Chats on Old Furniture Part 15

MAHOGANY CHIPPENDALE CHAIR. ABOUT 1740.

(_Property of the India Office._)]

The collecting of Chippendale furniture has become so fashionable of late years that genuine old pieces are difficult to procure. It is true that two old chairs were discovered in a workhouse last year, but when specimens come into the market they usually bring large prices. Two elbow state-chairs, with openwork backs, were sold a little while ago for seven hundred and eighty guineas, and a set of six small chairs brought ninety-three guineas about the same time. But even this is not the top price reached, for two chairs at Christie's realised eleven hundred pounds!

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

MAHOGANY CHIPPENDALE CHAIR. 1770.

(_By permission of the Master of the Charterhouse._)]

Chippendale, the shopkeeper, of St Martin's Lane, who took orders for furniture, which he or his sons, or workmen under their direct supervision, executed, was one person, and Chippendale, who had quarrelled with the Society of Upholsterers, and published a book of designs on his own account, which quickly ran through three editions, was another person. In the one case he was a furniture maker whose pieces bring enormous prices. In the other he was the pioneer of popular taste and high-priest to the cabinetmakers scattered up and down England, who quickly realised the possibilities of his style, and rapidly produced good work on his lines.

These pieces are by unknown men, and no doubt much of their work has been accredited to Chippendale himself. The ill.u.s.tration (p. 232) shows a mahogany chair well constructed, of a time contemporary with Chippendale and made by some smaller maker. This type of chair has been copied over and over again till it has become a recognised pattern. It finds its counterpart in china in the old willow-pattern, which originated at Coalport and has been adopted as a stock design.

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

CHIPPENDALE MIRROR.]

Furniture is not like silver, where the mark of the maker was almost as obligatory as the hall mark. Artists, both great and small, have signed their pictures, and in the glorious days of the great French _ebenistes_ and metal-chasers, signed work is frequently found. But in England, at a time when furniture of excellent design, of original conception, and of thoroughly good workmanship was produced in great quant.i.ties, the only surviving names are those of designers or cabinetmakers who have published books.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._

CHIPPENDALE BUREAU BOOKCASE.

With drop-down front, showing secret drawer.]

So great was the influence of the style of Chippendale that it permeated all cla.s.ses of society. An interesting engraving by Stothard (p. 235) shows the interior of a room, and is dated 1782, the year that Rodney gained a splendid victory over the French fleet in the West Indies, and the year that saw the independence of the United States recognised.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._

MAHOGANY CHAIR.

IN THE CHIPPENDALE STYLE. LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COTTAGE CHAIRS, BEECHWOOD. LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, IN STYLE OF CHIPPENDALE.]

Kitchen furniture or cottage furniture was made on the same lines by makers all over the country. The wood used was not mahogany; it was most frequently beech. Chairs of this make are not museum examples, but they are not devoid of a strong artistic feeling, and are especially English in character. More often than not the soft wood of this cla.s.s of chair is found to be badly worm-eaten. Two chairs of this type, of beech, are ill.u.s.trated (p. 233), and it is interesting to note that, as in the instance of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire chairs of Jacobean days made by local makers, it is not common to find many of exactly the same design.

The craftsman gave a personal character to his handiwork, which makes such pieces of original and artistic interest, and cabinetmaking and joinery was not then so machine-made as it is now.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF ROOM, ABOUT 1782.

(_From engraving after Stothard._)]

It may be here remarked that the earlier pieces of the eighteenth century were polished much in the same manner as was old oak previously described. Highly polished surfaces and veneers, and that abomination "French polish," which is a cheap and nasty method of disguising poor wood, bring furniture within the early nineteenth-century days, when a wave of Philistine ba.n.a.lities swept over Europe.

RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]

s. d.

Side table, Chippendale, with gadrooned border, the front boldly carved with a grotesque mask, festoons of flowers and foliage, on carved legs with claw feet, 64 in. long. Christie, February 14, 1902 126 0 0

Tea-caddy, Chippendale mahogany, square, with four divisions, the borders carved with rosettes and interlaced riband ornament, the sides inlaid with four old Worcester oblong plaques painted with exotic birds, insects, fruit, flowers, and festoons in colours on white ground, 10 in. square. Christie, February 6, 1903 52 10 0

Fire-screen, Chippendale mahogany, containing a panel of old English pet.i.t-point needlework, worked with a basket of flowers in coloured silks, on pillar and tripod carved with foliage and ball-and-claw feet. Christie, December 4, 1903 17 17 0

Armchairs, pair large Chippendale mahogany, with interlaced backs carved with foliage, the arms terminating in carved and gilt eagles' heads. Christie, January 22, 1904 88 4 0

Cabinet, Chippendale mahogany, with glazed folding doors enclosing shelves, and with cupboards and eight small drawers below, the borders fluted, 8 ft. high, 8 ft.

wide. Christie, January 22, 1904 67 4 0

Chairs, set of six Chippendale mahogany, with open interlaced backs, with scroll tops, carved with foliage and sh.e.l.l ornament, on carved cabriole legs and ball-and-claw feet. Christie, January 22, 1904 102 18 0

Table, Chippendale, oblong, cabriole legs, carved with sh.e.l.ls, &c., on claw feet, surmounted by a veined white marble slab, 53 in. wide. Christie, March 4, 1904 73 0 0

Settee, Chippendale mahogany, with double back with scroll top, carved with arabesque foliage, the arms terminating in masks, on legs carved with lions' masks and claw feet, 54 in. wide. Christie, April 12, 1904 278 5 0

Mirror, Chippendale, carved with gilt, 88 in. high, 50 in.

wide. Christie, May 18, 1904 94 10 0

[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items are given from their useful monthly publication _Auction Sale Prices_.

XI

SHERATON, ADAM,

AND HEPPELWHITE

STYLES

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._

HEPPELWHITE SETTEE, MAHOGANY.]

XI

SHERATON, ADAM, AND HEPPELWHITE STYLES

Robert Adam 1728-1792.

Thomas Sheraton 1751-1806.

1752. Loch and Copeland's designs published.