At that time there were no designers of furniture. A person wanting a piece of furniture would draw a rough sketch, take it to a joiner and ask him to build it. Thus, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, furniture fashions came from the patrons rather than from the joiners or craftsmen.

Thomas Chippendale must have been influenced by the smaller houses being built in England as the population increased and building developed. He lightened the furniture he was designing and made it more usable for the majority of people. He did make heavy furniture for mansions, with chairs smothered in carving, large, bold cabriole legs carved all over the knees, with ball-and-claw feet.

Chippendale began reducing his styles and the costs of the pieces by putting much less work into the intricacies of design. He raised his chairs on square chamfered legs but retained the wonderfully carved backs for which he is noted. Hundreds of cabinet-makers living in England at the time made this type of furniture designed by Chippendale.

Chippendale introduced a new dimension--namely comfort. Some of the most comfortable chairs we produced originated during this period. The open-arm easy chair with upholstered seat and back, sometimes known as a Gainsborough chair, the wooden wheel-back chair with arms which fit the body so comfortably originated at this time.

Pictured in many advertisements and fairy tales through the years we see one of Chippendale’s masterpieces in comfort--the Chippendale wing chair. Its popularity resurfaces through the years just as it is doing at the present time. Whether the massive model placed on either side of a gracious fireplace or a scaled down model to blend with any modern living room, the Chippendale wing chair is difficult to surpass for comfort.

George Hepplewhite, another master craftsman, admitted quite freely that he was using Chippendale’s designs, but lightening them. Where there were big, solid slat backs he pierced them; where Chippendale splats were half an inch thick, he made them three-eighths of an inch thick. He removed the massive cabriole legs and used a small square taper leg with a small spade foot. He chamfered off the backs of the splats.

Following Hepplewhite came Robert Adam and Sheraton, making furniture lighter and smaller while maintaining attractive lines. We find mahogany chairs looking so thin and frail on small turned legs, yet so beautifully made that they will hold a heavy person.