About This Stamp
The Chippendale Chair definitive stamp features artist Lou Nolan's stylized treatment of a Chippendale chair. It is the fourth stamp issued in the American Design series that began in 2002.
The stamp art depicts a Chippendale chair with an elaborately carved back and cabriole, or curved, legs. The artist based his design on a Chippendale side chair, or chair without arms, made in Philadelphia between 1760 and 1765. The chair is part of the collection of decorative arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. The colors Nolan used for the wood and seat cover give the stamp design a contemporary feel.
Nolan’s previous projects for the Postal Service include five stamps in the Transportation series (School Bus, Dog Sled, Milk Wagon, Popcorn Wagon, and Elevator), the Certified Public Accountants stamp (1987), the Bill of Rights stamp (1989), and the first three stamps in the American Design series: American Toleware (2002), American Clock (2003), and Tiffany Lamp (2003).
Art Director
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Lou Nolan
Longtime stamp artist Lou Nolan studied fine art at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, his hometown, and graduated from New York's Parsons School of Design in 1952. After working as a book designer and illustrator in New York, he returned to Washington to begin a freelance career. Following a ten-year partnership at a graphic design firm, Nolan returned to freelancing. By the time he retired in 1995, he had created designs for NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and many federal agencies. His work was honored by the Art Directors Club of New York and Print magazine. He won gold and silver medals from the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington.
Nolan designed many stamp products for the U.S. Postal Service® and more than a dozen stamps, including the first five in the American Design series that began in 2002. Some of these stamps have been reprinted in recent years including the Chippendale Chair (2007, 2014), the American Clock (2008), and the Tiffany Lamp (2007, 2009).
Mr. Nolan died on October 24, 2008.