Examples and Conspiracy Theories

 

 

The common consensus is that there are no known examples of furniture that were definitively produced by the firm of George Hepplewhite. After leaving the apprentice of Robert Gillow of Lancaster, Lownde's London Directory of 1786 records his shop on Redcross Street, Cripplegate.The influence of the style of George Hepplewhite on English and American furniture beginning in the late eighteenth century cannot be disputed but finding and determining that a particular piece was made by him or his firm has become the search for the holy grail.

The company offering the sideboard pictured above, M.S.Rau Antiques of New Orleans claims that it was "almost certainly crafted by Heplewhite".The evidence of proof can possibly be the almost exact similarity of the urn in the center of the Rau piece and the urn in the center of the sideboard design plate #32 from the Guide. As of yet I have been unable to locate a Heplewhite lithograph that more closely resembles the sideboard in the above photo. Although there are examples of pieces copied from these designs verbatim it in no way determines or implies that they were made by Hepplewhite's firm.

Hepplewhite never put his signature on any of the plates in "The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Guide" or its subsequent revisions, but he did sign ten plates found in Shearer's  "London Book of Prices", 1788. One conspiracy theory is that the designs in the Guide were actually by Alice Hepplewhite and question the existence of George Hepplewhite . Records show a "George Hepplewhite" was born in 1727 in  Ryton Parish, County Durham, England. 
  
Another and somewhat more plausible conspiracy theory is that many of the designs (especially the chairs) in the Guide were copied from designs by James Wyatt (1746- 1814) architect to George III. Wyatt supplied chair designs to the leading cabinet-making firm of Gillows of Lancaster where Hepplewhite apprenticed.  A set of chairs supplied by Wyatt to Appuldurcombe House are very similar to Plate # 5 of the Guide.

The going rate for first and second editions of the Guide are $14,500 and $7,500 respectively and both are extremely rare.

http://www.manhattanrarebooks.com/pages/books/509/george-hepplewhite-alice-hepplewhite/the-cabinet-maker-and-upholsterer-rsquo-s-guide/?soldItem=true

http://www.heritagebookshop.com/details.php?id=64830

Please visit my websites:
neo-classics.com
neo-classics.blogspot.com