George Hepplewhite (d.1786)

Renowned and influential English cabinetmaker and furniture designer.

Very little is known about Hepplewhite himself and, though he worked as a cabinetmaker in London, no pieces of furniture made by Hepplewhite or his firm are known to exist. His fame is due to the posthumous publication by his widow of his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide in 1788. Reproductions of his designs continued through the following centuries.

Hepplewhite gave his name to a distinctive style of light, elegant furniture characterised by the free use of inlaid ornament and the use of heart or shield shapes in chair backs.