Side Chair, 176575
Boston, Massachusetts
Mahogany, maple, white pine, and new upholstery
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation 1971.3
Wholly antiquated
—Thomas Sheraton, 1793
The Rococo style was popularized on both sides of the Atlantic by the The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director published in 1754 by Thomas Chippendale. The book contained drawings of chairs like the examples seen here with curving cabriole legs, ball-and-claw feet, and carved interlaced lines in the back splat. Today, “Chippendale” chairs are reproduced in great number, and it is hard to imagine that they were ever out of style. But by the 1790s, Chippendale’s Director had been replaced by The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book by Thomas Sheraton, who called Chippendale’s chairs “wholly antiquated.”