Thomas Chippendale Thomas Chippendale Thomas Chippendale (1718 – 1779) was born in Otley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England in June 1718. He became a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director", upon which success he became renowned. The designs are regarded as reflecting the current British fashion for furniture of that period and are today reproduced globally. He was buried 16 November 1779, according to the records of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in the cemetery since built upon by the
Chair-maker furniture. In the country manufactories it is otherwise; yet even these pay some regard to keeping their workmen constantly at the chair, or to cabinet work. The two branches seem evidently to require different talents in workmen, in order to become proficients." In Paris, a chair-maker was a "menuisier", or joiner: guild regulations forbade "menuisiers" to engage in cabinet making. Some "menuisiers" produced the planed and carved wood paneling for rooms ("boiseries"), while others, "menuisiers en sièges", produced the frames for seat furniture, which would be upholstered by other craftsmen, such as "huissiers". Chair-maker Since the mid-17th century a chair-maker,