Hepplewhite, George (redirected from Hepplewhite)

Hepplewhite, George (hĕp`əlhwīt), d. 1786, English cabinetmaker and furniture designer. His style is characterized by light, curvilinear forms, painted or inlaid decoration, and distinctive details such as slender tapering legs (plain, fluted, or reeded) and the spade foot. Decorative motifs include designs introduced by Robert Adam and his brother James, ribbons, rosettes, prince of Wales feathers, ears of wheat, and the lyre. He is noted for distinctive chair backs in shield, oval, interlaced hearts, ladder, and wheel forms and for the use of much satinwood and painted beechwood as well as mahogany. His small pieces, e.g., inlaid work tables, fire screens, knife boxes, and tea caddies, are especially prized by collectors. Hepplewhite's firm was continued by his widow, who published in 1788 his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (repr. 1969).

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Hepplewhite, George

(died 1786, London, Eng.) British cabinetmaker. He was apprenticed to a furniture maker in Lancaster and later opened a shop in London. His reputation is based on his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (1788), containing some 300 designs. Pieces based on his designs are rare and none can be definitely attributed to his firm, nor can his personal responsibility for the designs be established; the plates in the book are unsigned. The designs have the simplicity, elegance, and utility associated with the graceful Neoclassical style (e.g., chairs with straight, tapered legs and oval backs). His designs were borrowed by Thomas Sheraton and Duncan Phyfe.