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Unabridged 1966 Dover republication of third (1762) edition, reproduced in size. Photographic supplement selected in part from the 1938 reprint, thus 14 new photos. Biography of Chippendale reprinted from 1938 edition. 200 plates, most full-page, plus 19 supplementary photographic plates (24 photos). vi+249pp. 9.125 x 12.25 inches. Paperbound. ISBN 0-486-21601-2.
.Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) was the most famous and most skilled of England's master cabinet-makers. So synonymous with excellence in design and craftsmanship was his name that it has been given to the most splendid period of furniture design in England.
In 1754, Chippendale issued a catalogue of his designs, a magnificent folio of 160 engraved plates representing the prevailing furniture styles, particularly the French (Louis XV), Gothic, and Chinese-manner pieces for which he was best known. The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, the most important and thorough catalogue of furniture designs that had ever been published in England, was enormously influential, spreading quickly throughout the Continent and the colonies and guiding the style and construction of furniture everywhere. A second edition was issued the following year; a third in 1762. Today this classic collection is a very rare and highly valued work.
This present volume is an unaltered and unabridged republication of the 1762 edition of The Director. The articles of furniture depicted are extremely varied: chairs, sofas, canopy and dome beds, couches, bed and window cornices, breakfast tables, shaving tables, commodes, chamber organs, cabinets, candle stands, cisterns, chimney pieces, picture frames, frets and other decorations, etc. The plates contain elegant drawings which show the unique combination of solidity of construction and lightness and grace that was the Chippendale trademark, along with many construction diagrams, elevations, and enlargements of moldings and other details. Beside the plates, this volume also includes a supplement of photographs of 18th-century Chippendale-style pieces, including some executed by Chippendale, complete with captions to the photos, and a short biographical sketch of Chippendale by N.I. Bienenstock, editor of The Furniture World.
The Director is an indispensable guide for antiquarians, furniture dealers and collectors, and a treasury of ideas for today's designers. Art lovers and general readers will also find this a delightful browsing volume.
Cover designed by Edmund Gillon, Jr.
(The above commentary is provided by Dover Publications, Inc.)
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