A Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. I

A Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. I

Thomas Chippendale

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 18th century, British architecture and interior design in particular thrived as they had never done before. The furniture firm of Thomas Chippendale was one of the protagonists in this development. Thomas Chippendale had settled in London in the late 1740s and opened a shop on St. Martin’s Lane where several leading cabinet-makers were active. Over the next 20 years, he would become one of the most successful furniture makers in Great Britain and his furniture was in demand all over Europe and the American colonies. The Metropolitan Museum owns two albums of designs by the Chippendale firm, most of which were used for Chippendale's important print publication ‘The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director’, the first comprehensive furniture publication in Great Britain which came out in 1754. Two other, (expanded) editions were published in 1755 and 1762. This design for a state bed did not feature in the ‘Director’ until its third edition and was probably designed for a particular commission by a person of royal rank.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. IA Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. IA Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. IA Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. IA Design for a State Bed, in Chippendale Drawings, Vol. I

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.