Chippendale, Thomas
Chippendale, Thomas (1718–79). Cabinet-maker and designer, the son of a Yorkshire joiner, he set up business in London about the 1750s. Employing varied styles and adapting to changing fashions, Chippendale designed an extensive range of furniture, carpets, wallpapers, and brassware, from the elaborate yet delicate for the homes of gentry, to the simple and unpretentious for their servants' quarters. In 1754 he published The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director which influenced style in Europe and America. Both Catherine the Great and Louis XVI had copies of the book. Chippendale's designs are in many distinguished houses, including Badminton, Harewood, and Alnwick castle. Probably his best work was after 1770, when he worked with Robert Adam, a notoriously fastidious architect. Not highly regarded by his contemporaries and successors—Sheraton said his designs were ‘wholly antiquated and laid aside’—Chippendale's name has come to typify 18th-cent. mahogany furniture.
June Cochrane
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Chippendale, Thomas
