The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director

This is the second edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, published in 1755, one year after the first. The first edition had clearly fulfilled Chippendale's expectations and its first print run must have sold out within a year. Despite its luxurious appearance, there were numerous signs of hurried proofing and careless collation - two plates numbered XXV, inconsistent Roman and Arab numbering, spelling mistakes and the like. These were rectified and the printer John Haberkorn was engaged to oversee the production of a second edition. Chippendale claimed that he had been encouraged to produce his book by ‘persons of distinction but of eminent taste', possibly including the arbiter of taste himself, Lord Burlington, who was his only known client before this date. Among his subscribers there were twenty-eight titled nobility (including four ladies), twenty-one gentry and a handful of professional men of whom a high proportion came from Scotland, notably from Fife. The rest were mainly cabinet makers and upholders with a scattering of other trades also represented. The first two editions of the Director were dedicated to the Earl (later Duke) of Northumberland, one of the wealthiest and most influential patrons of the arts in Britain. Chippendale and his engraver Matthias Darly were living in Northumberland Court, alongside Northumberland House, the Earl's enormous house at Charing Cross, while the designs were being prepared for publication. Since Northumberland accepted the dedication, Chippendale must have hoped for some patronage, but in the event almost nothing transpired. Unless some of the superb but still undocumented rococo furniture associated with the Earl is eventually proved to be by Chippendale (including a magnificent picture frame now in the Supreme Court) the only reference to furniture being supplied to him by Chippendale is a payment for £24 for a writing table in 1763. The first owner of this volume, John Spencer of Cannon Hall, Barnsley, visited Chippendale's workshop (as well as John Cobb's ‘& several others of the most eminent Cabinet Makers') on 20 April 1768 in the company of his architect John Carr ‘to consider of proper furniture for my drawing Room'. He also owned a first edition of the Director which survives in an identical binding.

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