Chats on Old Furniture Part 14

AND

HIS STYLE

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

TABLE MADE BY CHIPPENDALE.

(Height, 29-3/8 in.; width, 32-3/8 in.; depth, 21-5/8 in.)]

X

CHIPPENDALE AND HIS STYLE

George I. 1714-1727.

George II. 1727-1760.

George III. 1760-1820.

Horace Walpole built Strawberry Hill (1750)

Sir William Chambers (1726-1796) built PaG.o.da at Kew about 1760.

Chippendale's _Director_ published (1754).

Thomas Chippendale, the master cabinetmaker of St. Martin's Lane, has left a name which, like that of Boule, has become a trade term to mark a certain style in furniture. With the dawn of the age of mahogany, Chippendale produced designs that were especially adapted to the new wood; he relied solely upon the delicate carving for ornament, and rejected all inlay.

Discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought specimens home with him, mahogany did not come into general use till about 1720. The material then used by Chippendale and his school was the splendid mahogany from the great untouched forests, producing at that time timber the like of which, in dimension and in quality, is now unprocurable. The cheaper "Honduras stuff" was then unknown, and English crews landed and cut timber from the Spanish possessions in spite of the protests of the owners. Many a stiff fight occurred, and many lives were lost in s.h.i.+pping this stolen mahogany to England to supply the demand for furniture. These nefarious proceedings more than once threatened to bring about war between England and Spain.

The furniture of France, during the four great periods treated in the previous chapters, was designed for the use of the n.o.bility. One wonders what furniture was in common use by the peasantry in France. In England, too, much of the furniture left for the examination of posterity was made for the use of the wealthy cla.s.ses. In Jacobean days, settles and chairs, especially the Yorks.h.i.+re and Derbys.h.i.+re types, were in more common use, and the homely pieces of Queen Anne suggest less luxurious surroundings, but it was left for Chippendale to impress his taste upon all cla.s.ses. In the t.i.tle-page of his great work, the _Director_, published in 1754, he says that his designs are "calculated to improve and refine the present taste, and suited to the fancy and circ.u.mstances of persons in all degrees of life."

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S CHAIR.

Wood, painted green, with circular seat, carved arms, and high back.

Bequeathed by Oliver Goldsmith in 1774 to his friend, Dr. Hawes.

(_Bethnal Green Museum._)]

His book of designs, as may naturally be supposed, was not greatly bought by the working cla.s.ses, but fifteen copies of the _Director_ went to Yorks.h.i.+re, and many other copies were subscribed for in other parts of the country, so that local cabinetmakers began at once to fas.h.i.+on their furniture after his styles.

The common form of chair at the time was similar to the specimen ill.u.s.trated (p. 215), which formerly belonged to Oliver Goldsmith, and was bequeathed by him to his friend, Dr. Hawes. This is of soft wood, probably beech, painted green, with circular seat, curved arms, and high back. Chippendale revolutionised this inartistic style, and for the first time in the history of the manufacture of furniture in England, continental makers turned their eyes to this country in admiration of the style in vogue here, and in search of new designs.

It might appear, on a hasty glance at some of Chippendale's work, that originality was not his strong point. His claw-and-ball feet were not his own, and he borrowed them and the wide, s.p.a.cious seats of his chairs from the Dutch, or from earlier English furniture under Dutch influence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

CHIPPENDALE SETTEE; WALNUT. ABOUT 1740.

(_From the collection of Sir W. E. Welby-Gregory, Bart._)]

Sir William Chambers, the architect of Somerset House, whose fondness for Chinese ornament produced quite a craze, and who built the PaG.o.da in Kew Gardens, gave Chippendale another source of inspiration. In his later days he came under the influence of the Gothic revival and was tempted to misuse Gothic ornament.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

CHIPPENDALE SETTEE, OAK. ABOUT 1740.

(_By courtesy of V. J. Robinson, Esq., C.I.E._)]

His second style shows the Louis XIV. French decoration in subjection.

In his ribbon-back chairs he employed the Louis XVI. ornamentation.

But Chippendale was the most masterly adapter that England has ever produced. His adaptions became original under his hand, and his creations are st.u.r.dy and robust, tempered by French subtleties, and having, here and there, as in the fretwork in the chair-legs and angles, a suggestion of the East. He is the prince of chair-makers. His chairs are never unsymmetrical. He knew the exact proportion of ornament that the structure would gracefully bear. The splats in the chairs he made himself are of such accurate dimensions in relation to the open s.p.a.ces on each side that this touch alone betrays the hand of the master, which is absent in the imitations of his followers.

The ill.u.s.tration given of the Chippendale table in Chinese style (p.

213), is a beautiful and perfect piece of a type rarely met with. It was made by Chippendale for the great-grandmother of the present owner. A similar table was in the possession of the Princess Josephine. In chairs, the back was sometimes of fret-cut work, as was also the design of the legs, with fretwork in the angles, which betray his fondness for the Chinese models. The Gothic style influenced Chippendale only to a slight degree. Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill set the fas.h.i.+on in England, which fortunately was short-lived.

Collectors divide Chippendale's work into three periods. To the first they a.s.sign the more solid chairs or settees with cabriole legs and Louis XIV. ornament, harmoniously blended with Queen Anne style. These chairs and settees are often found with claw-and-ball feet, and are frequently of walnut. Two fine examples of settees, the one of oak, the other of walnut, are ill.u.s.trated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RIBBON PATTERN. CHIPPENDALE CHAIR-BACK.

(_From the "Director."_)]

The second period embraces the fine creations which have the celebrated Louis XVI. ribbon ornamentation in the backs. From one of the designs in Chippendale's book, here ill.u.s.trated, the elegance of the style is shown. It is exuberant enough, but the author complains in his volume that "In executing many of these drawings, my pencil has but faintly carved out those images my fancy suggested; but in this failure I console myself by reflecting that the greatest masters of every art have laboured under the same difficulties." The ribbon-backed chair ill.u.s.trated (p. 223) is one of the two given to an ancestor of the present owner by the fourth Duke of Marlborough in 1790. They were formerly at Blenheim, and there is an added interest in them owing to the fact that the seats were worked by Sarah, the great d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

RIBBON-BACKED CHIPPENDALE CHAIR, FORMERLY AT BLENHEIM, THE SEAT WORKED BY SARAH, d.u.c.h.eSS OF MARLBOROUGH.]

The latest style of Chippendale's work is the Gothic. There are many pieces in existence which he probably had to produce to satisfy the taste of his fas.h.i.+onable clients, but the style is atrocious, and the less said about them the better. The ill.u.s.tration (p. 225) of a chair-back from his design-book shows how offensive it could be.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

CHIPPENDALE CORNER CHAIR, ABOUT 1780.

(_Reproduced by kindness of the Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, G.C.B., I.S.O._)]

The fine corner-chair, here ill.u.s.trated, exhibits the strength and solidity he could impart to his work. His chairs were meant to sit upon, and are of excellent carpentry. The square, straight legs are a feature of much of his work. The examples belonging to the India Office and the Governors of the Charterhouse ill.u.s.trated (pp. 226, 227) show the type that he made his own and with which his name has been a.s.sociated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOTHIC CHIPPENDALE CHAIR-BACK.

(_From the "Director."_)]

Although his chairs are sought after as especially beautiful in design (his father was a maker of chairs before him) he made many other objects of furniture. The mirrors he designed are exquisite examples of fine woodcarving. The one ill.u.s.trated (p. 229) shows the mastery he had over graceful outline. Bureau bookcases with drop-down fronts have been successfully produced since his day after his models. The one ill.u.s.trated (p. 231) shows a secret drawer, which is reached by removing the left-hand panel. Card-tables, settees, knife-boxes, tea-caddies, sideboards, and overmantles were made by him, which show by their diversity of technique that there was more than one pair of hands at work in carrying out his designs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_