THOMAS CHIPPENDALE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18308, 16 February 1925, Page 14

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE.

CABINET-MAKER & GENIUS.

Thomas Chippendale is a name to conjure with —especially in Wardour street and thereabouts —but while the "name is a household word, remarkably little is known of the man to whom it belonged. His latest biographer is Mr Oliver Brackett, and in reviewing the work "John o' London's Weekly" states that the volume is an exhaustive study of the great furniture-designer's life,, work, and influence.

When Thomas Chippendale was born is not yet known for certain, but* he was baptised on June sth, 1718, at .Otley, in Yorkshire. His father was a joiner, his grandfather had been. a carpenter, and his mother's father was a mason, so that on both sides of the family his forbears had been concerned in a hunible way with the building and furnishing of houses. Of the boyhood and early life of Thomas Chippendale practically 'nothing is known. The tradition among his descendants is that he worked at first with his father at Otley, but "on account of the unusual ability which he displayed, attracted the notice of the ancestors of the Earl of Harewood, through whose assistance ho was enabled to start in business in London."

An Historic Catalogue. Apart from the information to be gathered from parish registers, our only clue to the early life of Chippendale in London is in the Poor Kates book of St. Martin's. From this we know that in 1749.he took a house in Conduit Court, Long Acre, and that in 1753 he was living at Somerset Court in Spur Alley Ward. But in the same, year he moved to St. Martin's Lane, which ever after remained his ' headquarters, and in 1754 he laid the. foundation of his fortune and fame by • publishing "The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director." , The success of this folio was extraordinary and immediate. It was' not only the "talk of the town," butaroused.keen.intlerest throughoutthe country, and particularly in Yorkshire. Containing- 160 plates, with descriptive notes and a preface, this volume may be regarded as having created a national style in English furniture, arid though the practice of publishing designs for furniture goes back in Europe at least as far as the sixteenth century, nothing quite like Chippendale's book has been done hitherto in England. .. William Kent, William Jones, and a few others had previously published designs, but these authors were all either architects or bililders, and many of their designs were!'more or less theoretical. Chippendale, on the other hand, was a working cabinet-maker, and, despite the'extravagance of some of his Chinese and Gothic pieces, his designs were eminently practical.

Thus Chippendale gained a broader base for his fame than .any other designer before him had secured. Indeed, it is with.these.simple models that his name is most often and most popularly associated to-day.'

His Workmanship. The truth is that Chippendale was no revolutionary innovator, but supplied the demand of his age. When he started for himself, the vogue for heavy furniture in thesiVenctian■■■ style;-' ;made ■fashionable by Kent; was on the wane, but the wealthy still had a preference for gilded furniture and Chippendale met the demand. Middle-class furniture still followed in . the main the Queen Anne tradition, only'mahogany was gradually superseding -walnut—a change due, according to one story,' to the Duke' of 'Marlborough having .'commandeered all the walnut trees in the country to make stocks for. rifles. As regards' style, Chippendale did little more than develop Queen Anne and Georgian models, and his real crowning achievement, as Mr Brackett ' rightly says, r was,.tho .excellence of his wort-' manship:— In his designs he was merely the creature of his. age,- but his finished work shows that high standard of technical accomplishment -which sh.ou)d .be the ambition of every period of history to achieve. ,

An Organising Brain.

We must picture Chippendale at.his prime,' then,, not as a dreamy artistcraftsman, but as the organising brain, and driving force of a large firm doing furnishing, decorating, paperhanging, and upholstery for some, of the , most important country houses in England. _ Nominally the "Director" was published, "to improve and refine the present Taste"; in. reality it was an exceedingly astute move to advertise ,the merit of Chippendale and;to display Ms wares. • .

Of his private life we know little, except that his first wife died in 1772, and that in 1777 ho married Elizabeth Davis at Fulham Parish. Church. But of his professional activities there are many records. In 1770-72, for example, he was working for Lord Shelburne at Lansdowne House, and furnishing Garrick's house' in the Adelphi, while from 1771 to 1775 he was continuously engaged decorating and designing . furniture for Hare wood House, near Leeds. When he -died pf consumption in 1779. he left behind him a unique' reputation and a flourishing business which was continued by his eldest son Thomas.