n of
his famous ribbon-backed chair came directly from some of the more
artistic performances in rococo.

The primary characteristic of his work is solidity, but it is a solidity
which rarely becomes heaviness. Even in his most lightsome efforts, such
as the ribbon-backed chair, construction is always the first
consideration. It is here perhaps that he differs most materially from
his great successor Sheraton, whose ideas of construction were eccentric
in the extreme. It is indeed in the chair that Chippendale is seen at
his best and most characteristic. From his hand, or his pencil, we have
a great variety of chairs, which, although differing extensively in
detail, may be roughly arranged in three or four groups, which it would
sometimes be rash to attempt to date. He introduced the cabriole leg,
which, despite its antiquity, came immediately from Holland; the claw
and ball foot of ancient Oriental use; the straight, square,
uncompromising early Georgian leg; the carved lattice-work Chinese leg;
the pseudo-Chinese leg; the fretwork leg, which was supposed to be in
the best Gothic taste; the inelegant rococo leg with the curled or
hoofed foot; and even occasionally the spade foot, which is supposed to
be characteristic of the somewhat later style of Hepplewhite. His
chair-backs were very various. His efforts in Gothic were sometimes
highly successful; often they took the form of the tracery of a church
window, or even of an ovalled rose window. His Chinese backs were
distinctly geometrical, and from them he would seem to have derived some
of the inspiration for the frets of the glazed book-cases and cabinets
which were among his most agreeable work. The most attractive feature of
Chippendale's most artistic chairs--those which, originally derived from
Louis Quinze models, were deprived of their rococo extravagances--is the
back, which, speaking generally, is the most elegant and pleasing thing
that has ever been done in furniture. He took the old solid or slightly
pierced back, and cut it up into a light openwork design exquisitely
carved--for Chippendale was a carver before everything--in a vast
variety of designs ranging from the elaborate and extremely elegant, if
much criticized, ribbon back, to a comparatively plain but highly
effective splat. His armchairs, however, often had solid or stuffed
backs. Next to his chairs Chippendale was most successful with settees,
which almost invariably took the shape of two or th