History of Furniture: Chippendale Chinoiserie

For this portion of the History of Furniture, let's look at a furniture maker we have seen before...the legendary Thomas Chippendale, previously here, was the first furniture maker to have a style of furniture named after him instead of an English monarch! Born in 1718 in Otley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, he came from a long line of wood workers. Thomas was trained by his father, and it is presumed he apprenticed with the aptly-named York wood worker Richard Wood.

He moved to London and married Catherine Redshaw at St George's Chapel, Mayfair. And in 1754, Chippendale relocated to 60–62 St. Martin's Lane in London, where he operated his business for the next 60 years. This same year he published a book of his designs entitled "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director," the first work of its kind solely devoted to the furniture and furnishing of the 18th century British interior, which made him instantly known. He tapped into a certain style that was popular at that time and became the most famous name in the history of English furniture at a time when such craftsmanship was at its zenith. Chippendale’s patrons included aristocracy, gentry and public figures.

His furniture designs include chairs, settees, tables, desks, mirrors, bookshelves, and cabinets. Chippendale designs fall into three main styles: Gothic, Rococo (called "modern" in the book), and Chinese. And while he operated his own workshop and crafted pieces of exquisite beauty, others made furniture and furnishings based on patterns in the "Cabinet Maker's Director," so the term Chippendale refers to English furniture of the 1750s and ’60s made in a modified Rococo style.

For this post, we are focusing on his Chinese-inspired designs, often referred to as Chinoiserie. Although the Silk Road--trade routes that connected Asia with the Middle East and Europe, facilitating the import of silks, jade and other precious stones, porcelain, tea, and spices--operated from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century, the Ottoman Empire closed off trade in 1453. Bits and pieces of Asian objects trickled out for the next hundred years or so and people in Europe became fascinated with furniture and architecture of Asian origin. English and European makers began interpreting these objects from mysterious, exotic locations, creating pieces that were clearly made with a European eye. This style came to be known as Chinoiserie...not actually Chinese (imported from China) but something "in the style of" objects from Asia.

But Thomas Chippendale hit it first and hit it well, with his Chinoiserie designs reigning. Fanciful pagoda shapes mixed with carved wood made to look like pieces of bamboo or rattan lashed, and other details that evoked how the English and Europeans saw--or rather imagined--life in Asia.

Left to right: Design for part of an overmantel and a
wall bracket, Thomas Chippendale, about 1760, London.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London;
Design for a chinoiserie-inspired chimney piece,
Thomas Chippendale, about 1760, London.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Settees, chairs, beds, stair rails, all with bamboo-like lattice work (or in the case of the black japanned tall boy seen below, images of an idealized, imagined world of pagoda roofs, Ho Ho birds, and bells): there are a few original Chippendale Chinoiserie pieces left but there are plenty of examples of pieces "in the Chippendale Chinoiserie style."

Happy designing!