Trade literature making advertising claims, give instructions in using products, provide testimonials from satisfied customers, and include detailed descriptions of sale products. Trade catalogs first appeared in the 18th century, with the expansion in trade, commerce and consumption. The distinguished English cabinet maker, Thomas Chippendale published a book of his designs in 1754, entitled "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director" and regarded as the "first comprehensive trade catalogue of its kind". The designs were regarded as reflecting the current London fashion for furniture, and set the standard for his competitors in the market. Chippendale followed this up with a virtual reprint in
William Chippendale William Chippendale William Chippendale (1730s-1802) was an English merchant who was active in Copenhagen from the late 1750s through the mid-1780s. His frim traded on the Danish West Indies. He owned the Andreas Bjørn House at Strandgade 46 in Copenhagen from 1766 and established the sugar refinery Union House on the property in collaboration with a group of planters from St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. Chippendale was born in England, possibly Yorkshire. in the 1830s. He came to Copenhagen in the late 1850s where he purchased a no longer existing property in Overgaden oven Vandet 54 in Christianshavn