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Furniture Finishing

Modern furniture of Chippendale inspiration requires relatively few adaptations because little improvement can be made even in the light of present day standards of comfort and practicability. As Chinese is too exotic and Gothic rather too ecclesiastical, the popular forms run chiefly to English and French for the dining and living room. There they express dignity and refinement—a happy compromise between the inanimate simplicity or pompous formality of other periods. The wood in all cases customarily is mahogany.

The cabinet makers of Chippendale's time finished their work on the bare wood by the French polishing method. A soft rag was rolled into a ball and dipped into linseed oil, then covered with another layer to which was applied shellac and gum Arabic and rubbed on the surface with a circular motion. As soon as one coat dried a second treatment followed, repeated until the pores were filled level and a brilliant lustre obtained. The method while effective, is extremely tedious and hence utterly unsuited to modern production requirements.

Today we attempt with water stains to duplicate the deeper tones taken on by long mellowed originals. Any shade approximating Adam brown will serve, followed by red or brown filler and a clear lacquer or pale varnish finish rubbed to a soft eggshell. High-lighting, shading or antiquing of any sort is inappropriate.

Hepplewhite (The georgian period, 1750-1830)


HEPPLEWHITE was another of the eminent furniture designers and cabinet makers or "joyners," as they were then apt to be termed, who attained distinction under the Georges. It is not certain when Hepplewhite was born, but his death occurred probably in 1786. For the ten years prior to this, contemporaneous with the American Revolution, his style enjoyed a tremendous vogue among British people of wealth.

But while his name was the fashion, we know nothing of him personally except as we can reconstruct him from his creations. They were widely copied—many cabinet makers now flourished in England and these artisans eagerly sought for models brought out by those of their craft who, like Hepplewhite, were marked by genius. Moreover there were no patent laws in those days and Hepplewhite, unlike some of his equally distinguished fellow designers, did not think it worth while to publish ominous but empty warnings.

After his death, his wife Alice carried on the business under the name of A. Hepplewhite & Company, and following the example set by Chippendale, published a book of her husband's designs in 1788. Some 300 were shown, many of which were original and still others of which were either uninteresting or else showed marked influence on the part of his contemporaries and of the French Louis XVI school then flourishing across the channel.