Chippendale dining chair

Historical background
Designs for Thomas Chippendale’s chairs were freely available once his pattern book, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director was published in 1754 and were
Signs of authenticity
1. Solid, heavy mahogany, smooth and silky to the touch.
2. Underframes of beech, plane or sycamore.
3. Crest rails fitting into tops of side rails where design scrolls outward-curving.
4. Crest rails fitting between curving side rails where design is rounded.
5. Drop-in or overstuffed seats.
6. Separate shoe-piece attached to back of seat frame.
7. On chairs with cabriole legs, deep apron with rounded corners to seat frame.
8. On chairs with square legs, square corners to seat frame.
9. Seat frames on early dining chairs straight (not dished until c.1780).
10. On chairs with arms, arm supports set back almost half the depth of the seat, screwed with hand-cut screws, the screwholes concealed by plugs or dowels, now virtually invisible.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Later carving and fluting to legs – carving will not stand proud of silhouette.
12. Broken back legs repaired or replaced, by dowelling into sawn ends on the line of the apron.
13. Drop-in seats replaced with overstuffed – the apron beneath the seat material will be
polished like the rest of the frame, not left plain or made of correct underframe wood.
14. Heavy carved decoration on back side rails – either carved later, or a marriage between a late Victorian copy and a period chair. Correct decoration for period was plain or fluted.
15. Later, Victorian cabriole legs dowelled into underframe to replace broken originals. Bandy-legged appearance where not enough thickness of wood has been used for the legs.
made with modifications and variations by numerous furniture-makers throughout the period 1754-80.
The main shift in design from previous shapes was the squared, almost over-running shape of shoulder and crest rail, and the pierced and carved central splat. Mahogany was used almost exclusively for dining chairs of this period: its immense strength and density allowed pierced work of great elaboration. The beginning of the period maintained rounded
corners to chair seats, but once Chippendale reintroduced plain squared legs, seat corners were also square.
Chippendale chairs were made in sets for dining rooms. Their backs were lower to allow the newly adopted custom of dining d la Berline – with footmen serving dishes individually, instead of the hitherto traditional English way of dining, from a side table heaped with food.
Construction and materials
Throughout the Chippendale period, dining chairs were made in solid mahogany, oiled and rubbed smooth with brick dust or sand to a glossy, silky finish. The backs of chairs were lower, with square shoulders often terminating in small upward-curling scrolls. There were two types of construction: the traditional, with the crest rail fitting between the two side rails which curved inward towards the centre, and the innovative, with the crest rail almost over-running the outward-curving side rails, like a cupid’s bow. On chairs with arms, the supports were higher and the arms ran almost parallel with the seat, fixed to the sides of the seat frames almost half way back, to allow for fashionable full skirts.
Detail
Although the central splats, crest rail and legs were profusely decorated, the stiles were seldom carved, but left plain or fluted. Seats of chairs were sometimes overstuffed or had deep decorative aprons, often serpentine in shape.
It is surprising to learn that the technique of lamination was first used for the fretted backs and ornament of the Chippendale period. Layers of veneer of alternating grain were glued together and then cut with a fret saw into intricate shapes.
Variations
Simplified variations of Chippendale’s designs were made by most country furniture-makers, usually in oak, but also in elm, beech, ash and fruitwoods. They had plain wooden seats made of planking nailed to the underframe, usually in more than one piece, with the grain going from side to side. Occasionally they are to be found with rush seats.
The designs of the back include the crudest cut-out work – most commonly a curving variation of four or five straight splats, either in a wheatsheaf shape or an open vase or violin shape. Most widespread and enduring are those made in a
simplified ladderback design. Legs are square, sometimes slightly chamfered on the inner sides. The back stretcher is still set higher than the front, and the two side stretchers are parallel. The tops of the front legs form the sides of the seat frame, and there is usually a fairly deep apron.
Below left: classic example of later Chippendale, c.1700, ladder-back.
Centre: a provincial vase splat. Right: classic North country ladder-back.
Far right: nineteenth-century ‘ribband-back’.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Provincial furniture-makers were often as much as 50 years behind the most recent fashions, and ‘Chippendale’ chairs were still being made at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century they were being made by many furniture manufacturers, slightly modified, with rather meagre cabriole legs, or with the slimmer, scrolled leg and foot typical of the later period of Chippendale design. Often designs such as the ribband back and its variations had square legs and stretchers instead of cabriole legs.
Many Chippendale-style chairs were mass-produced for public rooms, assembly halls, hotels and board rooms, with machine-cut central splats, square, leather-covered seats, often dished, and with the shoe-piece made as an integral part of the back seat rail. Quality of materials and craftsmanship divide the mass-produced from good Victorian copies, which today are fetching extremely good prices.
Price bands
Late eighteenth-century mahogany, £400-550 each. Set of six, £5,000-7,000.
Country versions, £120-190. Set of six, £2,160-3,420.
Nineteenth-century walnut, £350-400 each.
Nineteenth-century mahogany – set of six, £3,000-4,000.

Signs of authenticity
1. Fine, crisp carving in low relief in beech or dense-grained mahogany.
2. Seats overstuffed or upholstered, not drop-in.
3. Back legs raked and slightly splayed.
4. Hooped back in three
separate pieces: the two side-rails and hooped crest rail.
5. On chairs with central
pierced splat, separate shoe-piece attached to back seat rail.
6. Edge moulding and simple fluting to front legs – not plain square-sectioned as with earlier `Chippendale’ chairs.
7. Legs tapered on inner sides only – outer edges at right angles to ground.
8. On chairs with arms, slim curving lines, still attached to sides of seat rail but set further forward.
Likely restoration and repair
9. Arms added to single chairs to make up sets – width of seat should be at least 2 in wider for a ,carver’.
10. Check underframes for new wood and workmanship.
(Original sets are rare to find intact – many have been made up to the right number with excellent copies.)
11. Arms broken and repaired –line may not be as generously curving and sinuous as original. No patination on undersurface.
12. Back legs broken and replaced – grain of wood will not continue up to back of chair –line of join visible on bottom edge of seat frame where new leg has been dowelled in.
By the end of the Chippendale period (Thomas Chippendale died in 1779), fashions had changed considerably, due to the influence of Robert and John Adam, whose classical interior designs and architecture were altogether lighter and less substantial than those of the early Georgian period. The emphasis laid on painted and applied decoration had a marked effect on furniture design, and the preference for lighter colours influenced the woods and finishes used for furniture. Although George Hepplewhite is better known for his famous shield-back chair, he designed many chairs for Adam interiors, among them the hoop- or round-back chair which was a transitional step towards the radical construction of the shield back.
This period of chair design is particularly associated with tapering legs, either square-sectioned and ending in neat spade feet, or round, taper-turned legs on small peg feet. Often the rounded central panel was upholstered, and the seats of Adam round-back chairs were nearly always overstuffed.
Fashions in clothes changed, too, and the more clinging lines of dress allowed arm supports to be set closer to the front of the seat and swoop back to join the sides of the rounded backs.
Construction and materials
These graceful chairs were made in mahogany, and in beech, ebonized with black japanning, as well as in satinwood and in satinwood and
birch. The shape of the seat was nearly always curved or serpentine, and the back legs, while still continuing up to form the back supports, were slightly splayed. Legs were often tapered, and Hepplewhite reintroduced stretchers on many chairs to add strength to thinner tapering legs. Although the hoop of the back appears to be a continuous curved piece, it was still made with the same construction as earlier chairs, with the rounded crest rail meeting the top of the side rails almost seamlessly.
Detail
Often simple, tapering legs were lightened with fluting, or decorated with gadrooning or cabochon carving in low relief. On chairs with arms, the tops of the front legs were frequently decorated with classical motifs in accord with Adam designs. In earlier hooped-back versions of the Adam round back, the central splat was fretted and pierced, usually in vertical lines. and still fitted into a separate shoe-piece attached to the back rail   a design that came to be known as the wheatsheaf.
Variations
The classic country wheelback and the hooped-back Windsor chair are contemporary with Adam round-backed chairs, but form a special category of their own (see pp. 70- 71). Most common country versions are the camel-backed wheatsheaf chairs, made in elm, or oak and elm with wooden seats and H-shaped stretchers and an additional back stretcher, still set high.
The construction and craftsmanship needed to produce a round back, other than the methods used for Windsor chairs, was beyond the country furniture-maker, who continued to make chairs with the traditional construction of separate crest rails attached either to the tops of the side rails, or fitting between them.
Reproductions
The more solid mahogany round back or hooped back has not been reproduced as often as its cheaper, more decorative counterpart, the painted beechwood chair of similar design. These were made in great quantities by the Victorians, with indefinably wrong proportions, as boudoir chairs and drawing-room chairs. The most favoured has an upholstered panel in the back and an overstuffed seat. To be fair, some nineteenth-century versions achieved a very pleasant look, though the Victorian tendency to make curved what should be straight often results in unattractive legs, bowed and serpentine, on an otherwise pleasing design.
There are some nineteenth-century florid ’spider’s web’ chairs, a variation on the plain wheelback, usually easy to recognize by the turning on the tapered legs which already shows a tendency to bulbousness.
The most popular design, reproduced incessantly since the late eighteenth century, is the `wheatsheaf’, often with a squared crest rail.
Price bands
Period painted beech or giltwood, £650-850 each.
Late eighteenth-century mahogany, with arms, £85-120 each.
Set of six, £2,000-2,600.
Nineteenth-century reproduction, £70-90 each. Set of six, £600-1,000.
Variations, far left: provincial
chair of Hepplewhite design. Left: a late Hepplewhite-style armchair.
Left, above: round-backed Adam-style chair, with raked back legs.

Small, formal and more decorative than functional hall chairs were first named by Robert Manwaring, a furniture designer, in The Chair-Makers Real Friend and Companion, published in 1865.
Thomas Sheraton noted in The Cabinet Dictionary that chairs such as those that are placed in halls are for the use of servants or strangers waiting on business”. These wooden chairs were usual])- smaller than side
chairs. They had turned seats and often had the crest or arms of the farmily carved or painted on the chair back. Some chairs were made with plain backs so that families could have their own insignia carved or painted onto the basic chair.
The hall chair first appeared when Thomas Chippendale illustrated six designs of chairs for ‘Halls. Passages, or Summer-Houses’ in his Director.
Rival cabinet-makers, William Ice and John Mathew published three designs for hall chairs in the gothic taste” in their serialized pattern book, The Universal System off Household Furniture (1759-02). If it was too
expensive to carve the decorative crest on the back, then it was considered acceptable to “be painted, and have a very, good effect”.
Hall chairs These illustrations are from Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762 (Plate XVII).
ENGLISH HALL CHAIR
One of a pair, this mahogany chair is modelled on the Renaissance sgabello chair. It has a shaped, waisted back and shaped seat. The front support and seat have indented panels, designed to bear a crest. c.1780.
FRENCH HALL CHAIR
This chair, one of a set of four, has a pierced wheel back with a central, raised, circular plaque. The wide, slightly dished seat is supported on tapered legs, and the front legs terminate in spade feet. c.1770.

THE CHAIRS that Chippendale created and reproduced in his book The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1762) offer a sample of the various design trends in the mid to late 18th century, such as Rococo, Chinese, Gothic, and Neoclassical. Chippendale’s name has become generic for 18th-century furniture and, in particular, chairs, but his designs borrowed from published English and French work. His most original work can be found in his Neoclassical pieces, which he created from 1760 onwards, inspired by the interiors of architect Robert Adam. Despite the variety of influences on his designs, many Chippendale chairs follow a basic pattern, with their stylistic influence being most obvious in their carving. Therefore, while most chair backs had pierced and interlaced splats with carved scrollwork, it is the shape and carving that reveals the
predominant influence: cartouche shapes and scrolling acanthus for Rococo, Gothic arches, Chinoiserie fretwork, and interlacing ribbons, or the lyre and fan shapes typical of Neoclassicism. The importance of deep-cut, detailed carving in Chippendale’s designs meant that mahogany was most commonly used, although provincial versions were still often made in walnut or fruitwoods.
The top rails of the chairs were usually serpentine in shape, sometimes ending in carved ears, with stiles curving outwards. Most of them had squared or trapezoidal seats, and while Chippendale preferred stuff-over upholstery, many cheaper or colonial versions had slip-in seats. Designs often had different front and back legs. The front legs could be cabriole with a claw-and-ball foot, tapered, or straight with stretchers. Mahogany is well suited for the elaborate carving of the back splat.
The drop-in seat is upholstered in pale yellow floral silk damask.
Rear legs were often simply chamfered, as these chairs were placed against the wall.
The cabriole front legs terminate in elegant carved scroll feet.

DINING CHAIR
This mahogany chair, part of a set of 11 together with one later copy, has a serpentine top rail above an interlaced, pierced splat headed by C-scrolls carved with leaves. The cabriole legs are flanked by C-scrolls, also carved with leaves, and the legs taper towards scrolled toes. c.1775.
NEW HAMPSHIRE DINING CHAIRS
Each of these mahogany dining chairs has a serpentine top rail with rounded shoulders and flaring stiles with scribed borders. The interlaced back splat includes an inverted heart cut-out shape. The over-upholstered, seat is a trapezoidal shape and has a serpentine front. The piece is supported on square-moulded, chamfered legs. The legs of the chair are joined by recessed box stretchers. The chairs retain an old or original finish, and are attributed to Robert Harold of Portsmouth. c.1765-75.
ENGLISH DINING CHAIRS
The serpentine top rail of each mahogany chair is carved at the shoulders with scrolls and foliage. The pierced, vase-shaped back splats are carved with acanthus and trailing foliage. The curved arms with scrolling ends have downward-sweeping supports, and stretchers join the straight front legs and sweeping back legs. The saddle-shaped seats are covered in red leather with a double row of studs. c.1770.
ENGLISH DINING CHAIRS
These mahogany chairs have serpentine top rails carved with trailing acanthus and side rails with flowers and trelliswork. The pierced, vase-shaped back splats are carved with acanthus and rocaille. The curved arms have downward-sweeping supports. The chairs have drop-in seats with egg-and-dart-moulding on the seat rails. The square front legs have chamfered back corners and foliate brackets, while the back legs are sweeping.
AMERICAN CARVED SIDE CHAIR
This walnut chair has a serpentine top rail centred by a carved shell over a pierced, vase-form splat. It has a moulded seat rail, padded drop-in seat, cabriole legs, and claw-and-ball feet. Late 18th century.
ENGLISH DINING CHAIR
This mahogany chair has an arched, moulded top rail and carved shells at the corners of the uprights, in the centre of the pierced splat, and at the centre of the shaped apron. c.1770.
AMERICAN ARMCHAIR
This mixed wood armchair from Philadelphia has a serpentine top rail, an urn-shaped splat, and flared arms with scrolled knuckles. It has a straight seat rail, a slip seat, cabriole legs, and pad feet. Mid to late 18th century.
GEORGE III ARMCHAIR
This child’s open mahogany armchair has a serpentine top rail and a ladder-back splat. The scroll arms have fluted uprights. The stuff-over seat rests on square, tapering legs. c.1790.
GEORGE III SETTEE
This early George III mahogany chair-back settee has a C- and S-scroll top rail above two pierced, vase-shaped splats with an open outscrolled arm at each end. The stuff-over seat rests on chamfered, square- section legs joined by stretchers.
COLONIAL INDIAN SIDE CHAIR
This Asian hardwood chair has a serpentine top rail above a pierced, vase-form back splat. The shaped seat rail has a padded drop-in seat. The cabriole legs have acanthus-carved knees. c.1770.
AMERICAN DINING CHAIR
This is one of a pair of fine Delaware Valley walnut chairs. Each has a serpentine top rail centred by a carved shell over a pierced, vase-form splat. The moulded seat rail has a drop-in seat. c.1770.
CHIPPENDALE’S CHAIR DESIGNS
In the notes that accompany his illustrative plates, Chippendale wrote that there “are various designs of chairs for patterns. The front feet are mostly different, for the greater choice.” Elsewhere, he was more specific, as with his instructions that chairs should be upholstered in the same material as the window-curtains and the height of the back should seldom exceed 55cm (22m) above the seat — although sometimes these dimensions could be less to suit the chairs to the room.
Chippendale felt that “seats look best when stuffed over the rails and have a
brass border neatly chased; but are most commonly done with Brass Nails, in one or two Rows.” Despite the number of designs in his Director, not all the chair patterns that are termed “Chippendale” are included: the ladder-back design, for example, does not appear.
Chippendale’s designs for chairs and backs of chairs were perhaps the most influential of his designs to appear in the Director. His designs were interpreted by craftsmen throughout the world, who
followed his instructions to varying degrees, and so increased the variety of “Chippendale” chairs.