Chippendale and his School [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The name of Chippendale is so generally applied to mahogany furniture that it might seem, on a first inquiry, that he invented this rich and interesting wood, and also every style pertaining to it. Mahogany furniture, antique and otherwise, is so often airily described as Chippendale that the term has lost much of its personal significance and become simply generic. The present volume deals with the period in the commencement of which mahogany was first employed in England in the manufacture of furniture—approximately in the first quarter of the eighteenth century (after the death of Queen Anne). For approaching two hundred years, therefore, it has sustained its popularity, and its position is still unchallenged. Certainly in the nineteenth century metal was very generally used in the making of bedsteads, but in these later days mahogany is again frequently employed for this purpose. A very large quantity of genuine old mahogany furniture has survived to this day, and it is often described in general terms as Chippendale. The number of chairs alone seriously and dehberately described as Chippendale is almost innumerable.