Thomas Chippendale

By Adam Bowett and James Lomax

For at least 150 years, Thomas Chippendale has been synonymous with beautifully made eighteenth-century furniture in a variety of styles – Rococo, Chinese, Gothic and Neoclassical. Born in Otley, Yorkshire, in 1718, Chippendale rose to fame because of his revolutionary design book, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, published in 1754. That same year he set up his famous workshops in St Martin's Lane, creating some of the most magnificent furniture ever made in Britain. This beautifully illustrated history focuses on Britain's most famous furniture maker and designer, including the worldwide phenomenon 'Chippendale style' that became popular in Europe, North America and Asia after his death in 1779. Today, his influence lives on with the ongoing production of 'Chippendale' furniture, while the eighteenth-century originals are selling for millions at auction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781784424787

Book preview

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CONTENTS

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE’S LIFE AND CAREER

THE CHIPPENDALE STYLE

CUSTOMERS

LEGACY

FURTHER READING

PLACES TO VISIT

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Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1754, title page.

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE’S LIFE AND CAREER

T

homas Chippendale was

born in Otley, near Leeds, and baptised in All Saints Church on 5 June 1718. He was the only son of John Chippendale and Mary Drake, who married in July 1715. John Chippendale was a carpenter/joiner, as were other members of his extended family in and around Otley. John Chippendale’s house is thought to have been on the site now occupied by the Skipton Building Society in Boroughgate, Otley. After Mary’s death in 1729 John remarried and had six more children, some of whose descendants still live in and around Otley today.

It is not known where Thomas was trained, but it is thought that, having received some initial tuition either with his father or with a relative, he went to York to be apprenticed to a cabinet maker. This was probably Richard Wood (fl.1726–72), who ordered eight copies of Chippendale’s Director when it was first published in 1754, four times more than any other subscriber.

Thomas retained his links to York and Yorkshire throughout his life, both through fellow tradesmen in York and Wakefield, and through the wealthy patrons whose houses he furnished. There is a traditionally held belief that some of his early career was spent working at Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, perhaps under the tutelage of the architect James Paine, but no evidence has yet been found to support it.

Nothing further is known about Chippendale’s life or work until, at the age of twenty-nine, he married Catherine Redshaw in St George’s Chapel, in Mayfair, London, on 19 May 1748. Their first child, Thomas Chippendale junior, was born in April 1749, and between Christmas 1749 and summer 1752 the Chippendale family lived in Conduit Court, off Long Acre. From there they moved to Northumberland Court off the Strand before finally settling in St Martin’s Lane in December 1753. Each move marked an increase in prosperity, indicated by the increase of the properties’ rateable value from £12 to £22 to £124.

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All Saints Church, Otley, where Chippendale was baptised on 5 June 1718.

The few years between marriage and establishment in St Martin’s Lane were pivotal for Chippendale. He had developed a strong working relationship with the designer and engraver Matthias Darly and, either through Darly or some other tutor, had mastered drawing in the Rococo style with which his name is forever