The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director. Being a large collection ofthe most elegant and useful designs of household furniture in the most fashionable taste ... &c
Chippendale, Thomas
London. Printed for the author. 1762
Sold
A very fine copy of the best edition of Chippendale's seminal work on furniture and cabinet-making.
First published in 1754, the Director is an outstanding example of an early trade catalogue, its purpose being to bring in commissions for Chippendale and his workshop for the various designs. To this end the book was extremely successful and Chippendale's fame as a cabinet-maker grew throughout the latter-half of the eighteenth-century. A further consequence of the book was the extensive copying of the designs by other cabinet-makers, resulting in the popularity of the Chippendale style and ensuring Chippendale's place as one of the greatest furniture designers of the age.
The 200 engraved plates depict everything from carved columns to elegant chairs, commodes, mirrors, beds, sofas, basins, shaving tables, sideboards, desks, armoirs, bookshelves, and even organs, providing a complete overview of the furniture decoration of the wealthiest houses at the time. The style is distinctly Chippendale, revealing the designer's unique blend of the Palladian, Gothic, Chinese and Rococo.
This third edition, which appeared in instalments from 1759 to 1762, is acknowledged as the most complete edition (the first edition of 1754 has only 161 plates; 95 of these plates are present in the third edition and 105 new plates are added).
[PROVENANCE: engraved bookplate to front pastedown of 'Charles Tennant, The Glenn' with motto 'Deus dabit vela'].
First published in 1754, the Director is an outstanding example of an early trade catalogue, its purpose being to bring in commissions for Chippendale and his workshop for the various designs. To this end the book was extremely successful and Chippendale's fame as a cabinet-maker grew throughout the latter-half of the eighteenth-century. A further consequence of the book was the extensive copying of the designs by other cabinet-makers, resulting in the popularity of the Chippendale style and ensuring Chippendale's place as one of the greatest furniture designers of the age.
The 200 engraved plates depict everything from carved columns to elegant chairs, commodes, mirrors, beds, sofas, basins, shaving tables, sideboards, desks, armoirs, bookshelves, and even organs, providing a complete overview of the furniture decoration of the wealthiest houses at the time. The style is distinctly Chippendale, revealing the designer's unique blend of the Palladian, Gothic, Chinese and Rococo.
This third edition, which appeared in instalments from 1759 to 1762, is acknowledged as the most complete edition (the first edition of 1754 has only 161 plates; 95 of these plates are present in the third edition and 105 new plates are added).
[PROVENANCE: engraved bookplate to front pastedown of 'Charles Tennant, The Glenn' with motto 'Deus dabit vela'].
Folio. (460 x 310 mm). Printed title, leaf with Chippendale's 'Preface', explanation of the plates (pp. 20), two decorative woodcut head-pieces, one tail-piece and 200 engraved plates, numbered I - CC in Roman numerals (save plate XII, numbered '12'; two different plates numbered CLXVI and without CLXVIII), all after Chippendale by various engravers. Full nineteenth-century red morocco by F. Bedford with his signature gilt, boards with gilt linear border surrounding central decorative panel with fleurons at each corner, banded spine with gilt foliate tooling and title in seven compartments, turn-ins with foliate tooling, board edges ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers, a.e.g.
#40778
