[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_ TABLE MADE BY CHIPPENDALE. (Height, 29-3/8 in.; width, 32-3/8 in.; depth, 21-5/8 in.)] X CHIPPENDALE AND HIS STYLE George I. 1714-1727. George II. 1727-1760. George III. 1760-1820. Horace Walpole built Strawberry Hill (1750) Sir William Chambers (1726-1796) built Pagoda at Kew about 1760. Chippendale's _Director_ published (1754). Thomas Chippendale, the master cabinetmaker of St. Martin's Lane, has left a name which, like that of Boule, has become a trade term to mark a certain style in furniture. With the dawn of the age of mahogany, Chippendale produced designs that were especially adapted to the new wood; he relied solely upon the delicate carving for ornament, and rejected all inlay. Discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought specimens home with him, mahogany did not come into general use till about 1720. The material then used by Chippendale and his school was the splendid mahogany from the great untouched forests, producing at that time timber the like of which, in dimension and in quality, is now unprocurable. The cheaper "Honduras stuff" was then unknown, and English crews landed and cut timber from the Spanish possessions in spite of the protests of the owners. Many a stiff fight occurred, and many lives were lost in shipping this stolen mahogany to England to supply the demand for furniture. These nefarious proceedings more than once threatened to bring about war between England and Spain. The furniture of France, during the four great periods treated in the previous chapters, was designed for the use of the nobility. One wonders what furniture was in common use by the peasantry in France. In England, too, much of the furniture left for the examination of posterity was made for the use of the wealthy classes. In Jacobean days, settles and chairs, especially the Yorkshire and Derbyshire types, were in more common use, and the homely pieces of Queen Anne suggest less luxurious surroundings, but it was left for Chippendale to impress his taste upon all classes. In the title-page of his great work, the _Director_, published in 1754, he says that his designs are "calculated to improve and refine the present taste, and suited to the fancy and circumstances of persons in all degrees of life." [Illustration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S CHAIR. Wood, painted green, with circular seat, carved arms, and high back. Bequeathed by Oliver Goldsmith in 1774 to his friend, Dr. Hawes. (_Bethnal Green Museum._)] His book of designs, as may naturally be supposed, was not greatly bought by the working classes, but fifteen copies of the _Director_ went to Yorkshire, and many other copies were subscribed for in other parts of the country, so that local cabinetmakers began at once to fashion their furniture after his styles.