History of Furnitures styles

Colonial Period: 1620-1720

•Framed Timber w/high-pitched gable
roofs
•Later, symmetrical 2-story Saltbox homes
w/windows
•door trim and lean-to additions
•Chimney’s protrude from center of
structure

Early Colonial Home

Late Colonial Home

Later Colonial Homes influenced by
English Tudor Architecture

• Glass Windows: small pieces of glass held together with

mullions or lead.
• Carved decorative architectural details
 Colonial Furniture
•Copied after
furniture popular
during reign of King
James of England

•Local woods such as pine, poplar, cherry,

maple, oak.
•Handles and ornamentation made of
wood; no metals being imported from
England early on.
Ornamentation of furniture included:
•Chip carving
primitive painting
bulbous turnings
moldings of split spindles
and egg-shaped bosses.
 Colonial Chairs

• Dual-function
hutch table used as
a table or chair.

Settle Chair
Provided protection from
drafts; placed by fireside
Colonial Seating

Ladder Back Chair

with woven tape seat
 Colonial Wainscot Armchair

• 1668 English “Great Chair” •17th c. Colonial Oak Arm Chair

• Floral carved back
• scrolled crest
• inverted balusters for arms
and legs.
•Influenced by English Wainscot
•Less carving/ornate
•More primitive and rustic
 Colonial Chairs

Windsor Chair
&
Ladder Back with woven tape seats
Georgian Period: 1720 to 1790
Mount Vernon Portico
Georgian Architecture: Mount Vernon

• Cupola
• Palladian Window:
– Named after Italian designer, Andre Palladio
– One large arched window and two sidelight windows
– Pediment and pilaster woodwork detail
Early Georgian: Brewster Chair

• Not as massive & masculine

• More graceful than Jacobean
style furniture
• Walnut wood
• Rush Seat
• ‘Sausage’ Turned legs,
stretchers, rails and back
slats
American Georgian:
William & Mary Chair

Leather seats
•Nail head trim
•Block and Ball
carved legs
•Spanish
Grooved Foot
 Georgian: William & Mary
• Not as massive &
masculine; walnut.
• Named after King William
and Queen Mary of
England
• Dutch influence because
King Wm. was from
Holland.
• Graceful with curved
stretchers; aprons with
bead and ring turnings
with blocks.
• Some legs had ‘inverted
cup’ detail.
Georgian Chairs: Queen Anne

• Cabriole Leg
• Smooth Knee
• Pad foot
• Curved Shoulders
• Vase shaped Splat
 Thomas Chippendale
• English Furniture Maker who published his
designs
• Known for his
distinctive chairs:
– Carved, pierced
Splat
– Pointed shoulders
– Ball and claw foot
or Marlboro Leg
Also for:
– Camelback sofa
– High Boys
– Secretaries
Georgian: Chippendale

Corner Chair

•Asian motif
•elaborately carved
Marlboro Leg, carved splat back splat
• American lifestyle in it’s 2nd century evolving from primitive
survival to comfortable existence.
• Travel increased between Europe and American with lots of
imports
• Immigrant craftsmen from England produced affordable copies of
English furniture.
• Designed by English Furniture Charles Chippendale
 Georgian: Wing Chairs

Queen Anne Chippendale

•Cabriole Leg
• Cabriole Leg •Carved Knee
• Smooth Knee •Ball and Claw Foot
• Pad Foot
Georgian Living Room
Federal Period: 1790-1830
•Symmetrically balanced
•Wings added to either side of
house
•Famous architects of that
period:
•Thomas Jefferson
•Samuel MacIntyre
•Greek Revival details
•Neoclassic columns
•Pedimented porticos
•Eliptical and half-round
windows
•Flat roofs with
balustrades
•Roman domes
 Federal
Chair Styles

• Post Revolutionary War

• Spirit of optimistic patriotism
• Common motifs:
– Stars, Stripes, eagles
• Shift in preference to French styles
• Federal furniture was simplified in detail
from European furniture, but not in
quality
• Lighter and more delicate than Georgian
designs
• Carving replaced with thin veneer inlays
called ‘marketry’ for ornamentation
• Hepplewhite & Sheraton were best know
furniture makers of this style
 Hepplewhite Furniture
• Shield Back Chairs
• Thin, square, tapered leg
Sheraton Furniture
Mount Vernon Dining Room

• Square spindle back chairs

• Round, tapered reeded leg
American Empire: 1820-1850
• Known as “Regency” in England and
“French Empire” in France
• Napoleon’s conquer of Greco/Roman
empires led to the name “Empire” style
• He furnished all of his homes with
Greco/Roman styles
• Duncan Phyfe, our most Famous American
Furnitue Maker producing American
Empire style
• Formal style
• Dark, polished woods
• Splayed Legs
• Harp back chairs
• Curved/rounded backs on chairs
• Pedastal bases on tables
• Animal motifs
• Gold detailing
 American Empire
Rounded Regency Style Arms with splayed legs
American Empire Style

• Swan Chair
American Empire Style