March, 1911 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 89 
Fig. 8—A Ribband back chair 
Fig. 9—A mahogany chair 
Fig. 10—-A Chippendale chair sold 
for $130 
elaborate pieces of furniture such as “sophas, burgairs, 
French elbow, easy and corner chairs, backstools, 
_mewses, ribband back, Gothic, and rail-back chairs, 
ladies’ and gentlemen’s desk and bookcase cabinets, 
chests of drawers, commode dressing and toilet-tables, 
china shelves, encoinures, fire-screens, voiders, brackets 
for lustres and busts, with every other article in the 
business.” 
Chippendale died in 1779, and the third Thomas 
Chippendale carried on the business. In 1814 he re- 
moved the shop to the Haymarket; but the furniture 
that was made by him, or under his direction, had 
nothing with what is known as “Chippendale.” 
Like his father, he was also a member of the So- 
ciety of Arts. He seems to have been talented for he 
was a painter and exhibited some pictures at the Royal 
Academy. This Chippendale was much admired by 
that arbiter of taste of the period, George Smith, who 
was “upholsterer extraordinary to the Prince of 
Wales,’ and who said in his book in 1826 that Mr. 
Chippendale “possessed a great degree of taste with 
great ability as a draughtsman and designer.” 
The Chippendale style lasted a long time; but the 
straight line was destined to triumph; and as soon as 
it asserted itself the doom of the graceful and fantastic 
curve and waving line was sealed. In 1753, a year be- 
fore Chippendale’s book appeared, Hogarth wrote in 
his “dnalysis of Beauty”: “There is scarce a room in 
any house whatever where one does not see the wav- 
ing line employed in some way or other. How inele- 
gant would the shape of our movables be without it? 
How very plain and unornamental the moldings of 
cornices and chimney-pieces without the variety intro- 
duced by the ogee member, which is entirely composed 
of waving lines!” 
When Sheraton wrote in 1791, the style had become 
a thing of the past. Chippendale’s designs, he says, 
“are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though 
possessed of great merit, according to the times in 
which they were executed.” 
The gap between the Chippendale and the Sheraton 
periods was, however, filled by other masters of de- 
sign and other cabinet-makers. In this great age of 
furniture, the Adam brothers became of such import- 
ance that it is not unlikely that Chippendale sent from 
his shop pieces made after Adam designs. At any rate, 
it is certain that he worked with Robert Adam in the 
decoration of Harewood House in Yorkshire; for the 
present Earl of Harewood owns bills and documents 
that tell the story. Robert Adam was employed as the 
decorative architect, and among the notable workers 
(who were also artists), he employed Chippendale. 
Most of the furniture, therefore, in the Harewood 
House is in the Adam style, though now and then 
there is a piece in Chippendale’s favorite rococo man- 
ner. Again, there are pieces that exhibit both styles 
that cannot and will not merge, or fuse, into one an- 
other. 
Another style that precedes Sheraton is that of Hep- 
plewhite, in which the straight line is also insisted upon 
in most cases; but Hepplewhite is far simpler and less 
expensive than Adam, who designed only for the 
homes of the rich nobility and gentry. 
Another contemporary was Thomas Shearer, who 
was remarkable for his simplicity and his good lines 
that frequently express both strength and gracefulness. 
The engravings shown in this article, render valued 
and correct reproductions of the furniture in vogue at the 
period described, and their originals have the distinction 
of having had a place in the important Thomas B. Clarke 
collection, recently sold at the American Art Galleries, 
New York City. 
Fig. | 1—A card-table sold for $140 
Fig. 13—-A ladder back chair 
Fig. 14—-A Chippendale mahogany 
chair 
