Thomas Chippendale is Britain’s most famous eighteenth-century furniture maker. Located just a few miles away from his birthplace in Otley, Harewood House contains one of the largest collections of his furniture anywhere in the world, and is today renowned as his most magnificent commission. 

Thomas Chippendale was commissioned to furnish Harewood from top to bottom, leaving no room untouched. Work began in 1767 and took more than 30 years to complete, with the last rooms furnished by Chippendale’s son, Thomas Chippendale Junior, in 1797. Harewood became the firm’s longest as well as most lucrative commission, worth over £10,000 (over £1 million today). 

Today, Harewood is home to some of the most outstanding pieces of Chippendale furniture ever made and many pieces can still be seen in the rooms for which they were made.