Condition: clean pages, wear to binding commensurate with age.

History

Chippendale’s Director was the most ambitious and successful pattern book issued by a craftsman. It was the first of its kind – earlier collections of furniture designs having been small-scale intended for the trade. It was modelled on important architectural folios that an architect would present to his patron. Chippendale’s intention, as described in the ‘Preface’, was to bring clients and cabinet-makers together: ‘to assist the one in the choice, and the other in the execution of the designs’ (2). The Director offered designs in the ‘Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste’ (the ‘Modern’ or ‘French’ style being the English interpretation of the Rococo) in addition to scale drawings and detailed measurements so that it appealed to both clients and craftsmen alike.