Drawing for three Chinese chairs

This is the original drawing for plate XXIV of the first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754) and re-published as plate XIV of the third edition (1762). It is one a group of three consecutive plates with three designs on each (nine in total) of ‘Chinese Chairs'.
The Chinese taste was probably at its apogee in the mid-1750s, and many were arguing for a reform of its more outlandish excesses. Chippendale wrote of these chairs in his prefatory remarks that he hoped the designs ‘…will improve that [Chinese] taste, or manner of work; it having yet never arrived to any perfection'. He added that ‘…it admits of the greatest variety…', and (of the chairs) that ‘…there has been none like them yet made'.
By the time of the designs' re-publication in 1762 the Chinese style had passed its peak and they were merely described as ‘…after the Chinese Manner, and are very proper for a Lady's Dressing-Room: especially if it is hung with India Paper. They will likewise suit Chinese Temples'.
The drawing is inscribed across the top: ‘No 24 Chinese Chairs 29', and along the bottom ‘T. Chippendale inv et deln M Darly Sculp 3'.

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