a. [f. name of a celebrated cabinet-maker and furniture designer of the 18th c.: see first quot.] Applied to a particular style of light and elegant drawing-room furniture; also to a style of book-plates. Hence Chippendalism.
[1754. T. Chippendale (title), Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director.]
1876. Mrs. Oliphant, Odd Couple, 167 (Hoppe). The chair upon which Mrs. T. sat was an elegant chippendale.
1880. Warren, Book-plates, iv. 28. The Chippendale style, which is the leading artistic fashion on English ex-libris after 1750. Ibid., xiv. 162. By 1780, Chippendalism had become on book-plates practically a thing of the past.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. i. 14. Spindle-legged Chippendale tables.
