“Chippendale’s book seems to be next in order to this, but the former is without comparison to it, either as to size or real merit. Chippendale’s book has, it is true, given us the proportions of the Five Orders, and lines for two or three cases, which is all it pretends to relative to rules for drawing; and, as for the designs, themselves, they are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit, according to the times in which they were executed. After Chippendale’s work, there appeared, in the year sixty-five, a book of designs for chairs only, though it is called _The Cabinet-Maker’s real Friend and Companion_, as well as the Chair-maker’s. The succeeding publication to this seems to be Ince and Mayhew’s _Book of Designs in Cabinet and Chair Work_, with three plates containing some examples of foliage ornaments, intended for the young designer to copy from, but which can be of no service to any learner now, as they are such kind of ornaments as are wholly laid aside in the cabinet-branch, according to the present taste. The designs in cabinets and chairs are, of course, of the same cast, and therefore have suffered the same fate; yet, in justice to the word, it may be said to have been a book of merit in its day, though much inferior to Chippendale’s, which was a real original, as well as more extensive and masterly in its designs.” Strange to say, the book Sheraton thinks the earlier, came out six years after Chippendale’s and contains designs that differ little in general form from those in the _Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director_. [Illustration: PLATE XXXVII] It cannot fail to strike any one who examines Chippendale’s designs carefully that he was beyond everything else a carver and a decorator. Although he was most particular about proportion and joinery, he took the greatest delight in ornamentation, caring far more for his ornate carving and swags of drapery than for his wood, or his materials. Indeed, he nearly always desires his handsome pieces to be gilded, or painted, or japanned; and he says nothing whatever about textiles, although his beds and sofas with canopies are so dependent upon festoons and curtains for their effect. The covers upon his “French chairs” often exhibit Chinese subjects, flowers, Æsop’s fables, or the gallant Watteau-like scenes; and we may conclude that the printed silks and satins of the day were too familiar to need any detailed description. Ornate as his designs are, it will be noticed in the above Preface that Chippendale thinks further “enrichment” will add to the beauty of every design.