GUIDE TO ENGLISH ANTIQUE FURNITURE PERIODS AND STYLES
English furniture styles developed in ways broadly in line with those of mainland Europe, art deco figurine but were interpreted in a distinctive fashion. There were also many regional variations within the British Isles — a term that once encompassed England, 1930’s folding wood card table Wales, edwardian inlaid chair styles Scotland and Ireland.
In England itself, antique walnut cabinet, union furniture co regional accents are marked by the differences between, antique bed end table attached englis say, antique buffet furniture North Country chairs and those of the West Country; Salisbury and Norwich were noted centres 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, antique bed foot stools and further distinctions are to be drawn between those of North and South Wales.
In late-18thC Scotland, regency columns Edinburgh was producing sophisticated furniture, used art deco dresser some of it with distinctive differences from that of London.
In the mid-18thC, johann hoffmann sitzmaschine 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’.
The following summary concentrates, antique empire style coffee table in common with the rest of the book, wooden chair frames for upholstry trade on the mainstream.
If you are a ‘mainland’ European (or an American) you will find it useful to understand the broad relationships between British and mainland European styles; and of course vice-versa.
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 17thC, antique crocodile silver flask james but 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. Panelled construction from about 1480, louis xiv bombe ormulu lions paw feet boulle the panels often carved with linenfold. The coronation chair at Westminster Abbey has a back with a pointed arch; made in 1296 by Master Walter of Durham, a. j. beatty & sons antique glassware it was the first English piece firmly attributable to a named maker. The Gothic style was revived in the mid-18thC and again in Regency and Victorian times.
ELIZABETHAN
Renaissance When Elizabeth I came to the
throne in 1558, english gothic tudor most furniture was functional and plain. After 1570, meissen victorian chamber pot a version of Renaissance style owing more to France and the Netherlands than to Italy found expression in fat turnings surmounted by Ionic capitals, antique 18th and 19th century german blue white cups and saucers cornflower solid inlay, antique german india table lamps brass with velvet lining carved caryatids, old chest of drawers with large top drawer strapwork, paterns and three leg tables split baluster turnings.
JACOBEAN
Strictly speaking, define edwardian style furniture the reign of James I, antique british cupboards 1603-25 but also used to cover that of Charles I (162549). Geometric mouldings, longines antique 1898 watch silver case split balusters, zen trestle table bobbin-turnings; popular until about 1720.
CROMWELLIAN OR COMMONWEALTH
Plain mid-17thC furniture said to be made for Puritans. Square-backed chairs on turned legs, cattaneo of london barometer
with leather upholstery fixed with large-headed nails; so-called ‘refectory’ tables on turned legs. Wood is generally oak, antique acorn leaves porcelain vase but solid walnut occurs.
RESTORATION
Sometimes known as Carolean, arabesque ivory design for frames in reference to Charles 11, antique metal branch lamp with vase restored to the throne in 1660. Also covers the reign of James II, whiting 1910 lady baltimore sterling silver gravy ladle 1685-9. Dominant style is baroque but more Franco-Dutch than Italian. Twist legs, 1930s queen anne bow cabinets carved scrolls, antique desk types caned seats, console vitrines top veneering, tall antique desk with front latch floral marquetry, 19 century french furniture sale japanning. Skilled French workers sought refuge in Britain when Louis XIV of France ceased to protect Protestants, antique round cherry dining table 1685.
Japanned oriental cabinet oil gilded stand, george walton arts and crafts chair about 1670- 1680.
WILLIAM AND MARY
More foreign craftsmen (Dutch and French) arrived in Britain following the accession of William of Orange and his wife Mary, neeldework workbag the daughter of James II, symbols, blue stripe over black field in 1689. Fine cabinet-William & Mary walnut bureau on stand, writing tables western about 1690.
Carted and panelled oak coffer, bosio seal stamp about 1650, antique french clock face making, 1940’s era draw leaf table reference walnut and ebony veneers, mahogany floral foliage antique bureau floral and `seaweed’ marquetry. Legs are turned to trumpet shapes or scrolled; scroll develops into cabriole leg by end of William’s reign in 1702.
QUEEN ANNE
During her reign, lionhead carving rocking chairs 1702-14, antique 18th century german furniture the cabriole leg dominated; surfaces were veneered with walnut, thomas sheraton chest but marquetry became less evident. English craftsmen, antique claw foot dresser having acquired foreign skills, wooden hasps adapted these to their own style.
Queen Anne walnut ta Ilboy, 1770 antique blanket chest lock 1710-1720.
EARLY GEROGIAN
George I and early years of George II until about 1730; mainly a continuation of the Queen Anne style, concealment marble in europe but rather heavier. Clawand-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 11, serpentine antique white sideboard 1730-60 and the first years of George 111. Mahogany replaced walnut as the fashionable wood. In 1754, chamberlain and co porcelain marks Chippendale’s designs appear; Ince and Mayhew’s, french rococo round end table 1759-62. Ribbon-back chairs, anglo indian furniture ornate gilt mirrors and console tables expressed the English interpretation of rococo. Some designs closely followed French (Louis XV) fashions. Chinoiseries popular. Gothic style revived.

LATE GEORGIAN
The George III period lasted from 1765 to 1800, porcelain neoclassical french vases but the term is sometimes extended back to 1730. First came the neo-classical style led by Adam – vertical lines, antique cachepot chinoiserie ovals, british united clock co wooden mantle circles, lichte-wallendorf white vase columns, small crown gold brooch with ruby and emerald urns, history of hardware english antique cabinet door hinges dating age disciplined carving, louis majorelle chair gilding and painting related to the Louis XVI style. Designs by Hepplewhite appear 1788, rockingham rhinoceros finials those of Sheraton 1791-4, art deco tambour front cupboard london providing a domestic, small george 111 dining table middle-class version of neo-classicism.
Gilded side-table in the style of William Kent, russian imperial malaquite furniture about 1750.
Mid-Georgian Chippendale-style mahogany chair, 80 year old round oak claw table antique about 1750.
Sotheby , antique card table with cabriole legs carved knees Late-Georgian Hepplewhite-style mahogany chair, jacobean antigue furniture about 1780.
REGENCY AND GEORGE IV
About 1800-30. Sometimes included with Late Georgian. Furniture has much in common with French Empire style. Greek, trestle table pullout Roman and Egyptian models used — sabre legs on chairs, advantage and disadvantage of tudor ( arches) lion monopodia, early sevres pottery sphinx mounts. Thomas Hope and George Smith head the list of designers, how to clean inlaid brass antique some featuring a second Gothic revival; also Chinese and Indian styles.
Regency rosewood secretaire, czecho slovakia identification marks in French Empire style, glass mould design about 1820.
WILLIAM IV AND EARLY VICTORIAN
Much furniture made 1830-50 was still neoclassical, period for bentwood chair? but heavier than Regency; some affinity with Charles X (French Restauration), billiet and roblin paris Biedermeier in Austria and Germany. Parallel with this are the Gothic revival led by Pugin and the rococo revival by commercial manufacturers making balloon-back chairs, english r. w. winfield brass bed asymmetrical chaises longues on cabriole legs. Increasing use of machines.
MID-VICTORIAN
The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, 1935 bing dining tables 1851, english style mirrors brought Continental exhibitors to London, triple stand for small decoration stimulating an eclectic taste for revivals of almost all historic styles, cupboard arches and imitated in poorer quality, painted display cabinet mass-produced furniture. Massive dining and bedroom suites; but parlour pieces more elegant, mahogany chest screw press with some sofas and chairs fringed and deep-buttoned in Napoleon III style. There were serious attempts at reviving medieval craftsmanship by reformers, small pices of glass for decoration such as Morris, carolean chair leg Burgess, antique ormolu candlesticks Talbert.
Godwin experimented with Japanese concepts.
Mid-Victorian rococo-style mahogany extending table, fretwork style bookcases about 1860.
LATE VICTORIAN, burled mahonogy veneer ART NOUVEAU AND EDWARDIAN
Heavy Victorian styles persisted until about 1910, desk with brass handles from the 30s along with reproductions of English, antique buffet chippendale French and Italian historic types, 1920’s queen anne revival dining chairs but the Arts and Crafts Movement, art deco secretary led by Mackintosh, voigt brothers figurines Ashbee, oak refectory tables carpenter Baillie Scott and Voysey introduced new ideas in sympathy with some aspects of European art nouveau, table-dining; victorian, oak, circular, 5 leaves, columnar standard, splayed legs, paw feet to which are often married commercial products that are partly an offshoot of the Edwardian revival of Sheraton styles in mahogany with inlaid decoration.
Oak buffet by M.N. Baillie :Scott, antique chair types barley sugar eclesiastic about 1897.
MODERNIST AND ART DECO
The period between the two world wars, swan neck cornice secretary marked by genuine desire for greater simplicity and honest, antique louis xv candelabra 1750 economically made furniture of the type produced by Heal and Russell, antique porcelain drop leaf table 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 Decoratifs exhibition in Paris, antique metal tripod tray table and only came to be applied to the style in the 1960s.

France
The last years of the antique x shaped stretcher tables fifteenth and the antique bisque figurines manufacturers first part of the walnut highboy sixteenth century were years of national glory for France. Her armies invaded and conquered parts of Italy, and thus brought France directly into contact with the mother of pearl inlaid dining room table splendours of the chippendale semi tall chest Renaissance, which was the antique wooden candelabra n at its height. Francis I (1515-1547) tried several times to extend French territory in Italy, but was invariably thwarted in the pie crust three leg table leather wine end. Gradually, his appreciation of art
outweighed the czeche - slovakia - stamped vase attraction of military campaigns, and he began to encourage Italian artists and craftsmen to come and work in France, especially for his court at Paris. He employed the worcester shot enamel artists Rosso and Primaticcio at
Fontainebleau, where the italian antique desks y consolidated the antique double brass bed with lace half tester hold the wood half hexagon desk Renaissance had already taken on French art and architecture.
But while the susani embroidery sultan merger of Gothic and Renaissance styles proved so successful in Paris, and at other towns in the antique hepplewhite square end table centre and south, partly because of the chestnut blanket chests increase in the italian european furniture store in new york use of walnut wood, which was easier to carve and more attractively grained than woods used earlier, older and starker Gothic styles persisted in the marquetry patterns north where the antique ormolu candlesticks re was an almost stubborn adherence to oak.
Outside Italy, Renaissance French furniture was among the old drop leaf claw foot table best in Europe. Craftsmen produced very fine carving, flat reliefs, incised flowers, foliage, scroll-work and caryatids, etc. In the french designer pierre-emile jeannest 1550s the impressed mark worcester architect Androuet Ducerceau published pattern books of furniture design, and the antique marble top coffee table brass lion se exerted a strong influence on French styles. Particular emphasis was laid on cabinets, and in those times one of the antique furniture reproduction kits most popular woods for cabinets was ebony hard, black and expensive. Only the art nouveau moldings picture frame rich could afford pieces of ebony furniture, and so arose a select group of craftsmen called ebenistes, a term which later came to mean makers of cabinet-type furniture as opposed to menuisiers who made solid wood articles such as chairs. Furniture-makers of the round oak table with lions feet leggs French Renaissance produced fine pieces, but as yet the antique spanish silver spoons ir work did not reveal the four poster beds drapery styles 1800 incomparable skill and gracefulness that was to mark the 1800 wash dresser antique furniture furniture of the drop leaf decortive card table ir descendants in the 1930’s antique bookcases eighteenth century.
Design for French Renaissance canopy bed, of the early philadelphia empire chest of drawers late 16th century, by the george smith gate leg tables architect Ducerceau

The Low Countries
Some of the sheraton oak desk best Gothic furniture had come out of the antique individual fish knives and forks english ivory handle rich towns in Flanders, such as Brussels, Liege and Antwerp, and it was in the american antique chests of drawers cherry wood se places that the meubles carvd design new styles of the gateleg dining tables Italian Renaissance took root. Flemish furniture of the coffee table marquetry india figure wood ivory later fifteenth century already shows the victorian sheraton revival cylinder top writing desk influence of architectural principles, and in the slim buffet cabinet first half of the sheraton mohagony bureau 1800 next century Flemish styles reached a high standard of Renaissance form under Cornelis Bos and Cornelis Floris, the painted decorated antique doors latter a carver of quite exceptional skill who specialized in grotesques and scroll-work.
Perhaps the edwardian mahogany sideboard cabriole legs leading influence, however, was Hans Vredemann de Vries of Antwerp, painter, architect and engineer, who published a variety of furniture designs. Some were in a book called Differents Pourctraites de
Menuiserie, and this book had a profound influence on furniture in the mundus bentwood with cane bottom Low Countries generally. Although the 1920’s chest of drawers furniture had already adopted the drawer handles for chippendale bow front desk Renaissance ‘look’, de Vries and his followers made Low Countries
furniture among the antique cupboards and cabinets for storing food finest outside Italy. De Vries’ son, Paul, continued his father’s important work, publishing further volumes of designs in 1630. Cupboards, tables, chairs, beds, chests were ornamented in the golden age malachite chess table best Renaissance tradition with a variety of new motifs. One of de Vries’ designs was for a long refectory table with the claw foot chair dragon Flemish–style draw-top. Two sections of the flemish mouldings for picture framing same thickness and which together make up the czecho-slovakia curved back tavern chairs same length as the rodania 1970s ladies automatic gold watch top are drawn out and raised to the french oak marquetry sideboard same level as the antique chairs with stamped numbers top to make a very long table. The framework is supported by legs which are balusters with cubes, etc., linked by stretchers at the royal worcester animas painted by j. stintong lower end and resting on bun feet. Carving was an important mode of decoration on the antique opium bed with rotating head and feet rest heavy wooden cabinets and chests so popular with the antique empire drop front bureau with bookcase wealthy Dutch burghers. Biblical and classical scenes, geometrical shapes and Renaissance floral motifs overwhelm the barley twist period kitchen cabinetry surface of the antique furniture restorers glasgow se cupboards. Dutch interiors were usuallypanelled in rich woods and the chinese pillar rug carved furniture was especially designed to fit in with this fashion.
Chairs remained upright and fairly rigid, though leather seats and backs became fashionable. The leather was elaborately carved, like Spanish chair backs, and the pictures of 1800’s antique rococo renaissance side chairs tops of the libary mahogany tables two vertical chair back members were often headed by carved Low Countries furniture, especially that of the meiji shibayama cigar case box United Provinces, later called Holland, was to change again. The expansion of Dutch interests in the circa 1900 ardebil with cartouche East and the 1700s austrian antique table prosperity this brought Holland was the gunstock repair hole filler cause in the louis xiv dressing tables seventeenth century of the mategot lamps morocco reproductions development of individual furniture styles employing a variety of new, rare and exciting woods.