The Chippendale tercentenary this year has successfully marked the birth of this famous influential Yorkshire cabinet maker and Harewood House Trust has played a key role in the celebrations.

This series of blog posts has charted the success of the year and this is the final post and reflection as commemorations draw to a close.

Thomas Chippendale’s furniture was always original and distinctive yet practical, and his commissions often involved far more than simply supplying furniture – his firm provided upholstery, wall paper, draperies and soft furnishings, as the outstanding Harewood commission demonstrated.

His birth in Otley 300 years ago has been celebrated with a series of events, publications and quality exhibitions throughout the year, across the country, collectively known as Chippendale 300. A legacy of the year-long programme is that the different organisations have all undoubtedly enjoyed working together and plan to continue to do so. The Chippendale Society and Furniture History Society have played an important role in co-ordinating many of the activities, most especially the joint symposium in April in Leeds. Furniture History, the journal of the Furniture History Society, an extensively illustrated scholarly publication, has now been published for 2018. Volume LIV is entirely devoted to Chippendale with two articles cover Harewood’s important commission – one by Adam Bowett entitled Furniture for the Circular Dressing Room at Harewood House and the other by myself, The Chippendale Firm at Harewood: Early Visitors’ Experiences, both revealing new research and encouraging new approaches to the study of his most important lavish commission here at Harewood.

Thomas Chippendale may have been born in a small market town, but he found fame in London, setting up his famous workshop in St Martin’s Lane in 1753, where he attracted wealthy elite patrons who included aristocrats, politicians, merchants, actors and royalty. Some patrons such as Harewood’s Edwin Lascelles employed the Chippendale firm exclusively. Due to the success of his book of designs, the revolutionary Director, first published in 1754 with 160 engraved plates, his work has been copied, emulated, and collected across Europe and America – Catherine the Great owned a copy and an edition came out in French. His fame spread quickly and his name and brand resonate today across the world.

The tercentenary year saw Harewood House Trust acquire a very special second edition of the Director, which had belonged to the 1st Earl of Harewood. This exciting new acquisition was returned to England from America and displayed. A previous blog post on 24 August, was dedicated to the Director and the Trust’s important acquisition. There has always been great interest in the Director internationally and at present there is an excellent, highly informative exhibition, Chippendale’s Director: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until 27 January 2019, including a selection of more than 200 original Chippendale drawings drawn from their collection.