The “Director” catalog had “multiple functions,” according to Femke Speelberg, co-curator of the exhibition, “Chippendale’s ‘Director’: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker,” which is on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through Jan. 27, 2019. The exhibition features a selection of the more than 200 original Chippendale drawings owned by the museum. “It was advertising for the Chippendale firm,” Ms. Speelberg said about the catalog. “It directed the tastes of the gentleman classes. And it was a source of inspiration for design more broadly.”

Image The title page of the 1754 first edition of Thomas Chippendale’s “The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.” Credit... The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Helped by this marketing masterstroke, Chippendale became 18th-century England’s most celebrated and sought-after furniture maker. But how is his fame faring?

The Victoria and Albert Museum, Britain’s premier collection devoted to decorative arts, has not marked the tercentenary of Chippendale’s birth with an exhibition. Instead, it has been left to the Chippendale Society in Yorkshire, the part of northern England where the furniture maker was born, to coordinate a calendar of “Chippendale 300” events at regional museums and country houses. “The name doesn’t mean that much to people anymore,” said Adam Bowett, chairman of the society. “We wanted to extend awareness and appreciation of his work.”

Part of the problem is that though Chippendale was — according to Ms. Speelberg of the Met — “the first cabinet maker to have a comprehensive style named after him,” many find it difficult to identify that style nowadays. The popularity of the “Director” encouraged a host of imitators. And because 18th-century English makers, unlike their French counterparts, did not necessarily sign furniture, it can be difficult to verify original pieces from the Chippendale workshop. Mr. Bowett said that so far more than 800 pieces had been securely attributed.

And then there is the “brown furniture” problem. Generally speaking, English 18th-century furniture has fallen out of collecting fashion, giving way to a more minimal, contemporary look.