Thomas Chippendale (1718 – 1779) was born in Otley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England in June 1718. He became a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, upon which success he became renowned. The designs are regarded as reflecting the current British fashion for furniture of that period and are today reproduced globally. He was buried 16 November 1779, according to the records of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in the cemetery since built upon by the National Gallery. Chippendale furniture is highly valued; a padouk cabinet that came up for auction in 2008 sold for £2,729,250.

Chippendale was much more than just a cabinet maker, he was an interior designer who advised on other aspects of décor such as soft furnishings and even the colour a room should be painted. At the peak of its success the firm could act like a modern interior designer working with other specialists and undertake the supply of fully decorated and furnished rooms or whole houses, once the principal construction was done. Chippendale often took on large-scale commissions from aristocratic clients.

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