A letter sent on behalf of Thomas Chippendale that fills in a gap in the known sequence of correspondence between the master cabinet maker and one of his most important clients, Sir Rowland Winn, of Nostell Priory.
Bifolium on ‘L V Gerrevink’ watermarked paper. Conjugate address leaf ‘To Sir Rowland Winn Bar[one]t at Nostell near Pontefract Yorkshire’; stamped ‘23 Dec[cembe]r’. Seal present. The letter written by Chippendale’s London business partner, Henry Ferguson addresses Winn in a form recognisable to every business owner as the pre-Christmas reminder: ‘Sir, Another Bill given by you to Thomas Chippendale for £200, being in my hands, I take the liberty of acquainting you that it falls due on the 4th January next’ - Winn’s normal method of payment was to forward promissory notes to Chippendale which could be presented to a bank. Ferguson continued in tetchy vein: ‘in order that you may give timely directions for its being paid on the Day it becomes due - you will be kind enough to acquaint me whether I shall apply for payment... at your Bankers in Pall Mall’. He signs himself ‘H F Ferguson’ with the name of ‘Jn Fergusson’ below and an address in Newgate Street, London. Just below the date at the head of the letter Winn notes ‘answered this Jan.ry 2d, 1773’. This document follows on immediately from the last item in this run of correspondence between Chippendale and Winn held at Nostell Priory by the National Trust. This is a copy of a different promissory note from Winn for £150 which he sent on 9 November, 1772. After that there is a six year gap before any other documents survive recording this relationship.
Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) is regarded as one of the greatest of all furniture makers who exerted a global influence through the publication of his pattern books. Born in Otley in Yorkshire he moved to London in his 20s but much of his finest furniture was made for a small number of stately homes in Yorkshire, among them the residence of Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet, from whom he enjoyed ‘a friend’s protection’ out of his home at Nostell Priory, close to present-day Wakefield. Chippendale’s relationship with Winn between 1766 and 1781 has been much studied and his surviving correspondence and accounts published in the Burlington Magazine in 1969. This letter from Henry Ferguson who bought into the firm in 1771 confirms what has always been known, that Winn was bad at paying his bills which amounted to £2200 over the 15 years period from 1766-1771. This letter is a pleasing addition to the known corpus of documents which records this most important of furniture making relationships
