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Furniture Dictionary
Furniture Periods & Styles / Terms
MEDIEVAL
Romanesque Imported to Britain by
the Normans following the conquest in 1066. Rounded arches - a typical
Romanesque feature - occur on chests as late as the 17th century. The few
examples, still in existence which date from earlier than 1300, are simply
constructed and mostly carved with roundels bearing little relation to
Romanesque architecture.
Gothic About 1300 to 1550. The change from Romanesque was gradual. Paneled
construction from dates from about 1480, the panels were often carved with
linen-fold. The coronation chair at Westminster Abbey has a back with a pointed
arches made in 1296 by Master Walter of Durham, it was the first English piece
firmly attributable to a named maker. The Gothic style was revived in the
mid-late century and again in Regency and Victorian times.
ELIZABETHAN
Renaissance When Elizabeth' came
to the throne in 1558, most furniture was functional and plain. After 1570,
a version of Renaissance style owing more to France and the Netherlands than to
Italy found expression in fat turnings surmounted by Ionic capitals, solid
inlay, carved caryatids, strap work, split baluster turnings.
JACOBEAN
Strictly speaking, the reign of
James I, (1603-25 ) but also used to cover that of Charles I (162549).
Geometric moldings, split balusters, bobbin-turnings; popular until about 1720.
RESTORATION
Sometimes known as Carolean, in
reference to Charles II, restored to the throne in 1660. Also covers the reign
of James II, 1685-9. Dominant style is baroque but more Franco-Dutch than
Italian. Twist legs, carved scrolls, caned seats and veneering. Skilled French
workers sought refuge in Britain when Louis XIV of France ceased to protect
Protestants, 1685.
WILLIAM AND MARY
More foreign craftsmen (Dutch and
French) arrived in Britain following the accession of William of Orange and his
wife Mary, the daughter of James II, in 1689. Fine cabinetmaking, walnut and
ebony veneers and floral. Legs are turned to trumpet shapes or scrolled and
scroll develops into cabriole leg by the end of William's reign in 1702.
QUEEN ANNE
During her reign, 1702-04, the
cabriole leg dominaated; surfaces were veneered with walnut, but marquetry
became less evident. English craftsmen, having acquired foreign skills, adapted
these to their own style.
EARLY GEORGIAN
George I and early years of George
II until about 1730; mainly a continuation of the Queen Anne style, but
rather heavier. Claw-and-ball feet became the fashionable termination of the
cabriole leg. Architect William Kent designed Italianate baroque furniture as a
dramatic contrast to cool Palladian interiors.
MID GEORGIAN
George I, 1730-60 and the first
year's of George III. Mahogany replaced walnut as the fashionable wood. In
1754, Chippendale's designs appear; Ribbon-back chairs, ornate gilt mirrors and
con sole tables expressed the English interpretation of Rococo. Some designs
loosely followed French (Lou is XV) fashions. Gothic style revived.
LATE GEORGIAN
The George III period lasted from
1765 to I 1800, but the term is sometimes extended back to 1730. First came the
neo-classical style led by Adam -- vertical lines, ovals, circles, columns,
urns, disciplined carving, gilding and painting related to the Louis XVI style.
Those of Sheraton 1791-4, providing a domestic, middle-class version of
neo-classicism.
EARLY VICTORIAN
Much furniture made in 1830-50 was
still neoclassical, but heavier than Regency; some affinity with Charles X
(French Restoration). Paralleled with this are the Gothic revival led by Pugin
and the Rococo revival by commercial manufacturers making balloon-back chairs,
asymmetrical chaises lounges on cabriole legs. Increasing use of
machines.
MID-VICTORIAN
The Great Exhibition at Crystal
Palace, 1851, brought Continental exhibitors to London, stimulating an eclectic
taste for revivals of almost all historic styles, and imitated in poorer
quality, mass-produced furniture. Mass dining and bedroom suites; but parlor
pieces more elegant, with some sofas and chairs fringed and deep-buttoned in
Napoleon III style. There were serious attempts at reviving medieval
craftsmanship by reformers, such as Morris. Burgess, Talbert. Godwin who
experimented with Japanese concepts.
LATE VICTORIAN
Heavy Victorian styles persisted
until about 1910, along with reproductions of English, French and Italian
historic types, but the Arts and Crafts Movement, led by Mackintosh, Ashbee,
Baillie Scott and Voysey introduced new ideas in sympathy with some aspects of
European art nouveau, to which are often married commercial products that are
partly an offshoot of the Edwardian revival of Sheraton styles in mahogany with
inlaid decoration.
MODERNIST AND ART DECO
The period between the two world
wars, marked by genuine desire for greater simplicity and honest, economically
made furniture of the type produced by Heal and Russell, but in competition with
mass-produced junk on the one hand and finely made but expensive products on the
other. The term Art Deco - like most stylistic labels - was unknown at the time
the furniture was being made. It derives from the 1925 Arts Deco exhibition in
Paris, and only came to be applied to the style in the 1960s.
SEE HISTORY OF
FURNITURE TIMELINE
 ACANTHUS
Conventionalized leaf of a plant growing in Asia Minor. It is found as the basis
of all foliage ornamentation in Classic Greek and Roman decoration. Romanesque
and Byzantine Acanthus were stiff and spiny. The Renaissance revived its use in
graceful designs for every purpose.Every succeeding style has used the Acanthus
in an exuberant or restrained
manner according to its type.
 APRON
A structural element of furniture. In tables, the piece connecting the legs,
just under the top; in chairs, beneath the seat; in cabinets, etc, along the
base. Sometimes called" skirt".
CABRIOLE
Dominant in the 18th century. Furniture leg shaped in a carved, double curve.
The name springs from the root, Capragoat - though the Spanish
"cabriole", suggests its resemblance to the bent leg of an animal.
CARTOUCHE
An ornate Rococo framing motif with scrolled edges used on Chippendale and
various 19th century revival-style pieces.
CASSONE
In furniture, the Italian name for a marriage coffer. The
ancient and once almost universal European custom of providing a bride with a
chest or coffer to contain the household linen, which often formed the major
part of her dowry, produced in Italy a special type of chest of monumental size
and artistic magnificence.
The cassoni of the people, although always large in
size, were simple as regards ornament; but those of the nobles and the
well-to-do mercantile classes were usually imposing as regards size, and adorned
with extreme richness. The cassone was almost invariably much longer than the
English chest, and even at a relatively early period it assumed an artistic
finish such as was never reached by the chests of northern Europe, except in the
case of a few of the royal corbeilles de manage made by such artists as
Boulle for members of the house of France.
Many of the earlier examples were carved in panels of
geometrical tracery, but their characteristic ornament was either intarsia or
gesso, or a mixture of the two. Bold and massive feet, usually shaped as claws,
lioncels, or other animals are also exceedingly characteristic of cassoni,
most of which are of massive and sarcophagus-like proportions with moulded lids,
while many of them are adorned at their corners with figures sculptured in high
relief.
The scroll-work inlay is commonly simple and graceful,
consisting of floral or geometrical motives, or arabesques. The examples coated
with gilded gesso or blazoned with paintings are, however, the most magnificent.
They were often made of chestnut, and decorated with flowers and foliage in a
relief which, low at first, became after the Renaissance very high and sharp.
The panels of the painted cassoni frequently bore representations of
scriptural and mythological subjects, or incidents derived from the legends of
chivalry. Nor was heraldry forgotten, the arms of the family for which the chest
was made being perhaps emblazoned upon the front.
These chests rarely bear dates or initials, but it is often
possible to determine their history from their armorial bearings.
See "How to be a
Furniture Detective" Glossary
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