Chippendale Dining Room FurnitureChippendale dining room furniture takes its name from Thomas Chippendale, a 18th century cabinetmaker, whose furnishings and designs reflected the English wealthy class of the mid-18th century. Thomas Chippendale published a detailed collection of his fashionable English furniture designs in a picture book called Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director. This book is known as the foremost guide to Chippendale furniture today. So popular was this first furniture design book, that both makers and sellers of furniture rushed out to get it making this style a household name and the most well known.
His influence was so pervasive that it has become synonymous with a distinguishable style that when we think of Chippendale furniture today we are really referring to well-constructed furniture of the middle to late-18th century influence.
Chippendale furniture was generally made of mahogany, but sometimes cherry was used in the Chippendale period in America.
Though cabinetmakers back then occasionally used veneers, it was not a typical practice. Instead they preferred using solid wood to accommodate the elaborate carvings that are typical of this style. The reproductions that are made today will often be hand carved but lacking the depth and detail of genuine 18th century furniture. Because this style has been extensively reproduced there are many variations of this furniture theme with the most distinguishable characteristic being the design on the legs.
The signature form of the Chippendale style is the cabriole leg which is an elegant, serpentine shaped leg usually ending in a distinctive foot such as the:
The other revealing styles of legs typically known with this style are straight and are referred to as: 
The back support or splat of the arm and side chairs can either be intricately carved to follow suit with the detailed carvings of the legs or less ornate, and the seats for the most part would be upholstered with a straight or kidney shape front.
Genuine Chippendale dining room furniture was made entirely by hand will be priced in the thousands of dollars. It is often hard for collectors to locate originals because they were never marked by their creator Thomas Chippendale.
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