippendale's designs. Darly formed a partnership with Edwards, and, with the latter, issued A New Book of Chinese Designs in 1754. At a later period Darly followed the classical taste as exemplified by the Adams and Pergolesi. Others of the Chippendale School are Ince and Mayhew, who, with their sons, continued in business until 1812, Thomas Johnson, Robert Mainwaring (famous for his elegant "Chinese Chairs"), Matthias Lock and H. Copland.

Two characteristic Chippendale pieces appear on Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV. The first is an arm-chair of extraordinary size and the second a sofa or triple-back settee.

In the first, the jar-shaped splat is pierced and carved with scrolls and foliage. The side supports are cut into fluting and piping, and the wavy top rail has reversed scrolls and foliage. The arms curve out boldly, ending in lions' heads and manes and foliage on the supports. The seat, which measures two feet nine inches in front, is slightly serpentine in front and the rail is carved with foliage and shell work which is carried round the sides. The cabriole leg ends in lions' feet and a mascaron issues from the foliage on the knee. The seat is covered with old English embroidery of large flowers and foliage in colored wools on linen.

The open-back mahogany sofa, or settee, of unusual design, has a three-chair back. The central panel, where a bird sits among the entwined ribbons on the oak-branch, is carved differently from the others. Ribbons, leaves and oak-apples and the reversed C-scrolls form the rest of the decoration. The old crown-back is also suggested in the central back. The other two backs exhibit an intricate combination of ribbons, scrolls and foliage, and the top is wavy. The arms curve slightly outward and end in dragons' heads. The front rail of the seat is curved in festoons with shells at intervals among the foliage and a big mascaron in the centre. Richly carved cabriole legs with acanthus leaves and berries for ornamentation end in lions' feet. Opposite the spring of the knee is a reversed scroll. The two back legs end in the simple ball-and-claw foot. The covering is old English needlework representing large flowers in colored silks on a purple background. The whole piece is remarkably ornate and remarkably beautiful. It was once in the Dean Collection.

Plate XXX - Anglo-Dutch Chairs - Metropolitan Museum