English furniture styles developed in ways broadly in line with those of mainland Europe, but were interpreted in a distinctive fashion. There were also many regional variations within the British Isles. In England itself, regional accents are marked by the differences between, say, North Country chairs and those of the West Country; Salisbury and Norwich were noted centers of production at an early date.

Wales retained the dresser and the press cupboard as status symbols long after they had ceased to be fashionable in England, and further distinctions are to be drawn between those of North and South Wales.
In late-18thC Scotland, Edinburgh was producing sophisticated furniture, some of it with distinctive differences from that of London.

In the mid-18th century, Irish furniture was so extravagant in its use of richly carved mahogany - especially for side tables on cabriole legs - that a whole class is described as 'Irish Chippendale'.

If you are an American you will find it useful to understand the broad relationships between British and mainland European styles, and of course vice-versa.

MEDIEVAL (approx. 1066-1300)

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 17 thC, But the few examples still in existence which I date from earlier than 1300 are simply constructed and mostly carved with roundels bearing little relation to Romanesque architecture.

GOTHIC (approx. 1300-1550)

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.

When Elizabeth I 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, strapwork, split baluster turnings.

The Jacobean era is named afer King James I. The Jacobean, or Jacobethan, era was another phase of English Renaissance architecture, theatre, and decoration and formed a continuation, begun in the Elizabethan age, of the the Renaissance's penetration into England. The early Jacobean furniture period, which inspired much of the early American furniture of the pilgrims (in America Jacobean style furniture is often called Pilgrim furniture), was similar to Elizabethan furniture in that it was still largely made of oak, and of a solid, sturdy construction. Early Jacobean furniture was somewhat inward looking, not fully embracing exotic influences, and its ornamentation became less prominent and applied in a less willy-nilly, more ordered, fashion than previously, as can be seen in pictures of early carved furniture. A highlight of the period were Jacobean chairs, in particular the Farthingale and also the development of its mule chests and long tables.

Charles I was more cultured than his father and took much care and interest in the furnishings of his palaces and mansions and especially in the collection of great art and paintings. In Charles' reign we see more attention paid to domestic comfort with much more use of padded upholstery, carpets instead of rush mats, and finer embroidery. This was the time of the great architect Inigo Jones, the introducer to England of Palladian architecture. Gate leg tables are a development of the time. Some veneering and inlay were used, many pieces were painted and tapestries, crewelwork, wool, linen, silk, and velvet were used as upholstering materials. Relief carvings of geometric or floral motifs, and accentuated mouldings used to divide areas into geometric shapes were also features of Carolean design.

Cromwellian or Puritan furniture stands somewhat apart in the overall history of english furniture representing a holding action against the general trend towards the subsuming of gothic styles in England into the wider rebirth of ancient and classical forms of decoration. Puritan furniture had a sharp, angular, severe aspect, it frowned upon decoration, luxury, and ornament and made its appeal in a simple, practical styling. Wood carving and upholstery were little used. A caveat to this, and an oddity of the times, was that turning of legs in chairs was still allowed and carried out as can be seen in Cromwellian chairs. There was a great revival of turned work in general, and bobbin and spiral turning brought a new grace to the legs and stretchers of chairs and tables.

After Charles II was restored to the throne and the subsequent reign of James II (1685-9) the Restoration period brought the English furniture tradition back into line with European design movements and re-established the connection between furniture and architecture in an emphatic, often extreme manner, after the years of Puritan austerity in the 1600's and represents the beginning of the English baroque furniture tradition. 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 from 1685. Restoration furniture was decorative and colourful and epitomising this was the use of marquetry (the applying of any number of pre-prepared and mixed veneers onto a body of wood). It was used in especially floral patterns during the Restoration period up to about 1690. Furniture craftsmen of the Charles II era specialised in designs of flowers with birds, or cupids and acanthus leaf motifs nearly always in exquisite, finely detailed forms. Examples of this are especially evident in the small tables of the period.

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. William of Orange was Dutch and hence a great deal of Dutch influences entered into English life. Fine cabinetmaking, walnut and ebony veneers and florals. Legs are turned to trumpet shapes or scrolled and scroll develops into cabriole leg by the end of William's reign in 1702.

William and Mary furniture was graceful and decorative, it had a well-developed sense of display and articulation. There was much use of ornate decorative effects on surfaces such as veneering, parquetry, lacquer, and marquetry, particularly in side tables. This was the beginning of the era of the cabinetmaker and men such as Gerrit Jensen exceled at very fine inlay and marquetry work. Cabinets, as well as writing bureaus and escritoires, gained domed tops, and were set on heavily baroque style stands with doric columns, as were tables.

Chairs were set on turned legs whose stretchers were tied and curved and mirrored the carving decoration of the crest at the back. Upholstered chairs had square back rests and supports separating them from the seats and their upholstering was more ample and comfortable.

Walnut was very much in demand by the immigrant Dutch and French furniture makers of the William and Mary period. Oak was rapidly sliding into country obscurity and mahogany was just making its very first inroads. There was also use of kingwood and amboyna for inlay work and ebony was used for very fine, fancy pieces such as looking glasses and curio cabinets.

English furniture makers of the Queen Anne period attained a mastery of foreign techniques and evolved a distinct style of their own, in a fairly limited way it must be admitted, that nevertheless, laid the foundations for much of the quality work to come. The reasonableness of English taste reasserted its influence in this time after the preceding decades had seen much copying of foreign fashions, and although fashion still led the way, we can see a real flowering of native English craftsmanship, fine furniture that was elegantly proportioned and sparingly decorated, without caring too much about being compared to the masterful but overpowering works of ornamental furniture that were the product of French cabinet makers and designers. Walnut was the main wood used, although in the country oak, beech and other woods easy at hand to the village craftsmen were employed.

Makers of Queen Anne style furniture found that their clientele was growing, because the taste for comfortable and graceful furniture, such as wing back chairs, was by no means confined to the upper and idle classes alone. Many of the homes of modest merchants, traders, lawyers and the professional classes could boast of furnishings at least of equal merit to those found in interiors reserved for the well born. The stretcher piece was generally discarded, as in card tables, and stools, couches and the stands of cabinets all benefited from the added grace afforded by the abandoning of it. Claw and ball feet make their appearance and makes an attractive finish to the heavier type of cabriole leg that evolved after the disuse of the stretcher.

Furniture produced towards the end of Queen Anne's reign shows marked moves away from the very ornate and decorative style of baroque furniture, a move towards more refined, delicate, and "humanised" furniture on a less grand scale. This trend continued well into the eighteenth century.

The most important change that occurred in the reigns of the George I and George II was the replacement of walnut by mahogany. Mahogany rapidly won favour among cabinet makers due to it being very strong, long lasting and having close grained wood well suited to experimentation. Mahogany was less prone to infestation, didn't scratch, crack, or warp, didn't need varnishing, and its dark reddish colour suited the design temperament of the early Hanoverian age. One such cabinet maker who took to the use of mahogany was William Kent. Kent, like many of the early Georgian period had gone on the Grand Tour to Rome, and there had taken up the Italianate architectural ideas of Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect of the sixteenth century, called Palladianism. The "Kentian" furniture that resulted was ornate, of Brobdingnagian size, heavy, only barely movable with lavish carving and golden ornamentation. It was sculpture like and could have just as easily been carved out of stone as of wood. Palladian style furniture made much use of elaborate pediments, masks, and sphinxes.

While Rococo came to dominate the mid Georgian era in England from about 1740 there was much variety of furniture styles with frequent calls being made back to the earlier Palladian tradition as well as to the older and ever present Gothic style. Additionally we note much use of pseudo Chinese and Chinoiserie motifs. The term Rococo comes from the French "rocaille" and refers to rock-like and shell motifs. "After the French Manner", Rococo was a combination of Baroque and grotesque and fantasy styles of motifs and ornamentation which came to dominate French design from around 1700. In England in 1735 St Martin's Academy was established by the painter William Hogarth and the spreading of Rococo style began. Between 1741 and 1748 the first Rococo furniture pattern books were published and did much to popularise the Rococo ideas that straight lines were unnatural, that the S-curve was the "Line of Beauty and Grace".

The name of Thomas Chippendale stands most closely associated with English rococo style furniture. In the middle of the eighteenth century Chippendale published his "Gentleman's and Cabinet Makers Director" which cemented the rococo style of interior display in England. 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; Rib bon-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.

From about the time of George III's accession to the throne, 1760, a reaction set in against the overbearing Palladian style, and the curvy and vivacious Rococo style designs of the preceding eras. Paralled in France and there called the Louis XVI style, this movement in furniture history is known as the Neoclassical style, or Neoclassicism, and English Neoclassicism is most associated with the names of the designers Chambers, Adam, Hepplewhite and Sheraton.

Sometimes called "Greek", "Grecian", and "Etruscan" the Neoclassical style came about due to a renewed interest in the heritage of the ancient classical civilisations of Greece and Rome, and in particular the results of excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum and the study of the remains there.

Robert Adam had the greatest impact on the early development of the neoclassical style. He had made detailed studies of classical ornament in Italy and made great use of them in designing room interiors in a Roman style. He not only made furniture, but when set to the task, would design and decorate whole rooms down to the last detail, all in the same neoclassical style. Adam had many imitators and the most famous of them was George Hepplewhite. Hepplewhite's "Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Guide" of 1788 was largely based on Adam designs but in a simplified way, more suited to the needs of everyday craftsmen. Of most enduring interest in the guide are designs for the famous shield back Hepplewhite chairs, settees or Hepplewhite sofas, and upholstered stools. His furniture tended to the slender side with inlaid and painted decoration rather than carving.

The final phase of neoclassicism is seen in the works of Thomas Sheraton. Sheraton furniture had a huge practical impact and produced very elegant, sophisticated furniture in the neoclassical style in great numbers.

The Regency period of furniture history in England extends for at least the first 30 years of the nineteenth century and bears little connection with the actual reign of the Prince Regent, George, 1811-1820. Regency furniture represents, in a sense, the taking of the neoclassical antique style as seen in Robert Adam furniture and his descendants in later Georgian times one step further. While previously the antiques of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome were a source of inspiration for furniture designers, in the Regency era attempts are made to make actual copies of ancient furniture, and there is a new interest in the heritage of Egyptian furniture.

French polishing came into vogue around 1810 and allowed for smoother finishes. Regency furniture was often covered with woven and printed fabrics particularly chintz. In 1807 the designer Thomas Hope published his "Household Furniture and Decoration". Hope attempted to make direct copies or adaptations of classical and ancient furniture using wood and bronze and in doing so commonly used motifs such as the winged Sphinx, winged lions and lion masks, hocked animal legs, griffins, Egyptian heads and gods, and lyres.

Gothic furniture underwent another revival during the Regency era as did Chinese and chinoiserie styles such as the Pagoda at Kew Gardens (opposite). The craze for pseudo Chinese furniture saw the use of much decorative japanning with wing pagoda and dragon motifs, black and gold lacquered furniture and imitation bamboo chairs.

Much furniture made in this period 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. Mahogany and rosewood were the woods of choice with oak making something of a nationalist comeback from the depths of time, admired for its Englishness. Ubdin also made its appearance in the early Victorian age particularly in Victorian bedroom furniture. Paper mache was also used in Victorian age furniture.

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 and Talbert and Godwin who experimented with Japanese concepts. In 1853 trade lines with Japan were opened and interest among those in search of novelty such as Godwin and Talbert grew in the tradition of Japanese craftsmanship and decoration motifs. As a result some amount of black and ebonised furniture was made in the late Victorian era with Japanese painted fretwork panels and imitation bamboo arms and legs.

In general terms furniture produced in the late Victoria era was composed of straight lines, solid wood usually stained black or dark green, and had not as much upholstery compared to early Victorian furniture. Painted decoration was preferred to carving. Heavy Victorian styles persisted until about 1910, along with reproductions of English, French and Italian historic types, but the Arts and Crafts Movement, 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.

In the history of English furniture the Edwardian era does not stand out as a very interesting one. In terms of antique trade jargon the term Edwardian furniture refers to little more than antique reproductions of other, more glorious times. Furniture makers and manufacturers in the Edwardian era soon realised that reproductions would outsell anything new or innovative. The Edwardian era was the time that saw the explosion of the antique trade and the habit of buying secondhand furniture for homes, continuing throughout the twentieth century.

The avant garde furniture movement, called Art Nouveau in France, Jugendstil in Germany, and Stile Liberty in Italy, came to prominence in England in the late nineteenth century and through the Edwardian era it continued to exert an influence although gradually losing vitality. Two of the most influential designers of Edwardian era avant garde furniture were Charles Voysey and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Rennie produced furniture was internationally celebrated and consisted of striking and unorthodox designs. Rennie's avant garde furniture was exhibited at various international exhibitions and consisted of curving, elongated lines, leaf and flower motifs, and flowing feminine figures. When taken out of its context within a room his furniture can appear overly worked, and it was often derided as being of the "Spook School" for this reason.

The term Art Deco - like most stylistic labels - was unknown at the time the furniture was being made. It derives from the 1925 Arts Decoratifs exhibition in Paris, and only came to be applied to the style in the late 1960s. Art Deco furniture was made from rare woods and veneers to the highest possible standards and so was affordable only by the wealthy. There was much use of ebony, increasingly rare even as early as the 1920s, so often it was used as veneers. Lacquering was also used extensively on furniture of the period as was parchment, sharkskin and snakeskin, all used for decorative effect. Other unusual materials used for furniture included forged iron and chrome-plated steel. Furniture made of steel, whilst exemplifying the modernist spirit of Art Deco, also brought down the cost so making it more affordable for the middle classes.

One of the most famous furniture designers of the Art Deco period was Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, whose company, Ruhlman and Laurent, was to become one of the most famous interior design companies in France. He held his first exhibition in 1913 at the Salon d'Automne where he achieved a name for luxurious furniture of great style. After the war he continued to refine his designs and his company enjoyed a reputation for skilled crafts people and excellence in design and manufacture. His furniture is distinguished by its ideal proportions and the delicate tapering legs of his smaller pieces. Some pieces were so elegantly and expertly made, with joints so well-covered, they appeared to have been made from a one piece of wood.

British furniture designers of the period, like Heal & Son and Gordon Russell, had their own less extravagant interpretation of Art Deco more suited to the British market. They used more familiar woods like limed oak, walnut and chestnut rather than the exotic woods seen in French design. Emphasis was on functionality and using decoration to enhance the natural beauty of the wood.

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DARTINGTON ANTIQUES
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