VII
CLASSICISM AND THE REPUBLIC
BUT a change in furniture making was ahead, with the influence of Chippendale interrupted and a reaction against the elaborateness of his design setting in. A new note was being sounded, a new idea infusing itself, which meant a breaking away from the rococo, and a turning to classic lines in furniture, as in architecture. The chief exponent of this revival was Robert Adam, one of three brothers working to that end, from 1750 to 1794, at London.
In southern Europe, Adam had been stirred by the remains of classic architecture, and having been thrown there with a group engaged in excavation and study of the ruins below Vesuvius, and particularly inspired by what he saw of the remains of Pompeii, he came back to England to set in motion waves of influence in architecture and furniture felt distinctly in the United States. He was an architect—in fact, architect to the king, after his return to London. He made no furniture, but in planning his houses, he designed furniture entirely in keeping with them, in plan and detail.
His general schemes followed architectural lines and form. He was consistent in the use of scale, and absolutely sensitive to size relation of all elements involved. He made much change in detail, and used many decorations, much of which was done by the best artists of the day. The Adam brothers collaborated with Angelica Kaufman, Pergolessi, Zucchi, and others, and their designs were full of elegance, made up of classical motifs. The three brothers published thirty volumes of designs for architects, and although the Revolutionary War interrupted their influence, it was extended later when Hepplewhite came into vogue.
Hepplewhite's ideas of furniture building came to America following the Revolution, as the country, too, responded at length to the Adam idea. The period of his activity corresponded largely, in time, to that of the administration of George Washington as President of the United States, when the country was again making some advance, and the ideas of luxurious living once more were uppermost. The Hepplewhite name designates a furniture rapidly coming into favor as the new republic got upon its feet.
The Cabinet Makers' London Book of Prices, by Shearer and Hepplewhite, was published in 1788, in England, by Thomas Shearer, a man whose work in furniture is almost unknown in America, but Hepplewhite's name designates a style in furniture popular here. The Cabinet Makers' and Upholsterer's Guide and Repository of Designs for Every Article of Household Furniture, in three editions, appearing successively in 1788-'89-'90, brought out by his wife after his death, served of course, to make him better known. His earliest pieces and his books gained him a wide circle of followers.
The years of influence credited to him
