by Frances Stanford

Created on: June 17, 2009   Last Updated: December 16, 2009

If there is any such thing as a Royal Family of furniture, then Chippendale is that family. Of all the names associated with furniture, Chippendale is the most famous with its extensive carvings and details. The name comes from the first person to use this style of making furniture, Thomas Chippendale. It was the most prominent style of 18th century colonial America. Chippendale was a cabinetmaker by trade who incorporated English, Gothic and Chinese styles and motifs into his designs.

The main reason for the popularity and well-known name of Chippendale furniture stems from the use of fine wood in its manufacture. The earlier pieces were fashioned from mahogany wood that was imported from the West Indies. Solid wood is used, rather than the cheaper veneers, which makes the furniture so long lasting. Once the wood pieces were put together and carved, the seats of the chairs were upholstered in fine materials, such as velvet and damask.

Even though there were many different colors of mahogany wood available for use in building furniture, Chippendale furniture features mainly cherry mahogany. This color allowed the grains of the wood to show through more clearly in both carved and uncarved sections.

The Chippendale style of furniture developed by Thomas Chippendale was basically a hybrid of the Queen Anne furniture popular at the time. He basically put his own stamp on the new line making it completely his own. He was also influenced by the architectural style of Robert Adam, with whom he had worked on several construction projects and incorporated some of the nuances of this architect's work into the furniture style.

In redesigning Queen Anne style furniture into the Chippendale line, he did keep the basic style of the legs used on the chairs and tables. This is called the cabriole leg with serpentine carvings and a large foot. There are six different leg styles employed in Chippendale style which are:

Lion's paw - the leg ends in a foot that resembles the large pad of a lion's paw Club - the leg ends in a simple round ball Ball and Claw - the leg looks somewhat an eagle holding a ball in its talons Marlborough - a simple plain and square shaped leg Spade - the leg is tapered and ends in a square or trapezoid shape for the foot Late Chippendale - this was the latest design for the furniture legs featuring a square leg with a square shape for the foot.

One of the unique features of the Chippendale furniture that remains from colonial America is that the front of the center of each piece recedes back to a shallow concave that curves between the slightly rounded edges. The highboy was a signature piece during this period as well. This was a piece of furniture that often displayed a carving of the family crest and was embellished by intricate carvings all over the piece.

Since nails had not been used in the making of furniture in the late 18th century, there are no nails or screws in antique Chippendale style furniture. The various pieces of wood were fitted together using dovetail cuts and dowels, which really shows the skill of the craftsmen.

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