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"French Furniture Styles"
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Styles of Furniture Making
Gothic: Medieval church architecture
influences this style-characterized by pointed arches, counterbalancing
buttresses, open tracery and
vertical grandiose emphasis.
Elizabethan: Elizabeth
I Reign 1558-1603 England's Renaissance interpretation.
Renaissance:
Derived from Italian Renaissance style-mainly oak functional furniture
with scroll & arabesque carving, etc. with horizontal
emphasis. A "pendulumatic" reaction to Gothic style.
Pilgrim:
Spartan utilitarian American furniture reflecting 17th C. English country
styles
Jacobean:
Roughly spanning James I (1602-25) & Charles I (1625-49) reigns.
Restrained ornament, Moorish influence.
Louis XIII: King
reigned (1589-1643), Baroque style including cherubs, cartouches, gilding,
and spiral turning.
Cromwellian: Also
known as Carolean era. Probably alluding to Irish influence in the era
roughly surrounding Charles I.
Louis XVI:
The Sun King's reign (1643-1715) noted for splendor of courts in
Versailles and Paris. Marquetry inlaid furniture distinguished by
opulence and grandiose size.
Baroque:
Flamboyant, heavy, decorative rectilinear style derived from 17th C.
Italian architecture.
Commonwealth: Unadorned
style that flourished under protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (1649-60) in a
revolt against aristocracy.
Restoration:
Restoration of kingly Charles II 1660 to the abdication of James II 1688,
walnut replaces oak, C and S scroll supports introduced.
Not as restrained as the Common man style preceding.
The Restauration period in antique French furniture was
characterized by simple harmonious lines, gentle rounded forms and fine
ornamentation. Light woods such as ash, elm and bird’s eye maple were
used along with dark woods such is as mahogany and palissandre. The
craftsmen employed veneers and inlay and the use of light wood inlay
against dark wood grounds or dark wood inlays set into blond grounds, the
latter of which was especially popular during the reign of Charles X.
Typical decorative motifs included the swan, cornucopia, lyre, rosettes
and gadrooning.
Early Colonial:
With some wealth attained, carved oak Hadley chests and turned Great
Chairs start making their way into American homes.
Rococo: An
exuberant curvaceous style characterized by asymmetrical lines and shell,
floral and foliate motifs.
William & Mary:
Roughly influenced by William III reign 1689-1702, heightened English
style and cabinetry introducing: domed cresting, the
American highboy, lacquer work, ball & bun Spanish feet; strong Dutch
influence.
Queen Anne:
Reign (1702-1714) Along with Chippendale, the finest hour of English and
American cabinetry. Feminine petite lines, beautiful
proportioning and balance, restrained use of ornament. The cabriole leg
and cyma curve are prevalent.
Regence: Transitional
melding of baroque into rococo. Romantic elements supplant heroic.
Louis XV:
Continuance of the rejection of weighty forms. Rococo exuberance replaces
angularity in flowing curves and elaborate scrollwork.
Gilded cabriole leg fauteuils are introduced.
The French Rococo Louis XV style of furniture incorporates curving lines,
cabriole legs (with scroll feet) and carved details of period furniture
common in the 18th century ,Carving on armoires, tables and chairs depicted delicate foliate patterns
inspired by nature. The French style is much more formal than the English
and many pieces were accented with decorative marquetry inlay, brass
ormolu plaques, and gold details.
Paris asserted its dominance over the rest of France as a center of
excellence in the design and manufacture of luxury goods as early at the
17th century. France’s other major cities copied as closely as they
could the lead being set by Paris, but the craftsmen of the countryside,
perhaps more influenced by factors of cost and practicality, created their
own look using local materials. In antique country furniture, French Line
Antiques carries armoires, benches, chests, farm tables, and tall case
clocks of the late 18th-early 19th centuries from regions as diverse as
Brittany, Lorraine, Bordeaux and Provence.
Chippendale: Masculinity
supplants femininity in furniture. Cabinetmakers like Thomas Chippendale
take lead over monarchs in design. Queen
Anne form puts on a bowtie and goes rococo, mahogany rules. Oriental
influence comes to shore.
Neo Classic: Inspired
by continuing excavations and discoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum
(begun 1738) classic Greek and Roman
decorative motifs like dolphins, guilloches, lyres and urns emerge
everywhere. Straight lines and swags supplant rococo curves.
Hepplewhite:
Neo Classicism influences English and American design. Tapered rectilinear
legs supplant the cabriole leg. George Hepplewhite's,"Cabinet Makers and Upholsterer's Guide" is published in 1788.
Louis XVI: Beginning
before 1774, 18th Century French Art climaxes under King Louis XVI, Marie
Antoinette and exuberant neoclassic style.
Sheraton:
Thomas Sheraton's "Cabinet Maker's & Upholsterer's Drawing
Book" is published 1791. Turned Corinthian column legs supplant
tapered legs. Square shapes round out.
Directoire: Transitional
phase from Rococo to Neo Classic. Soft painted surfaces supplant
ostentatious gilt. Rectilinear columnar design
replaces curves and cabriole legs.
American Federal Period:
The new, emancipated country's beautiful interpretation of graceful lines
and form over excessive ornament. Eagles
emerge in great numbers.
Empire:
Beautiful at first, then severe in treatment-especially in America-of
Classical forms. Surrounded by wreaths, Napoleonic ormolu
bronze mounts highlight mahogany.
The Empire period in antique French furniture embraced what was
monumental in ancient art. Dominated by Greco-Roman models, this style was
spare, rectilinear and symmetrical. Mahogany was the wood of choice often
with decorative bronze mounts and gray, black or white marble tops.
Decorative elements characteristic of Empire included the human form,
swans, winged chimeras, and sphinxes; Egyptian and Greco-Roman motifs;
geometric forms, and those associated with Napoleon himself, the eagle,
the bee and the initials I and N.
During the Napoleonic campaigns of the 19th century, Neo-classical
furniture took on an Egyptian inspiration with classical details appearing
in the form of the lyre, paw foot and acanthus motif.
In England the style is known as Regency, the Empire in France, and
Biedermeier in Germany. The Biedermeier style was a slight variation on
the late neo-classic style more restrained and less ornate than the
English or French counterparts. Carving as well as intricate wood inlay
patterns were used for decoration.
Woods were primarily rosewood and mahogany with gilt accents and
brass ormolu details
Louis Philippe:The
Louis-Philippe period in antique French furniture was derived from
the simple, rounded lines of the Restauration, but with very little
ornamentation. Darker woods were once again preferred, including mahogany,
palissandre, and walnut. Table and commode surfaces are frequently
marble-topped; marbles were most often black, white or gray, sometimes
with sculpted borders.
Regency:
Several styles emerge in Britain based on a blending of traditional
English lines with Gothic and Neo Classic influences.
Biedermeier:
The great German reaction against English and French rococo style.
Generally rectilinear or slightly draping lines. Beautiful
woods, generally with little or no ornament. Comfort and common sense
supplants ostentation.
Victorian:
The machine age takes hold. Ornament and busyness supplant the weightiness
of Empire in its last days. More is better.
Arts & Crafts:
Rebellion against the Victorian Industrialism. Objects that appear to be
made by hand are in again. In America, Gustav Stickley
spearheads the Mission Oak furniture movement featuring mortise &
tendon joining and rectilinear lines.
Jugendstil:
Germany's brilliant Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movement. Strongly
influenced the path toward modern art developments.
Art Nouveau:
Probably born in a Parisian art shop (Samuel Bing c. 1895) the new "Moderne"
kind of art and design influenced by nature,
Japanese style and flowing feminine lines. A continued reaction against
the Victorian era of the "machine."
French Art Nouveau furniture was produced for only a relatively short
time, from 1890 until about 1920.The style is characterized by flowing,
curved lines, asymmetry and natural subjects, especially flowers
and plants. It was always expensive to manufacture, as its originality
required an artist's vision from the designer and the highest skills from
the executing cabinetmaker. Furthermore, its very sensuousness resulted in
its falling into discredit as decadent when World War I reintroduced
cultural regimentation. The most common forms of Art Nouveau furniture
were dining and bedroom pieces; the single form displaying the widest
range of the style’s application was the chair.
Art Moderne:
Art Nouveau gives way to technology. NYC's Chrysler building is a standing
testament.
Art Deco:
Who needs humanistic/naturalistic lines and earthy tones? Chrome and
plastic supplant wood. Bon Voyage, Art Nouveau. The
rocket age is born and furniture, art and design are going for the
ride!
The French Art Deco furniture (1920-1925) is France’s first expression
of originality in furniture design and decoration in the twentieth
century. While it is characterized by a return to the straight line, its
designers also experimented with new or exotic finishes and materials
including metals, mother-of-pearl, ivory, wrought iron, unusual wood
veneers, lacquers and plastics and by stylizations inspired by nature or
the use of geometric forms in the decorative elements. The sources of
influence from the past include themes and motifs from ancient Egypt, the
Empire and Louis XVI periods. Proportions changed dramatically -
principally through minor elongation and substantial height reduction - to
accommodate, among other things, the lower ceiling heights in modern
buildings