Charleston - 2018 Fall - Chippendale: The Man and the Myth

Chippendale

The Man and the Myth

In Britain and America, no furniture maker is more famous than Thomas Chippendale. His designs reached both sides of the Atlantic through a groundbreaking pattern book, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director of 1754. During his lifetime he oversaw one of the largest furniture-making firms in London, and eventually his name defined an entire style of 18th-century furniture. Join Brock Jobe, Winterthur’s Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts, as he recounts the remarkable story of Chippendale’s career and takes us on an armchair tour of grand country houses in England and Scotland that feature the master craftsman’s greatest creations. Along the way, we will confront the truth as well as the fiction associated with this most fascinating fellow, Thomas Chippendale.

This lecture is generously supported by Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Ervin.

Thank you to our co-sponsors: American Friends of Attingham and FREEMAN’S.

Close-up detail of the Chippendale medal cabinet dated 1767-8, Nostell Priory ©National Trust Images Andreas von Einsiedel

Close-up detail of the Chippendale medal cabinet dated 1767-8 in the Library at Nostell Priory. This was the first room to be remodelled by Robert Adam in the eighteenth century.

Brock Jobe

Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum

In 2000 Brock Jobe was appointed professor of American decorative arts in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture after a 28-year career as a museum curator and administrator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colonial Williamsburg, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England), and Winterthur. Between 2010 and 2014, Brock co-directed the collaborative project, Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture, which united eleven institutions in a celebration of Bay State furniture-making. He has authored or edited seven books and written dozens of articles. His newest publication, Crafting Excellence: The Furniture of Nathan Lumbard and His Circle, which he co-authored with Christie Jackson and Clark Pearce, appeared in January 2018. Brock is a recipient of the President’s Award from Old Sturbridge Village, the Award of Merit from the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, the Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts, and the President’s Award from Historic Deerfield. He retired from his professorship in June 2015, but retains an office at Winterthur and continues to study, write, and lecture about American furniture.