[Illustration: Illus. 154 and Illus 155.—Dutch Chairs, 1740-1750.] A roundabout chair in the Dutch style is shown in Illustration 157. The bandy legs end in a foot with a slight carving in grooves, and the seat is rounding upon the corners like that in the ordinary Dutch chair. This very graceful chair is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. [Illustration: Illus. 156.—Dutch Chairs, 1750-1760.] Easy-chairs formed a part of the bedroom furniture inventoried during the eighteenth century, and they were made in various styles, with Dutch, Chippendale, and Hepplewhite legs. Hepplewhite gives a design in 1787 for what he calls “an easy-chair,” and also a “saddle-check chair,” while upon the same page, with intentional suggestion, is a design for a “gouty-stool.” [Illustration: Illus. 157.—Dutch Roundabout Chair, 1740.] Illustration 158 shows an easy-chair with the Dutch bandy leg and foot, owned by the writer. Such chairs were inventoried very high, from one pound to ten, and when one considers the amount of material required to stuff and cover the chair, the reason for the high valuation is understood. In the days when the fireplace gave what heat there was in the room, these great chairs must have been most comfortable, with the high back and sides to keep out draughts. An easy-chair with claw-and-ball feet is shown in Illustration 159. It is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. A beautiful easy-chair with carved cabriole legs, owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., is shown in Illustration 248. We now come to the most important period in the consideration of chairs,—the last half of the eighteenth century. During this period many books of designs were published, which probably came to this country within a year or two of their publication, and which afforded American cabinet-makers an opportunity for copying the best English examples. Chippendale’s designs were published in 1753, Hepplewhite’s in 1789, Sheraton’s in 1791. Besides these three chief chair-makers, there were Ince and Mayhew, 1765; Robert Manwaring, 1765; R. and J. Adam, 1773; and others of less note. [Illustration: Illus. 158.—Easy-Chair with Dutch Legs, 1750.] Chippendale drew most of his ideas from the French, notably in the way of ornamentation, but the form of his chairs was developed chiefly from the Dutch style, with the bandy leg and splat in the back. His straight-legged chairs were suggested by the Chinese furniture, which was fashionable about the middle of the eighteenth century. These various styles Chippendale adapted, and employed with such success that his was the strongest influence of the century upon furniture, and for a period of over thirty years it was supreme. [Illustration: Illus. 159.—Claw-and-ball-foot Easy-chair, 1750.] [Illustration: Illus. 160.—Chippendale Chair.] The claw-and-ball foot does not appear upon any of Chippendale’s designs in “The Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.”