Thomas Chippendale Chippendale brought out the first edition of the "Director". Rannie and his bookkeeper, Thomas Haig, probably looked after the finances of the business. His wife, Catherine, died in 1772. After James Rannie died in 1766, Thomas Haig seems to have borrowed £2,000 from Rannie's widow, which he used to become Chippendale's partner. One of Rannie's executors, Henry Ferguson, became a third partner and so the business became Chippendale, Haig and Co. Thomas Chippendale (Junior) took over the business in 1776 allowing his father to retire. He moved to what was then called Lob's Fields (now known as Derry Street) in
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,