Family of Tuscany, now in the South Kensington Museum. Period:
Latter Half of XVIII. Century.]

Chapter VII.

Chippendale and his Contemporaries.

Chinese style--Sir William Chambers--The Brothers Adams'
work--Pergelesi, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffmann--Architects of the
time--Wedgwood and Flaxman--Chippendale's Work and his
Contemporaries--Chair in the Barbers' Hall--Lock, Shearer, Hepplewhite,
Ince, Mayhew, Sheraton--Introduction of Satinwood and Mahogany--Gillows
of Lancaster and London--History of the Sideboard--The Dining
Room--Furniture of the time.

Soon after the second half of the eighteenth century had set in, during
the latter days of the second George, and the early part of his
successor's long reign, there is a distinct change in the design of
English decorative furniture.

Sir William Chambers, R.A., an architect, who has left us Somerset House
as a lasting monument of his talent, appears to have been the first to
impart to the interior decoration, of houses what was termed "the Chinese
style," after his visit to China, of which a notice was made in the
chapter on Eastern furniture: and as he was considered an "oracle of
taste" about this time, his influence was very powerful. Chair backs
consequently have the peculiar irregular lattice work which is seen in the
fretwork of Chinese and Japanese ornaments, and Pagodas, Chinamen and
monsters occur in his designs for cabinets. The overmantel which had
hitherto been designed with some architectural pretension, now gave way to
the larger mirrors which were introduced by the improved manufacture of
plate glass: and the chimney piece became lower. During his travels in
Italy, Chambers had found some Italian sculptors, and had brought them to
England, to carve in marble his designs; they were generally of a free
Italian character, with scrolls of foliage and figure ornaments: but being
of stone instead of woodwork, would scarcely belong to our subject, save
to indicate the change in fashion of the chimney piece, the vicissitudes
of which we have already noticed. Chimney pieces were now no longer
specially designed by architects, as part of the interior fittings, but
were made and sold with the grates, to suit the taste of the purchaser,
often quite irrespective of the rooms for which they were intended. It may
be said that Dignity gave way to Elegance.

Robert Adam, having returned from his travels in France and Italy, had