Thomas Chippendale:

So who is this guy………..Chippendale???

We know he was born in England 1718 and was responsible for a furniture style. We know he published “The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director in 1754 and being a son of a carpenter, was probably always knocking about in wood. But was Chippendale a brilliant carver in the rococo style?, a superior mechanic?, the quintessential cabinetmaker?, a student of wood movement or a savvy businessman with an eye for the next fad.

Norbury in “Furniture for the 21st Century” makes mention that when Chippendale’s woodshop burnt down, his insurance claim included tool chests of up to 35 cabinetmakers. WHAT!!!!! 35 cabinetmakers that’s a factory. That’s a tradesmen getting paid by the piece in a hot sweaty factory. One cuts a leg, another carves, then it gets cleaned up, nope, ole T-Chipp wasn’t working that line.

In ’54 (that’s 1754) we know his shop was set-up on St Martin’s Lane in London, a pre-cursor to hang’in out with Picasso on the left bank in Paris. You know the seen, 1750’s beat-niks: furniture-makers, actors, engravers, sculptors all the creatives of the day. They gathered at a place called Old Slaughter’s Coffee House which was right across the street from Chippendale’s workshop and home. What a group of artists for Chippendale to drawer from.

So back to our original question: Who is Chippendale???

Thomas Chippendale was a savvy businessman who understood the art of Designing Furniture. Chippendale was a maestro at running a furniture factory. He new production, he knew materials, he checked quality, he knew of the trades and most importantly, new his market.

Chippendale built to the growing large estates of England and designed furniture to every fad. There was the Chinese fad, the Gothic fad, and Adams Neoclassical fad in his lifetime while his directory spread the word.

So here’s to Designing Furniture with Thomas Chippendale.

Who do you think Thomas Chippendale was????

well here it is ...a new place set aside for ideas good and bad about furniture design... and since i have no real firm opinion of my own...as a matter of fact i am in the middle of my first serious design ...its a bedroom set and dining set...i feel have only scratched the surface ..thats why i asked neil if he could run a thread on the subject since he has over 20 years experience at design ...i am looking forward to hearing all he has to offer ...so THANKS !....i know it will be great!!

What a great start Neil..... and a real interesting read, I know I learned something from that.

It will be nice to have your infectious enthusiasm regularly popping up on the forum here

Sorry I haven't been doing much lately, I've just been really busy

Neil, you need to write a book titled "all the extra stuff that woodworkers need to know"!...your post are freaken awesome!...

Neil-thanks for helping to add a face to Chippendale. Its hard to imagine that large of a crew building furniture without electricity, without the benefit of modern lighting, and without the benefit of modern adhesives. I've seen the home shops of some woodworkers on the internet with a full production shop of woodworking equipment and the most coming out of it is plywood boxes joined with pocket screws and edge banding. And then I see Tommy build the bombe in his modest shop mostly with his hands. Just reminds me that the most significant tool a woodworker needs to develop is between his ears-not something that can be store bought.

And to think he was one of two little squirrels on cartoon I used to watch when I was growing up. Very good Stuff Neil. My question is how can you tell the different from his stuff to compared to a Queen Ann, I understand the more ornate details but is there something that stands out. Thats the problem I have with Chippendale comparing it.

JD.........this is where you have to dive into furniture history and make your own criterior. First off you are dealing with 2 economic entities, a country in England and the Colonies. Also you have to think of communications of the day and where the wealth started. You need to establish a time frame first, look at William and Mary and see the evolution from Bun feet to the cabriole leg....specific to Queen Anne will be the pad foot. In England you will see the Georgian Period mentioned in amongst your research. It's which monarchs rein of the time.

Realizing communication was slow, the styles defined in England came years later to the Colonies. JD you now have to put yourself in the position of a businessman like Chippendale. The colonies economically are growing and England at the time takes the archetectural knowledge from the Roman Empire and puts them in play on a large scale. England is a weathy nation.

Chippendale feeds the need by taking Queen Anne to the next level. Out with the pad foot in with the ball and claw, out with the solid back splat of Queen Anne in with the the pirced splat. You see the same style, but its finer. Queen Anne is a bit bulkier, Chippendale is more refined. Realize in England the furniture was big in scale because the estates being built were big. If you recall in our visit to the Adams Family House (snap-snap), on the second floor was a big giant piece of furniture near the stairs that came from France, it was way out of scale. It was not meant to sit in a colonial home. In England, Chippendale created demand by changing the styling of furniture, much like the auto industry 100 years later. The guy was ahead of his time. Look to his different styles, late in his career, he even did some pieces based off of Adams, Federal Style. Look at Hardware!

Next you need to investigate, that as the colonies grew economically, they wanted nice things to basically show off, ie: T's Bombe in 1750 was todays Lambougini. With the release of T-Chipp's Directory, the craftsman in the colonies had pictures of his style but they had to be scaled down to fit the size house that was being built. Each region in the Colonies, New England, Mid Atlantic, Southern regions all interpreted differently.

As more wealth was accumulated in the colonies and more jobs could be supported, unbelieveably skilled craftsman came from across the pond and fell right into building out of Chippendales Directory. As a port city, Philly got more than its fair share of highly skilled craftsman who went to work creating smaller scaled Chippendale when compared to that being produced in England.

JD, this should give you a sound base to blast off of. You have to dig-in and read, look at pictures, get a sense of time frame and then create your own period study. This is what makes furniture history so interesting. The social and political cross-over, the time frame of each style being interpretted differently at different times. Its easy to say Philadelphia Style Chippendale, but what was going on outside of Philly in the Delaware Valley at the same time. Maybe it doesn't get interpretted until 250 years later by you.

There's much self interpretation to furniture history based off of what you expose yourself to, that's why you need access to numerous sources.

JD.....Never forget Chippendale was a businessman first, designer 2nd, cabinetmaker 3rd........hope that helps.

Just finished a great book. Thomas Elfe cabinetmaker by Samuel A. Humphrey. Very interesting parallels to Thomas Chipendale (they were born 1 year apart, both businessmen and cabinetmakers). I will never look at the diamond figure eight pattern the same again.

Yornthor recommended that book in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=77

It must be a good one.

Neil,
Your right I do need to do some reading. Get more info and figure out guys like Chippendale, Efle, Symore (sp). Funny most of the greats are named Thomas. Even that one guys Macdonald. I aways wondered how there was queen ann and Chippendale stuff dated around the same times. Now its all starting to make sense.

You know Neil, its funny how you say that about the Del Val stuff. When I talked to Winterthur a couple of weeks ago the girl said that same thing. That it was a tough piece to Identify because if it was less ornate then a Philly piece most will call it a Del Val piece.

Justin