The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easy

The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easy

Robert Manwaring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This modest book of designs demonstrates the kind of chairs middle-class English families might have bought and used in the 18th century. Its etched and engraved illustrations offer a sturdier and less costly alternative to the elaborate Rococo and Chinoiserie concoctions found in Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easyThe Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easyThe Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easyThe Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easyThe Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, or, the Whole System of Chair-Making Made plain and easy

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.