It goes without saying that only a very small part of it can be really old.  As for it having been made by the men whose names it bears, that is something no reputable dealer would affirm.  The Chippendales, father, son and grandson, published books of designs which were used by all the furniture-makers of their day.

No one can swear to a piece of furniture having been made in the workshops of the Chippendales.  Even the pieces in the Metropolitan Museum are marked “Chippendale Style” or “In the Sheraton manner,” or some such way.  If the furniture is in the style of these makers, and if it is really old, you will pay a small fortune for it.  But even then you cannot hope to get more than you pay for, and you would be very silly to pay for a name!  After all, Chippendale is a sort of god among amateur collectors of American furniture, but among more seasoned collectors he is not by any means placed first.  He adapted and borrowed and produced some wonderful things, but he also produced some monstrosities, as you will see if you visit the English museums.

Why then lend yourself to possible deception?  Why pay for names when museums are unable to buy them?  If your object is to furnish your home suitably, what need have you of antiques?

The serious amateur will fight shy of miracles.  If he admires the beauty of line of a fine old Heppelwhite bed or Sheraton sideboard, he will have reproductions made by an expert cabinet-maker.  The new piece will not have the soft darkness of the old, but the owner will be planning that soft darkness for his grandchildren, and in the meantime he will have a beautiful thing to live with.  The age of a piece of furniture is of great value to a museum, but for domestic purposes, use and beauty will do.  How fine your home will be if all the things within it have those qualities!

Look through the photographs shown on these pages:  there are many old chairs and tables, but there are more new ones.  I am not one of these decorators who insist on originals.  I believe good reproductions are more valuable than feeble originals, unless you are buying your furniture as a speculation.  You can buy a reproduction of a Chippendale ladder back chair for about twenty-five dollars, but an original chair would cost at least a hundred and fifty, and then it would be “in the style and period of Chippendale.”  It might amuse you to ask the curator of one of the British museums the price of one of the Chippendales by Chippendale.  It would buy you a tidy little acreage.  Stuart and Cromwellian chairs are being more and more reproduced.  These chairs are made of oak, the Stuart ones with seats and backs of cane, the Cromwellian ones with seats and backs of tapestry, needlework, corded velvet, or some such handsome fabric.  These reproductions may be had at from twenty-five to seventy-five dollars each.  Of course, the cost of the Cromwellian chairs might be greatly increased by expensive coverings.