Side chair (one of a set of fourteen)
ca. 1772
Medium
Mahogany, covered in modern red morocco leather
Dimensions
Overall (each): 38 1/4 × 22 × 22 1/2 in. (97.2 × 55.9 × 57.2 cm)
Classification
Woodwork-Furniture
Culture
British
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and The Annenberg Foundation Gifts, Gift of Irwin Untermyer and Fletcher Fund, by exchange, Bruce Dayton Gift, and funds from various donors, 1996
Accession Number
1996.426.6
Art Historical Context
This elegant side chair, one of a surviving set of fourteen, embodies the pinnacle of 18th-century British furniture design, attributed to master cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale architect Robert Adam around 1772. Crafted from rich mahogany—a premium imported wood symbolizing luxury and status—the chairs were likely created for a grand country house or London townhouse, reflecting the Georgian era's opulent domestic interiors. Chippendale, renowned for his versatile rococo and neoclassical styles as detailed in his influential 1754 pattern book *The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director*, oft...
About the Artist
Thomas Chippendale|Robert Adam · 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...