with the last years of Louis XV, when the transition to Louis XVI was
beginning, and the time of Louis XVI.

It was not until the latter part of Chippendale's life that he gave up
his love of rococo curves and scrolls, dripping water effects, and his
Chinese and Gothic styles. His early chairs had a Dutch feeling, and it
is often only by ornamentation that one can date them.

The top of the Dutch chair had a flowing curve, the splat was first
solid and plain, then carved, and later pierced in geometrical designs;
then came the curves that were used so much by Chippendale. The carving
consisted of swags and pendants of fruit and flowers, shells, acanthus
leaves, scrolls, eagle's heads, carved in relief on the surface.

Dutch chairs were usually of walnut and some of the late ones were of
mahogany. Mahogany was not used to any extent before 1720, but at that
time it began to be imported in large quantities, and its lightness and
the ease with which it could be worked made it appropriate for the
lighter style of furniture then coming into vogue.

Chippendale began to make chairs with the curved top that is so
characteristic of his work. The splat back was always used, in spite of
the French, and its treatment is one of the most interesting things in
the history of English furniture. It gave scope for great originality.
Although, as I have said before, foreign influence was strong, the ideas
were adapted and worked out by the great cabinet-makers of the Georgian
period with a vigor and beauty that made a distinct English style, and
often went far, far ahead of the originals.

There were, so far as we know, three Thomas Chippendales: the second was