History of Furniture

History of furniture

To rebuild the history of the house of prehistory with certainty is impossible, even if all indicates that this one contains pieces of furniture. A history of furniture starts with a discussion of the oldest examples: those of the 4th dynasty (2575-2467 before JC) to the 6th dynasty (2323-2152 before JC) of the Egyptian Ancient Empire.

  Egyptian furniture

The dryness of the Egyptian climate of hiding and to work out procedures are partly responsible for the survival of parts, which include/understand stools, tables, chairs and settees. Moreover, of the murals give an outline of the design of Egyptian pieces of furniture. With regard to the design and of construction, methods used in old Egypt, where the pieces of furniture are followed is made today. For the large parts, in particular of the seats and tables, the mortises and tenons familiar construction in old Egypt is still of use, although the tenon May replaced by ankle to accelerate the production. The sides of most delicate of the boxes and the trunks were joined by coherence, a technique which persists in work. Old Egypt saddles illustrated on a wood panel (2800? Bc, Egyptian Museum, Cairo) of the tomb of animal Hesire has the legs as supports it. It does not differ much from a chair (1325? Bc, Egyptian Museum) of the tomb of the Pharaon Toutankhamon New Kingdom.

Does a chair, count, settee, and of the hood (2550? Bc, Egyptian Musée) of the tomb of the 4th dynasty Hetepheres queen of Gizeh were reconstituted starting from the remainders of their gold envelope. They have animals legs, a chair, and the arms of panels in way papyrus patterns. The bed, higher than the head, has a head and a footboard. The decoration of some of these pieces of furniture is composed of the symbols of the gods and the scenes of the religious significance. The other survivors of the tables and the stools are retained in the design, with legs which are superbly carried out, but clearly. It is conceivable that the parts were in the beginning decorated with stamped metal of sleeving, but also of the murals simple stuffed parts illustrate.

Existing of the examples and the illustrations of murals to propose the broad field of application of decoration on pieces of furniture. Gold sheets were applied to legs of chairs and of tables, the material and ivory inlays other were employed on panels of edge and other surfaces. Reasons for forms, legs like anthropomorphic and of storage of parts in miniature which the buildings were very popular in old Egypt and during the cultures.

Movable Mesopotamian

Although practically not of examples survived, incrustations and reliefs to provide an idea of what the pieces of furniture of the valley of the Tiger-Euphrate resembled. Are tables, chairs, and of the thrones illustrated in the œ uvres approximately 3500 with 800 av. has standard Sumerian a box on a post (3500? -3200? The Colombia-British, of Iraq Museum, Baghdad), has Shell inlays which illustrates very simple chairs and of the thrones. Survivor is also a toothing-stone sumérienne (2685? Bc, University off Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia), which rich, is coloured and of a beard inlays the head of bull carved in sculpture in the round and covers of gold sheet. A stele, hones of size or of the flagstone, made approximately 2300 before J. - C. watch a Back throne which seems to be elegantly stuffed but has the right legs very clearly. Furniture in relief (9th century before JC, British Museum, London), of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II and his queen is worked out, with tables and supported on thrones in the shape of trumpet and animal-form of the legs and embellished with relief decoration.

Minoan and mycénienne Movable

Examples of pieces of furniture to the Bronze Age with Mycènes cultures on continental Greece and in the Aegean Islands are also difficult to find. Minoan help on the representations and the small rings of bronze and terra cotta representations provide the majority of the pieces of evidence. A splendid exception, the plaster throne in the throne room in Cnossos (1600? -1400? The Colombia-British), suggests that the function and the materials are more important than the design of the Aegean Sea, because the basic models are stylized less at the same time on the throne and the small pieces of terra cotta. The existing-stools examples, chairs, settees, benches, and they trunk-do not suggest the use working out decoration much. One or two compressed was discovered, however, that to refer to gold incrustations and ornaments on the pieces of furniture. Only one remains the ivory leg of Thèbes is also richly decorated.

Greek furniture

Greek of pieces of furniture, like Mésopotamie, is most known of painting and the sculpture, as some specimens survived intact. Details on the vase of paintings and serious steles (tomb stones) to tell a good part of the history, but the plank of the Parthenon and a group of sitted figures miniature out of terra cotta and bronze to help to fill the gaps. A little marble thrones survived, just like the elements out of wooden isolated from Greek reality parts. The available data suggest that the originators Greek did not follow the free shapes of the Aegean Sea examples earlier, their tendency to the ornament of pieces of furniture bases on architectural decoration, symmetry and of regularity and the overall concept, seem rather than to follow Egyptian precedent. Nevertheless, although they resemble each other, Greek and Egyptian settee read, for example, to serve distinct ends. Used for the food and of rest, the Greek couch was made with the tilting horizontal zone with height of table, rather than of bottom and in a tilted plan. The head often curved in support of the pillows and of the footrests is not used. Even if the animal-form of the legs is perceived sometimes, the legs are generally a trumpet or of a rectangular form, on the basis of design in the form of columns. Stools were made in a variety of configurations. Stools folding stools with X-feet in the shape of saddles and fixed with legs were made at least as from the 6th century before J. - C. for the hellenistic time (323-31 before JC).

The two simple and functional examples as of the more elaborate models were created. A distinctive feature of the Greek innovation of the originators is the president known as a klismos, a light (or easy) with a chair. Comfortable and very popular, it was used during the time antiquated and traditional (7th century before JC at the 4th century). The klismos is primarily flat, with the curved legs starting from the back seat and a support made up of a simple rectangular panel curved towards the interior of parts in the center. The tables presented in tables are generally of small size. Rectangular above seem to have been most popular, with the support generally consisting of three legs especially simple and curves but sometimes, of the animals carved in the forms which were reinforced at the same time with stretchers upwards. Literary references and the illustrations give rise to think that the tables were typical light. They were transferred in serving the individuals at the time of a dinner and withdrawn after the meal to allow the organizers space to be filled. The roundtables of Greek origin were made at the time hellenistic.

Chests in ancient Greece, of various sizes from those built on a miniature on the monumental scale and examples in the design of these dishes with top of the more architectural style with pinion lids. They were made with several of wood, bronze and ivory, architectural decoration. The traditional configuration of the chest is a phenomenon of long life of life, it is the first time in old Egypt and remains obvious at the 19th century folk examples.

Furniture novel

With the first glance, Roman pieces of furniture design seems to have been founded on the Greek prototypes. In the first century of our opulent Roman era design reflects a strong Greek influence. The ruins of Pompéi and Herculanum to provide the proof expresses beautiful domestic architecture and to show that the movable necessary parameters. Pompeiian frescos illustrating the use of furniture and to think that a larger variety of known forms. The source and the date of new storage capacities of the parts which were introduced into hellenistic Greece are debatable. NR of the pieces of evidence, confirms the theory which the cupboards were presented during this period. Examples of wall cupboards on the Roman frescos May being of the copies of Greek paintings, but a wall cupboard of the house of Lararium with Herculaneum survived.

Existing examples show that the Romans, more furniture out of marble and of bronze which the Greeks have, also, the Romans had been more complex, even if it employed the same basic vocabulary of the ornament. In addition to the small tables in Greece, larger, rectangular, tables and roundtables of various sizes were used. More practical drawings were also installation: There were tables which could be taken apart from folding and other bases. The richness of elegant work and to work out ivory inlays, bronzes, marble, wood and are mentioned in the Roman literature, and enough of fragments exist to corroborate the first descriptions

Byzantine and of the beginning of Medieval Furniture

Although other survivors of artefacts are abundant, it is curiously little of elements of furniture of small the Christian (3rd century at the 7th century after J. - C.) and Byzantine (5th century at 15th century) the deadlines, that is to say in the East or the West. Byzantine art was very admired. The richness of the empire of the churches in Istanbul, in Turkey, and to Ravenne, in Italy, indicates that there must have been a parallel magnificence in the palate of the furnishing of the houses of reigning families. Byzantine mosaics suggest that, although traditional, ornament stylized May became, it is still used on the advertisements between 400 and 1000. Only one Byzantine monument, the throne of the bishop Maximian (550? , Museum archiépiscopal, Ravenne), one chief-of œ uvre of the ivory sculpture of help entirely covering a wood framework, were conceived to use ecclesiastical. The throne reveals nevertheless rich, stylized ornament of the period, and it suggests the way in which the design of pieces of furniture laic Byzantine must be conceived

The so-called Throne of Dagobert I (600? , National library, Paris), a bronze medal stool folding, have the legs of the animals familiar of Novel provided examples, but much more audacity. Manuscripts and, at the time of mosaic from 5th at the 9th century, century to provide a proof moreover than, although the Roman influence persisted, changes of taste of the craftsmen inspired to return the details more abstract and simply. Dish replaced the models high relief of the Roman epoch. Stylistic conservatism pronounced in the enluminés manuscripts of the period, is also manifest in its pieces of furniture.

11th and 12th centuries, the Romance period, are known for the regeneration of spirituality and the great number of new churches built in the west of Europe, but few evidence exist furnishing of the time. Novel of furniture design is most known of the set of the 12th century of the French sculpture representations, while simplifying, diagram of interpretation of the fight gréco-Roman ornament are used. Some survivors is-post (become turn) starting from chairs of the 12th century in Scandinavia are in the Romance spirit. Trunks out of wooden, made a little later, are carved in diagram, which continue geometrical reasons for Romance style

Pieces of furniture of Gothic style

The Gothic architecture causes the use because of the arcs of it, of propping up, and other remarkable innovations to create spectacular effects space, but 12th century of design of pieces of furniture was not influenced by the Romance style. The new cathedrals are expressions of the richness, but also for their rich person customers of the interiors of the church seem to have supported simple, functional furniture in oak enriched by tapestries and the metallurgy. The decorative elements of the Gothic style, in particular the fact arc, are not employed in the ornament of pieces of furniture until approximately 1400. Then, for more than one century, layouts and arches were carved on the panels of chairs, trunks, and the tables of all sizes.

At the 15th century, a little new forms were introduced. One was a kind of dresser with a small storage space on large feet, it had the space of posting on the top of the enclosure, like on a rack below. Cupboards were made with one or two thirds of the sections storage closed with doors. Another important point was the part of cupboard storage, with doors height locking up a surface of 1,5 m to 2 m (4 pi to 6 pi). In addition to these architectural reasons like arches, decorative columns, foliages and reasons seemed founded on the suspended sculpture the textile, a reason called linenfold. In mainly of the north of Gothic Europe of style remained influential in the design of pieces of furniture in the beginning of the 16th century

History of furniture

To continue

At the end of the 17th century, curves the faces were used for the first time on the case of large parts like cupboards and trunks with drawers, reflecting the new Baroque architecture. In the chairs, rich in sculpture on the new forms top rested on the mode. The English and the examples of Continental were whipped with seats and the back like an alternative to the tapestry. Simple variations of these chairs were made with parts turned in the place of carved, but the same height back were used

French baroque

Most elegant and to work out pieces of furniture of the day was made for the court of Louis XIV in France. Incur craftsman André Charles Boulle created forms unusual and embellished combining them with metal incrustations (tin, gilding, bronze or money), scale of tortoise, out of ebony and drawings which were imaginative juxtapositions of traditional reasons. These sometimes to look at as if the basic inspiration is old Roman fresco. Columnar legs, nicely gilded, were used in support of the tables, of the chairs, the trunks and the stands.

Colonial English and American Baroque

Variations in other countries limited the gilding and put the accent on the new form. In England, the influence is easier to note in work starting from the reign of William and Mary, at the time of marquetry was used most freely. On the continent of North America, Rebirth of design is still important in the end of the 17th century. American Tudor craftsmen and élisabéthain used as models of inspiration for distinctly partial American “Pilgrim style efforts in oak, update by being stained a nut of color.

Pieces of furniture of style rococo

The baroque was popular in many fields until about 1730, when the fashion changed, initially in Paris then in the Western rest of the world. New style, now known under the name of rococo destined for a larger smoothness in the scale of the objects and a closer relation, of furniture and people. Architectural ornament is less relevant, as parts inside Paris were designed on the scale with people rather than of the rooms

French rococo

French sources were of first importance and of influence and their results were most elegant. Rococo started under the reign of Louis XIV and thrived under the reign of Louis XV. The French version ambitious drawings included in a variety of materials which required a great skill to carry out. Those were characterized by complexity, that the sinuous curves of the forms in all the directions. Fanciful models were encrusted on the layers with plating which, in their turn, were framed of gilded bronze (bronzes gilded) defining the legs, the edges and frontages of drawers of a piece. Columnar legs were replaced by animal-form of the legs in a variety of curved forms.

  English Rococo

In England, the rococo is much more restricted. Inlays are seldom used because cabinetmakers favoured the use of platings of drowning and the mahogany tree, which were treated with much talent to exploit graining. English originators and those which were inspired by presented the caper (curves) of the legs with claws and but log of chairs, tables, and the trunks. This foot must be inspired by the claw and swell known of Chinese bronzes (but not of prototypes of Chinese pieces of furniture), it represents a model of popularization of Asia. Towards the end of the period rococo, in England, London cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale published a book of drawings and models, the Gentleman and the Director of the Cabinet Maker (1754), in which it presented the interpretation of English of style rococo. It was the first to classify the varieties of style rococo in French, Chinese, or of Gothic style and offered samples of each approach. Innovating of the French design of the years 1750, were translated by Chippendale into engraved drawings richly carved French examples without the use of gilded bronze or incrustations. The element of the rococo underlined Chippendale and by the majority of the English craftsmen was his air of French imagination, carried out of the examples of a traditional novel, the use of reasons. In the Director, Chinese and the Gothic drawings were included as new means of reaching imagination, moreover, these models could be carried out more easily than those based on the French sources

From approximately 1740 to 1760, the originators worked constantly in English on small scales. Some, however, chose to follow the traditional models and which were more harmonizes some with an architectural style called Palladio, in which the design of the Italian Rebirth of the 16th century was the architect Andrea Palladio, on a century scale 18th, taste. London William Vile cabinetmaker, which was employed by the Crown in the years 1750 and 1760, made traditional pieces of furniture with rococo work. In the American colonies, the traditional one was slightly reduced as important as the pure style rococo in furniture realized between 1740 and 1780.

English and American chair model are the traditional exception to the rule to continue the accent. Designers of mode in London developed elegant side and armchairs out of wooden, the back, a form different of chairs stuff-privileged person on the continent. Initially, the files were taken with icons like the solid central support, framed by curved rails and Stiles in a design which was a very free adaptation of Chinese chairs. Later, the framework is in form of yoke, and the icon was carried out in one of a great repertory of style rococo in the spirit of the opening of work models.

In the english language version with the design of pieces of furniture, of wood were treated with an appreciation of their qualities, and carpenters of America chose to follow the same way. In Europe, the cabinetmakers are more the intention to create the rococo phantasms, using painting where the incrustations and bronzes gilded could appear too expensive. Italian, German, Scandinavian, French and even provincial cabinetmakers Continental followed this manner of carrying out the design of style rococo.

Pieces of furniture of neo-classic style

Neoclassicism, a reaction against the style rococo in favor of the classicism, is a movement which started whereas the rococo is still with its apogee. The originators who launched it rather recommends a return to the antique gréco-Roman of the sources than of the Rebirth. According to the taste of the 18th century, however, they adapted the old models by a reduction of the ornament of a delicacy which calls upon those which are bored with the rococo.

The question of knowing which was responsible for this revolution in the design is discussed. Robert Adam, the English architect, presented the first of his drawings of neo-classic style, before 1760. Through the English Channel, to Paris, however, a large collector, Live de Jully, provided a room “to Greek”, or in the neo-classic style, about to the same moment. Artists of English, French, and other nationalities found the ruins from Rome and in Athens, worthy of study and were the awakening of the place of the history in the design engineering. The neoclassicism was the first effort to start again a style, rather than to use elements of a past of style of inspiration for new designs. The first efforts were Roman than its originators seem to believe it, but the change with purest, the historicism occurred within a relatively short time

French neoclassicism

In France, the first phase of the neoclassicism is called the style Louis XVI, even if its reign started in 1774 and the first specimens were made earlier. The classicism of this style appears by a whole of vocabulary of reasons resulting from gréco-Roman sources, but the whole of the forms also reflects the new style. Pieces of furniture of simple and geometrical forms: rectangular, circular, oval and rests on right forms, fraying legs which were either square or round out of transverse section. Garlands of flowers or draperies, reasons architectural such as paterae (medallions), dentils, doric, ionic or Corinthian mouldings and of the details were used like ornaments on the parts of neo-classic style.

  English neoclassicism

In England, painted pieces of furniture became popular, and the interest of the incrustations of decoration, which have all disappeared during the time rococo, knew a revival. The new neo-classic style was call to a growing number, and the design of the works communicated of the suggestions for the new shapes of pieces of furniture, forms and decorations. The Council of Ministers published posthumous and Tapestry maker Maker' S Guide of 1788 by George Hepplewhite adapted a little French and unquestionable English traditional model to the needs for the search for manufacturers of pieces of furniture of neo-classic style suggestions. Most famous part of the book is the section on the chairs which describes a certain number of backs in the shape of shield, but Hepplewhite the repertory is much broader (see Hepplewhite Style). Neo-classic design sails about it in England is generally regarded as inspired by Hepplewhite or Thomas Sheraton, whose first book, the Maker Cabinet and tapestry makers Drawing Book, seem, partly, in 1791. Complete Sheraton of its work, published in 1802, including designs which were literally more traditional, but what is popularly considered Sheraton rectangular are the files of chair in its first book.

  Pieces of furniture Worsens

The use of archaeologically inspired the design increased at the end of the 18th century, and it seems to have influenced the pieces of furniture at the same time in England and Europe. This new orientation marks a second phase of the neoclassicism, called the Empire style, because it was identified for the first time with Napoleon' S imperial efforts. Although the tendency to the design of old pieces of furniture of Roman style started before the French revolution (1789-1799), the originators of Napoleon, Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, were more innovating. A collection of drawings of pieces of furniture and interiors were published in Paris in 1801. Starting in 1796, the drawings and models inspired by Percier and Fontaine were also published in the Newspaper of the Modes of Pierre of Mésangère, which helped to make the style international. Furniture in plates Mésangère newspapers seem to be affected by Rudolph Ackermann to use them in its newspaper based in London, deposit of Arts, the Letters and Fashions, which started in 1809. Publications in German language of the diffusion of versions of style Worsens in the whole of the continent and Scandinavia.

More than one meticulous investigation, however, reveals special distinct sources in each country. In England, where the style is open Regency-Henry Holland, architect of the prince de Galles beginning in the years 1780, the furniture designed in the spirit of the Empire royal residences and the large country houses. Thomas Hope, a collector and expert with much of enthusiasm for the traditional one, is the author of pieces of furniture of house and the interior decoration (1807), which illustrates its design of a traditional style in which the Greek and Egyptian influences prevail.

Empire became an international style, with Scandinavian, German, Italian, Russian, American and interpretations. The basic concept was constant, with old prototypes adapted to the tastes of the 19th century. The major change, in addition to the increase in the influence archaeological, was of width. The originators tried to find the direction of the monumentality which was lacking since the beginning of the 18th century, when it was decreased to reach the human scale then to wish. In the areas of German language, the style, generally recognized like the middle-class, was called Biedermeier, after a comic character who was supposed the satire of the middle-class tastes. The name was applied as the style was to leave the mode at approximately 1850. Under the terms of whatever the name, the Empire was a durable style; introduced before 1800, it does not disappear completely until the medium from the 19th century. In the United States, a cabinetmaker, New Yorker Phyfe Duncan, which had started in the years 1790, did not close his store up to 1847. Its production includes/understands a large range of models of neo-classic style, but the weather is especially known for work is distinctive between 1800 and 1820, where the light and of the correct proportions archaeological of details were integrated.

Victorian Furniture Eclectic

Parallel to the neo-classic rebirth in first half of the 19th century were the renewals of other styles.

Gothic Revival

The Gothic, Chippendale, which used like a source of decorative reason, was also of the interest for Sheraton and a little later, the originators. In George Smith' S Collection of drawings of pieces of furniture of house and interior decoration (1808), a little Gothic drawings are presented at the same time as primarily neo-classic work. In 1830, the interest for the Gothic is deeper. The Gothic was admired by certain like a reaction against the delicious traditional one, while others regard it as a Christian style with being preferred with the pagan one. On the one hand, favorable to the romantic enthusiasm of the ruins and the asymmetry of the other, there was a strong desire of design inspired by the faith. Whatever the impulse, neo-gothic style flowered on the two sides of the Atlantic, in England, like on the continent. Research on Continental aspects, however, is far behind that of English of the historians, who discovered the achievements of two generations of Pugins-father, Augustus Charles Pugin, and his son, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Primarily, the rebirth of the Gothic causes of it the use of the Gothic architectural ornament of the 19th century on the forms. In close relationship to the neo-gothic, it is what the Americans call the Rebirth élisabéthaine, inspired of 16th English century and 17th century drawings

Revival rococo

A completely different approach was taken by the originators who are attached to a return to elegance. As of the years 1820, the 18th century of style rococo was the source of inspiration for a revival, in fact a reinterpretation of Parisian design rococo. The revival rococo was popular in England, on the continent, and the United States. The American rococo, and which thrived between 1840 and 1860, is probably responsible for most distinctive pieces of furniture. A manufacturer of New York, John Henry Belter, obtained four patents for improvements of the production which made it possible the shop to make Belter blazing curved work carved to the extreme by the use of laminated wood. Belter contemporaries and in Europe as in the United States found the inspiration in the style baroque rococo, as well as the ornament

Rebirth Rebirth

In the years the 1860 rococo mode disappeared and of the Revival Rebirth became the fashion. Rebirth was defined very largely, because the neo-classic rebirth of style reasons included like those based on the models of the French Rebirth. A revival of Louis XVI, the design was supported by certain, but in general, the new style was characterized by great simple forms doubled in wood plating dark and decorated with incrustations, low-relief and incised linear decoration. French, English, and Continental examples include/understand a vast range of decoration, which is more elegant than that of the majority of the American examples.

  The revolt against the manufacture of mass

The preoccupation with an elegance inspired a certain number of fakery. Veneers were used to cover cheap wood, as well as the sculpture and the marquetry which embellished at low prices furniture of style were badly carried out.

Pieces of furniture of art and craft industry

In reaction to the fictitious bulk products, the movement Arts and Crafts was created in 1861 by the English poet William Morris and the originator. With such associates, the architect Philip Webb and the painters préraphaélite Ford Madox Brown and Edward Ball-Jones, Morris asked for a return to the traditions of medieval craft industry. Together, the group produced all the models of the branch of decorative arts, with the intention to raise on the level of the fine arts. Their products, including furniture, are admired much for their beauty and their know-how and to consume was largely copied. In the years 1890, the movement was propagated on the continent and in North America. The influence of Morris and his disciples was enormous, their drawings are often regarded as the source of the design of the modern pieces of furniture. Morris ideas were popularized by the English architect and writer Charles Eastlake with his immense success on the Councils of the households in pieces of furniture of taste, furnishing and other details (1868). Eastlake recommends a return to simple, rectilinear country of the images inspired by the work, made out of wood of oak and various fruitwoods. In the United States, where Eastlake the book became a bible of decoration, simplicity is often decorated such additions of luxury like ebonized wood, gilding, and the incrustations.

Furniture Art nouveau

Directly encouraged by the movement Arts and Crafts was called the style art nouveau, which thrived between the years 1890 and 1910 in all arts. Art nouveau May being characterized like a style derived from organic forms, which transmit a feeling of movement, illustrated by famous the curved “whiplash injury” finds in many œ oeuvres of art nouveau.