Chippendale, Thos
NAME: Chippendale, Thomas
ACHIEVEMENTS: Famous furniture designer
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
Baptised 5 June, 1718, Otley, Yorkshire, England
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
1779, Hoxton, Shoreditch, London, England. Aged 61
DISCIPLINE:
Furniture designer and cabinet maker
FIELD:
Furniture
EDUCATION:
Elementary
MAJOR WORK:
“The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director” (1754-62)
LIFE AND TIMES:
Chippendale’s father was a joiner, his grandfather was a carpenter, and he had many cousins who were joiners and carpenters. He was trained by his family and may have served his apprenticeship in the English city of York, which was the main regional center of craftsmanship. There is no more information on his life until the year 1748, when he married in London at the age of twenty-nine. He was living in a house near Covent Garden and was one of the subscribers to a publication titled “The Young Arithmetical and Drawing Master” by Richard Carr. He may also have been taking drawing lessons at this time in preparation for illustrating furniture designs.
In 1752 he moved to a better house off the Strand and in 1753 engravings were made of his drawings. The first edition of his: “The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director” came out in 1754. It was dedicated to the Earl of Northumberland, a wealthy patron of the arts, and the list of subscribers included five dukes. The book was aimed at the aristocracy and others who might buy new furniture, and was also planned as a design guide for cabinet-makers.
Chippendale showed three different styles of furniture. What he termed the ‘modern’ style was the rococo fashion which by the mid-eighteenth century had taken over from the large, heavily gilded Palladian-style furniture. Rococo was curvaceous, intricate and imaginative, and rococo decorations often featured shell forms and flowers, foliage and scrolls linked together asymmetrically. The second style Chippendale illustrated was the Chinese, a style which had a revival in the late 1740’s. Chinese Chippendale featured pagodas, oriental figures, and open frets on bookcases. The third style was Gothic, notable for pointed arches, which became popular around the mid-1750s.
In the year he published “Director” Chippendale went into partnership with James Rannie and took a lease on three houses in St Martin’s Lane, probably in anticipation of increased business. It was an area where rich tradesmen, artists and professional men lived and was one of the few paved streets in London. The premises were called the Cabinet and Upholstery Warehouse and the business sign outside was a chair. Chippendale and Rannie probably employed upwards of forty workmen: carpenters, joiners, smiths, upholsterers, mirror framers, glass grinders and drapers.
The premises included a forge, a glass-grinding room, a veneering room, a timber store and a counting house. There were also glass, feather and carpet rooms. As well as making desks, cabinets, chests of drawers, bureaux, tables, bookcases, beds, chairs and sideboards, they sold chair covers, bedding, china, blinds, carpets, curtains, bell systems, marble slabs, trays, knife boxes and bread pails. They advertised services that included the repair, hire, transport and storage of furniture.
Setting up such premises must have been a gamble, but it paid off. In 1754 Chippendale made furniture for the actor Garrick*’s new villa at Hampton, and in 1759 Chippendale was commissioned to furnish Dumfries House, Ayrshire.
The neo-classical architect of the house, Adam* worked with Chippendale on designs for the interior. Chippendale had a set routine for commissions. He would visit the house, take measurements, discuss his designs and meet the architect. He then produced sketches for the architect and patron, followed by large scale drawings for workshop. The architect Sir William Chambers* once complained that Chippendale’s sketches were too small to evaluate properly.
In 1760 Chippendale was elected to the Society of Arts, founded in 1754 by Shipley* to encourage young people to take an interest in the manufacturing arts. The qualification for membership was primarily an ability to contribute to a fund for awarding prizes.
In 1762 a third edition of “Director” came out, and this time included illustrations of what Chippendale termed “the most fashionable taste”. This turned out to be a reference to the neo-classical features such as caryatid supports, rams heads, lions’ masks and swags which introduced by Adam. Chippendale also made very plain furniture; he was willing to design the most mundane items, and clients could choose between a standard, refined or splendid version of his designs.
In 1766 Rannie died and Chippendale became sole owner of the business. Between 1766-1776 he did a large amount of work for Sir Rowland Winn’s house, Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. In 1767 he was awarded his most valuable commission: the furnishing of Harewood House in Yorkshire. Chippendale was employed there for eleven years and towards the end of that time made some of his finest marquetry furniture in the neo-classical style.
Chippendale handed over the running of the business to his son in 1771 but continued to act as a design consultant. He was working on designs for Petworth House in Sussex, the home of George Wyndham, third Earl of Egremeont, when he died.
ASSESSMENT: Chippendale was a versatile designer and his pieces are famous for their strength and practicality, and were never just decorative. The “Director” was internationally renowned and influenced the design of Scandinavian, Iberian and American furniture.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS:
He made furniture for * Blair Castle, Perthshire, for the Duke of Atholl (1758); After the battle, Blair Castle remained in Jacobite hands for some time. It continued to play an important role: for example, the Jacobite Highland chiefs swore a bond there together in August, to continue the rising.
In the Forty-Five, Blair Castle was occupied twice by Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his Jacobite army: in early September 1745, for several days, and then in early February 1746, again for several days. However, the Jacobites then unwisely abandoned it and Government forces, including Lowland Clan Agnew then occupied it. They held Blair Castle against the Jacobites, who laid siege to the castle during the last stages of the rising, in March 1746 they were besieged to near starvation until the Jacobite forces withdrew to fight the British Government forces at the Battle of Culloden.
Chip an’ Dale Disney cartoon chipmunks name may be a pun on the name of the 18th-century cabinet maker and furniture designer Thomas Chippendale, as suggested by [Bill "Tex” Henderson, a story artist at the studio.
Also presumably derivative:
ONELINER: Thomas Chippendale, great early furniture maker
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Gilbert, Christopher, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, Studio Vista, Cassell Ltd., London, 1978
Honour, Hugh, Cabinet Makers and Furniture Designers, Spring Books, London, 1972.
LANGUAGE:
English
PARENTS:
Father: John Chippindale (sic)
Mother: Mary Drake
SIBLINGS:
None
SPOUSE:
Catharine Redshaw
Elizabeth Davis
CHILDREN:
by Redshaw:
9, including son: Thomas
by Davis: 3