The first of these and the best known was Thomas Chippendale, who appears to have succeeded his father, a chair maker, and to have carried on a large and successful business in St. Martin’s Lane, which was at this time an important Art centre, and close to the newly-founded Royal Academy.

[Illustration:  English Satinwood Dressing Table.  With Painted Decoration.  End of XVIII.  Century.]

[Illustration:  Chimneypiece and Overmantel.  Designed by W. Thomas, Architect. 1783.  Very similar to Robert Adam’s work.]

Chippendale published “The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director,” not, as stated in the introduction to the catalogue to the South Kensington Museum, in 1769, but some years previously, as is testified by a copy of the “third edition” of the work which is in the writer’s possession and bears date 1762, the first edition having appeared in 1754.  The title page of this edition is reproduced in fac simile on page 178.

[Illustration:  Chairs, With ornament in the Chinese style, by Thomas Chippendale.]

This valuable work of reference contains over two hundred copperplate engravings of chairs, sofas, bedsteads, mirror frames, girandoles, torcheres or lamp stands, dressing tables, cabinets, chimney pieces, organs, jardinieres, console tables, brackets, and other useful and decorative articles, of which some examples are given.  It will be observed from these, that the designs of Chippendale are very different from those popularly ascribed to him.  Indeed, it would appear that this maker has become better known than any other, from the fact of the designs in his book being recently republished in various forms; his popularity has thus been revived, while the names of his contemporaries are forgotten.  For the last fifteen or twenty years, therefore, during which time the fashion has obtained of collecting the furniture of a bygone century, almost every cabinet, table, or mirror-frame, presumably of English manufacture, which is slightly removed from the ordinary type of domestic furniture, has been, for want of a better title, called “Chippendale.”  As a matter of fact, he appears to have adopted from Chambers the fanciful Chinese ornament, and the rococo style of that time, which was superseded some five-and-twenty years later by the quieter and more classic designs of Adam and his contemporaries.

[Illustration:  Fac-Simile of the Title Page of Chippendale’s “Director.”  (Reduced by Photography.) The Original is in Folio Size.

    THE
    GENTLEMAN and CABINET-MAKER’S
    DIRECTOR: 
    Being a large COLLECTION of the
    Most ELEGANT and USEFUL DESIGNS
    OF
    HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE,
    In the Most FASHIONABLE TASTE.

    Including a great VARIETY of