Lady's Writing Table and Bookcase, from Chippendale Drawings, Vol. II
Medium
Black ink, gray wash
Dimensions
sheet: 8 7/16 x 13 1/4 in. (21.4 x 33.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.40.2(35)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 18th English design with Thomas Chippendale's *Lady's Writing Table and Book*, a exquisite drawing from *Chippendale Drawings,. II* (1760). Chippendale, the renowned furniture maker whose seminal book *The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director* popularized his intricate styles, created this as a blueprint for luxurious domestic furnishings. Rendered in black ink with subtle gray wash on a modest sheet (8 7/16 x 13 1/4 in.), it captures a compact writing table topped by a bookcase—perfect for a lady's private study amid the Rococo revival. The drawing's artistic...
About the Artist
Thomas Chippendale · 1718–1779
Thomas Chippendale, baptized on June 5, 1718, in Otley, Yorkshire, was born into a family steeped in woodworking traditions, the only child of joiner John Chippendale and Mary Drake. His father likely provided his initial hands-on training in cabinetmaking, supplemented by time in the workshop of York joiner Richard Wood, before Chippendale relocated to London around 1749. He married Catherine Red...