“ MANWARING, ROBERT, English 18th-century furniture designer and cabinet maker. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was a contemporary and imitator of Chippendale, and not the least considerable of his rivals. He prided himself upon work which he described as “genteel,” and his speciality was chairs. He manifests the same surprising variations of quality that are noticed in the work of nearly all the English cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th century, and while his best had an undeniable elegance his worst was exceedingly bad—squat, ill-proportioned and confused. ”