Joseph Hemingway

When he was just four years old, Joseph Hemingway was discovered intently examining a carved panel door on a sideboard in his parents' home. A few days later, his mother gave him a copy of "The Director" - the designs of master carver Thomas Chippendale.

From these beginnings, Joseph's interest in carving evolved. In college, he achieved a "First Class City and Guilds" in cabinetmaking and wood cutting machinery. He went on to work for Taylor & Hobson Ltd in Huddersfield, "Mechanics in Wood", where he worked his way through all the departments gaining skill and experience in the arts of cabinetmaking and carving.

After eleven years with Taylor & Hobson, Joseph opened his own business in 1968 as a cabinetmaker, woodcarver and furniture restorer. During the 80s he began to take orders from "The Director", reproducing Chippendale's furniture to the highest order.

After many years of studying Thomas Chippendale's work, there was one particular design that had challenged every master carver, but no-one had been able to execute - not even Thomas Chippendale himself. Joseph Hemingway has created and patented design 23 (shown below).

The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, 1762, is a design book containing over 160 engravings of Chippendales proposed ideas for the English rococo style. 23r is said to hav been a sentimental favorite of the 18th Century British cabinetmaker/designer. Once deemed impossible to build, this beautiful and unique piece has now been painstakingly brought to life by Joseph. Taking 12 months to carve, the first chair was completed in 2000, and now a second, identical one, has been built in 2003.

Below is a photograph of one of the carved details in the chair.

Contact the Carver:
Joseph Hemingway,
Thomas Chippendale Furniture Ltd.,
221 Meltham Road,
Armitage Bridge,
Huddersfield,
West Yorkshire,
HD4 7BD
England.

Phone: 01144-1484-662806

E-Mail

Web site

Thomas Chippendale
The son of a carpenter, he was born in Otley, West Yorkshire, in 1718. He was married whilst living in London and by 1749 he was residing in Conduit Court, a paved passageway on the south side of Long Acre. As family life developed Thomas found himself moving to a larger house in Somerset Court of the Strand, passing his former home in Conuit Court to his mentor and Rococo teacher (and dare I say best friend) Matthias Darley. This must have been so in every meaning of the word, for Thomas commissioned 98 of the total 160 signed copper engraved plates in his new design book to Matthias Darley.

Thomas Chippendale moved to 60-62 St. Martin«s Lane in 1754, where he had workshops and a timberyard. Also in 1754, Chippendale published his masterful collection, "Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director", a compilation of fashionable English furniture design. This work is Chippendale's enduring legacy, and shows his gift in adapting existing design styles to the fashion of the mid 18th century. So pervasive was the influence of the book that the name of Chippendale is often indiscriminately applied to mid-18th century furniture as a whole.