HEPPLEWHITE, GEORGE (d. 1786), one of the most famous English cabinet-makers of the i8th century. The only certain facts known about him are that he was apprenticed to Gillow at Lancaster, that he carried on business in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and that administration of his estate was granted to his widow Alice on June 27, 1786. After his death the business was continued by his widow under the style of A. Hepple white and Co. Our only approximate means of identifying his work are The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, first pub lished in 1788, and ten designs in The Cabinet-maker's London Book of Prices (1788), issued by the London Society of Cabinet Makers. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to earmark any given piece of furniture as being the actual work or design of Hepple white, since to a very large extent the name represents rather a fashion than a man. Lightness, delicacy and grace are the dis tinguishing characteristics of Hepplewhite work, which depended for its effect more upon inlay than upon carving. If Hepplewhite was not the originator he appears to have beep the most constant and successful user of the shield back for chairs. Where Chippen dale had used the cabriole and the square leg with a good deal of carving, the Hepplewhite manner preferred a slighter leg, plain, fluted or reeded, tapering to a spade foot which often became the "spider leg" that characterized much of the late i8th-century furniture ; this form of leg was not confined to chairs but was used also for tables and sideboards. Hepplewhite, or those who worked with him, appears 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. The backs of Hepplewhite chairs were often adorned with galleries and festoons of wheat-ears or pointed fern leaves; and not infrequently with the prince of Wales's feathers in some decorative form. It has been objected as an artistic flaw in Hepplewhite's chairs that they have the appearance of fragility. They are, however, constructionally sound as a 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 instruments or floral motives, has no elements of decorative permanence. With comparatively little use the paintings wear off and have to be renewed. A large proportion of Hepplewhite furni ture is inlaid with the exotic woods which had come into high favour by the third quarter of the i8th century.
It was not in chairs alone that the Hepplewhite manner excelled. It made, for instance, a speciality of seats for the tall, narrow Georgian sash windows. These window-seats had ends rolling over outwards, and no backs, and display an elegant simplicity. Ele gance, in fact, was the 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 urn-shaped knife-boxes in mahogany and satinwood, charming in form and decorative in the extreme ; inlaid tea-caddies, varying greatly in shape and material; delicate little fire-screens with shaped poles; painted work-tables, and inlaid stands. Hepplewhite's bedsteads with carved and fluted pillars were very handsome and attractive. If we were dealing with a less elusive personality it would be just to say that Hepplewhite's work varies from the extreme of ele gance and the most delicious simplicity to an unimaginative commonplace, and sometimes to actual ugliness. As it is, this 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 influence of conflicting tastes and changing ideals.