The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide

George Hepplewhite

The Gentlemen & Cabinet-Maker’s Director

Thomas Chippendale

Reviewed by:

Charles L. Driggs

These two books, in original form, had a huge impact on English and American furniture styles for decades. Hepplewhite’s book actually was a compendium of his shop notes published by his wife two years after his death, very likely because it was about the only way she could continue to live off his trade. As noted in the introduction, he was not a terribly successful cabinetmaker, left her with little, and there are no known pieces directly attributable to his London shop. However, his wily widow produced one of very few books published in those times that could be used by other furniture makers to show to a client as a pattern book. The result was that Hepplewhite’s designs were far more successful after his death than he was, with the book bringing fame to his name that his work never achieved. Another obvious conclusion from paging through this design compendium is that American “Hepplewhite” furniture tends to be far less ornate than shown in his original designs, whereas English interpretations tend to be a little closer to the artist’s intent.

Hepplewhite styles succeeded those of Chippendale. Chippendale was a far more successful London cabinetmaker, and published his book while he was still alive. Again, perusing this book reveals that American Chippendale interpretations are relatively plain compared to Chippendale’s original drawings.

The most striking observation I had in going through these two books was the complexity of the decoration. Carving was a critical skill in Chippendale’s shop, and it would have been fascinating to see his shop using only the hand tools we know they had available to convert these designs into reality. Hepplewhite’s sketches also show ornate work, requiring considerable skills with edge tools if they were produced as shown. Contemplating these details in this light is probably the best reason for a Galoot to examine these two books.

(Editor's note: The original publication dates were 1794 for Hepplewhite and 1762 for Chippendale.)