Chippendale vs Shaker Design
チッペンデール / シェーカー・デザイン
Both sit in Furniture and Interiors, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with different intent, which is the fastest way to tell them apart.
Chippendale
English furniture of the 1750s and 1760s, made to the designs of the cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale, whose name then became the name of the style. Getty also records it as the Director Style. The framework stays largely Rococo, and what identifies a piece is openwork and ornamental carving gathered into the chair back and the legs.
Shaker Design
Plainness practiced as an article of faith by the Shaker communities of the United States. With ornament refused, their furniture and rooms were arrived at through use and honest workmanship alone, anticipating functionalism and Scandinavian design.
| Chippendale | Shaker Design | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1750s–1760s | 1780s–1900s |
| Family | Furniture and Interiors | Furniture and Interiors |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Chair backs pierced with openwork rather than left as solid splats, so the wall shows through / Carved ornament gathered along edges and legs, leaving few flat surfaces / Rococo curves carried through the legs and top rail instead of square corners / Ornament cut out of the thickness of the wood, not applied to its face | Ornament fully renounced / Peg-rail walls / Light, precise furniture / Perfection as labor |
| Best used for | Deciding how a chair back should be pierced when recreating an English drawing room or study · Explaining to a maker how a heavily carved commission should differ from plain Rococo | Clearing a small home by planning walls and storage as one · Making undecorated wooden furniture meant as a model of long use |
| Type | Furniture carries no lettering. On drawings or labels, set a fine roman close to eighteenth century English engraving, kept small. | Pare members thin and let chamfers and proportion carry the expression |
| Composition | Hold the front elevation symmetrical and let the pierced back take the eye. Run the curve of the legs and the top rail as one continuous line. | Run a peg rail high around the walls and keep floors clear |
| Material | Cut the openwork and carving from solid wood rather than applying ornament to the face. Finish so the grain still reads. | Solid timber, thin finish, minimal hardware, the same precision behind |
| Caution | Spreading the carving evenly across every surface breaks the balance the style needs, where ornament concentrates in one place and the rest stays plain. | Copying the plain shapes while lowering the standard of joinery and finish yields cheap furniture without the belief behind it, reading as poor rather than modest. |