Robert Manwaring Robert Manwaring Robert Manwaring was an English 18th century furniture designer and cabinet maker. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was a contemporary and imitator of Thomas Chippendale, and not the least considerable of his rivals. He prided himself upon work which he described as "genteel", and his speciality was chairs. He manifests the same surprising variations of quality that are noticed in the work of nearly all the English cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th century, and while his best had an undeniable elegance, his worst was exceedingly bad: squat, ill-proportioned and confusing.
Thomas Chippendale National Gallery. Chippendale furniture is highly valued; a padouk cabinet that came up for auction in 2008 sold for £2,729,250. Chippendale was born the only child of John Chippendale (1690–1768), joiner, and his first wife Mary (née Drake) (1693–1729). He received an elementary education at Prince Henry's Grammar School. The Chippendale family had long been in the wood working trades and so he probably received his basic training from his father, though it is believed that he was also trained by Richard Wood in York, before he moved to London. Wood later ordered eight copies of the "Director". On 19