CHIPPENDALE, THOMAS (c. the most fa mous of English cabinet-makers, was the son of John Chippen dale, a joiner of Otley, Yorkshire. He was baptised at Otley on June 5, 1718. The materials for the biography of Chippendale are scanty, but it is known that he came to London when he was about 20, and at the end of 1749 established himself in Conduit court, Long Acre, whence in 1753 he removed to No. 6o, St. Martin's lane, which with the addition of the adjoining three houses remained his factory for the rest of his life.
It has always been exceedingly difficult to distinguish the work executed in Chippendale's factory and under his own eye from that of the many copyists and adapters who throughout the sec ond half of the 18th century plundered remorselessly. Apart from his published designs, many of which were probably never made up, we have to depend upon the very few instances in which his original accounts earmark work as unquestionably his. For Claydon house, in Buckinghamshire, he executed much deco rative work, and the best judges are satisfied that the Chinese bedroom there was designed by him. At Harewood house, in York shire, we are on firmer ground. The house was furnished between 1765 and 1771, and both Robert Adam and Chippendale were employed upon it. Indeed, there is unmistakable evidence to show that certain work, so closely characteristic of the Adams that it might have been assigned to them without hesitation, was actually produced by Chippendale, whose bills for this Adam work are still preserved. For Nostell Priory, Yorkshire he made a quantity of fine furniture in 1766, the bills for which are also in existence there. Stourhead, the famous house of the Hoares in Wiltshire, contains much undoubted Chippendale furniture, which may, however, be the work of his son Thomas Chippen dale II. ; at Rowton castle Shropshire, Chippendale's bills as well as his works still exist.
Our other main source of information is The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, which was published by Thomas Chip pendale in 1754. This folio, the most important collection of furniture designs issued up to that time in England, contains 16o engraved plates, and the list of subscribers indicates that the author had acquired a large and distinguished body of customers. There was a second edition in 1759, and a third in 1762.
The Director contains examples of each of the manners which Chippendale practised. Occasionally we find in one piece of furni ture a combination of the three styles which he most affected at different periods (Louis XV., Chinese and Gothic) and it cannot be said that the result is as incongruous as might have been ex pected. Some of his most elegant and attractive work is derived directly from the French.
The primary characteristic of his furniture is solidity, but it is a solidity which rarely becomes heaviness. Even in apparently slight work, such as the ribbon-backed chair, construction is always the first consideration. It is indeed in the chair that Chippendale is seen at his best and most characteristic. From his hand, or his pencil, we have a great variety of chairs, which, although differing extensively in detail, may be roughly arranged in three or four groups, which it would sometimes be rash to attempt to date. He introduced the cabriole leg, which, despite its antiquity, came immediately from Holland ; the claw and ball foot of ancient Oriental use ; the straight, square, uncompromis ing early Georgian leg ; the carved latticework Chinese leg ; the pseudo-Chinese leg; the fretwork leg, which was supposed to be in the best Gothic taste ; the inelegant rococo leg with the curled or hoofed foot ; and even occasionally the spade foot. His chair backs were very various. His efforts in Gothic often took the form of the tracery of a church window, or even of an ovalled rose window. His Chinese backs were distinctly geometrical, and from them he would seem to have derived some of the inspiration for the frets of the glazed bookcases and cabinets which were among his most agreeable work. The most attractive feature of Chippendale's most artistic chairs (derived from Louis Quinze models) is the back, which, speaking generally, is the most elegant and pleasing thing that has ever been done in furniture. He took the old solid or slightly pierced back, and cut it up into a light openwork design exquisitely carved (for Chippendale was a carver before everything) in a vast variety of designs ranging from the elaborate and extremely elegant ribbon back, to a com paratively plain but highly effective splat. His armchairs, how ever, often had solid or stuffed backs. Next to his chairs, Chip pendale was most successful with settees, which almost invariably took the shape of two or three conjoined chairs, the arms, backs and legs identical with those which he used for single seats. He was likewise a prolific designer and maker of bookcases, cabinets and escritoires with doors glazed with fretwork divisions, cases for long clocks, and a great number of tables, some of them with a remarkable degree of Gallic grace. He was especially successful in designing small tables with fretwork galleries for the display of china. His mirrors, which were often in the Chinese taste or extravagantly rococo, are remarkable and characteristic. Some of Chippendale's most graceful work was lavished upon the wood work of the lighter, more refined and less monumental four-poster. His claims to distinction are summed up in the fact that his name has by general consent been attached to the most splendid period of English furniture.
Chippendale was buried on Nov. 13, 1779, at the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Of his Is children, THOMAS CHIPPEN DALE II. succeeded to the business of his father and grandfather, and for some years the firm traded under the style of Chippendale and Haig. The factory remained in St. Martin's lane, but in 1814 an additional shop was opened at No. 57, Haymarket, whence it was in 1821 removed to 42, Jermyn street. Like his father, Thomas Chippendale II. was a member of the Society of Arts; and he is known to have exhibited five pictures at the Royal Academy between 1784 and 18o1. He died at the end of 1822 or the beginning of 1823.
See Oliver Brackett Thomas Chippendale, a Study of his Life, Work and Influence (1924) .