Jobe on Thomas Chippendale, 29 Mar.

On Thursday, 29 March, the Nichols House Museum in Boston will sponsor a lecture on “Chippendale: The Man and the Myth” by Brock Jobe.

The museum says:

This year marks the 300th anniversary of Britain’s most celebrated furniture maker, Thomas Chippendale. His designs reached both sides of the Atlantic through a groundbreaking pattern book, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director of 1754. During his lifetime he oversaw one of the largest cabinetmaking and upholstery firms in London, and eventually his name defined an entire style of eighteenth-century furniture.

Jobe recounts the remarkable story of Chippendale’s career and takes us inside some of his greatest works. Along the way, we will confront the truth as well as the fiction associated with this fascinating character.

In 2000 Brock Jobe was appointed professor of American decorative arts in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture after a 28-year career as a museum curator and administrator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Colonial Williamsburg; the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England); and Winterthur. He co-directed the “Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture” project.

Although this is a Nichols House Museum event, it will take place at the New England Historic Genealogical Society at 99-101 Newbury Street in Boston. The talk will begin at 6:00 P.M. and be followed by a light reception. Admission is $20, or $15 for museum members. Space is limited. Tickets can be purchased through the museum website.