The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director. Being a Large Collection of the Most Elegant and Useful Designs of Houshold Furniture in the Gothic, Chinese, and Modern Taste

London: Printed by John Haberkorn for the Author and Sold at His House in St. Martin's-Lane, 1754. Folio. (17 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches). First edition. [3] a-b2 A-G2 [161]. 182 ff. [4] [i]-x [1]-[28] [322]. 364 pp. Half-title, letterpress title-page printed red and black, engraved dedication to the Earl of Northumberland, Preface, Names of the Subscribers, General Proportions, Rules to Draw Chairs, List of Plates, 161 engraved plates by J. Müller, T. S. Müller, and M. Darly after Chippendale printed on rectos, versos blank. Pencil annotations in a contemporary hand including sketches of furniture, budgets, and an improvised ruler. Original full calf boards worn and refurbished with rudimentary repairs, re-backed spine with six raised bands forming seven compartments, ruled gilt, with gilt-lettered red morocco lettering-piece in second compartment

First edition of Chippendale's groundbreaking furniture pattern-book with all 161 exquisite engravings, the most important book of furniture designs in eighteenth-century England.

"The Director ushered in a new era in furniture design and forever changed the way furniture designs evolved and were disseminated." [Greene] The Director is a furniture pattern-book that contains 161 engraved plates after designs by Chippendale of furniture in the Gothic, Chinoiserie, English, and French Rococo styles. It was intended to act as a trade catalog for Chippendale's cabinet making firm, which he started in London in 1748. This landmark large folio of Chippendale's had a great impact on American aesthetics, particularly in Philadelphia where several copies were known to have been in the 1760s. "Chippendale's richly carved style had a pervasive influence on local cabinetmaking." [Heilbrunn] His text was extensively relied upon by furniture-makers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the present copy bears authentic witness to this use with contemporary annotations from a craftsman at work, as well as fingerspots of varnish on the leaves and a workaday binding. The object's historicity perfectly portrays the trade as it was at the time. Chippendale states in the preface that his intention behind The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director was to assist the one (the Gentleman) in the choice, and the other in the execution of the designs. The term "Chippendale" is often used to describe English Rococo furniture inspired by The Director's illustrated designs. Published by subscription, the book was an immense success and led to wide dispersal of his work. "His designs were plagiarized from at least the early Victorian period by the publisher John Weale, and more or less free adaptations from The Director have been a staple product of commercial furniture makers since the mid-nineteenth century." [ODNB] The publication's reputation helped Chippendale's firm attract many fashionable clients, including the English actor and playwright David Garrick. Two more editions appeared in Chippendale's lifetime: a virtually identical second edition in 1755, and a revised third edition published in installments from 1759-1762. This complete example of the first edition is as issued, with Page 21 numbered 20. The plates are numbered I-CLX in alternating Roman and Arabic numerals, with two of the plates numbered XXV, the first of which is "Chinese Chairs," the second is "Chinese Sopha," as called for.

Avery, Architectural Library, p.160. Berlin Catalogue 1227. Brunet I, 1844. Greene, American Furniture of the 18th Century, p.61. HBS 64829. Heilbrunn, Timeline of Art History, Metropolitian Museum of Art. ODNB. O'Neal 26. Rothschild 614.