Posts Tagged ‘american furniture’

If we think of a chair as something to sit on, and a dining-chair as something to sit on at meal-times, there seems to be no reason why one dining-chair should be different from another. We would expect a difference between a dining-chair and an arm-chair, because they are made for people to sit on in different positions, and we would expect a difference between two dining-chairs made to go with dining-tables of different heights. But for the last three hundred years all dining-tables have been of almost exactly the same height, and all dining-chairs have been of very nearly the same size; at least, their essential dimensions—the height, width, and depth of seat—have been very nearly the same. Yet if we were to collect a series of dining-chairs made at intervals of ten years during the last three hundred years, we should find that each chair differed slightly from the preceding chair, and that chairs separated by intervals of fifty years or so might have almost nothing in common but their size. And if we then collected a complete roomful of furniture made at the same time as each of the chairs, we should see that certain peculiarities of the chair were repeated in the other pieces of furniture–the kind of wood it was made of, the general shape of the legs, the details of its decoration, for instance. The chair, in fact, would have more in common with a cupboard made at the same time than with another chair made fifty years previously.
A room furnished in 1750 would have a different appearance from a room furnished in 1780. The furniture would be made of a different wood, decorated in a different way, and the shapes of the chair-backs and legs, and of the feet of cupboards, and all the details of locks and drawer-handles, would be different. The two rooms would contain much the same quantity of furniture and much the same kind of furniture—not many new pieces of furniture were invented between 1750 and 1780; but the furniture would be in two different styles,
In the history of furniture there have been very many different styles. There were various styles of furniture in China, in Egypt, in Greece, and Rome, before furniture was ever made in England or France or Germany. But we can learn a good deal about the way in which styles develop, and the way in which one style changes into another, and the reasons for these changes, if we examine the history of furniture in just two countries, France and England. It is interesting to study the history of styles in all countries. But our purpose here is to try to find out why one style differs from another, and how a change of furniture style corresponds with a change in ways of living and of thinking. A study of comparatively recent periods of furniture in the European part of the world will be the most useful. For it will help us to understand what has caused the present confusion in furniture-making about problems of style.
Our survey of styles will be very limited, covering in detail the furniture of only two of the countries of the world. But the furniture of these two countries shows a fairly complete development from the simplest carpenter-made pieces to the most elaborate work of the cabinet-makers. From the eleventh to the nineteenth century all the possible methods of making furniture by hand were used by the French and English furniture-makers. At the beginning of the medieval period the carpenters started making furniture with little experience in woodworking behind them, and with few models surviving from the past. As we have seen, furniture-makers rediscovered one by one all the methods of woodworking known to former civilizations, but lost in the meantime. Thus the history of French and English furniture gives a complete picture of furniture developments all over the world—from the technical point of view, at any rate.
Moreover, not all the peoples of the world use furniture as much as it is used in western Europe. Oriental peoples lead a less active indoor life than we do. They have more soft furnishings than furniture: carpets and rugs, cushions and divans. The few pieces of furniture they have are often beautiful and technically perfect. But there is little in their technique that has not been used in France and in England—except, perhaps, the Chinese method for making lacquered furniture and panels; and the appearance of their furniture has had a considerable influence on European taste. The Spanish, too, have been subject to Oriental influence, through the Moorish occupation of Spain. By nature they are not given to using much furniture; but their traditional pieces have a distinct character of their own. It has already been said that the principal piece of furniture in the chief room of a Spanish peasant house is a stone bench. In richer Spanish houses the furniture is elegantly severe; the pieces are large, and there are few of them. Indoor life in Spain is more formal than in most European countries; all the freedom and gaiety are out of doors.
Italian Renaissance furniture served as a model for French Renaissance furniture; but since the Renaissance there has been little change in Italian furniture besides fantastic decorative developments. The German and Russian Court furniture consisted of heavy copies of French Court furniture. Much of the German Alpine and Russian provincial furniture is interesting; but the extremely cold winters in the places where such furniture was in use caused stoves to be more highly valued and elaborately decorated. American furniture-makers have developed styles of their own from English and other European styles, and sometimes their work surpasses their English models. The American Windsor chair, for instance, is considered by some connoisseurs to be better proportioned than the English Windsor chair; and the American Empire style was continued longer, and with better results, than the Empire style of any European country. But to study in detail the furniture of many countries would not help us to form a clear notion of modern problems of style.
Styles differ from one another in three ways : in construction methods, in material used, and in decorative treatment. Construction methods were developed slowly, and, as we have seen, there were only three principal systems of construction—those of the carpenters, of the joiners and of the cabinet-makers. There was a major style change in every country when carpenters’ methods were abandoned for joiners’, and when joiners’ methods were abandoned for cabinet-makers’. We have also seen how the material used is bound up with the method of construction —how the carpenters and joiners used home-grown medium woods, and how the cabinet-makers used tropical hard-woods. In these two respects of methods and materials the general development of styles has been the same in all European countries. The long series of detailed changes in style is a history of decorative treatment alone : so much is decorative treatment a key to style that an expert can tell from a mere fragment of a piece of furniture—a carved leaf or a small area of marquetry—the exact style and period of the piece.
The history of decorative treatment in France, and in most countries of continental Europe, may be divided into six main parts, each having its own system of decorative conventions. They are called the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and nineteenth-century styles. These six styles are sub-divided into many styles of comparatively short duration.
Overleaf is a table of the French furnishing styles from about A.D. 1100 till the beginning of the present century. The table gives a general plan of the different styles and their periods, but it is not, and could not be, exact: since one style merges slowly into another, and the reigns of kings do not correspond with changes in furniture taste.
ROMANESQUE (1100-1300)
Romanesque furniture was made by carpenters, according to carpenters’ methods of construction—heavy planks, joints without glue, and iron bands. Very little of this furniture survives, but some chests, turned chairs, a few beds and trestle tables are to be found in museums. Most of the surviving furniture is religious rather than domestic—benches from churches and monasteries and monastery tables. Some furniture from castles also survives, mostly chests and tables. The only people to have furniture in France between 1100 and 1300 were the religious communities and the lords of castles. The castles fared even worse than the churches in the wars of medieval and Renaissance Eur- ope; this is why there are so few pieces of domestic furniture left.
During these times people did not travel very much, and ships did not carry large cargoes : the carpenters used the wood they found growing near them. France was then largely covered with forests of oak, beech, elm, chestnut, fruit trees, and softwood conifers. In the north of France oak was most frequently used for furniture; in the south, oak, walnut, and some fruit-woods such as cherrywood were used.
The principal piece of Romanesque domestic furniture was the chest. It served to store things in the castles, and as a wardrobe-trunk for travelling. The word trunk comes from the first chests hollowed out of tree-trunks. Chests could also be used as seats, beds, and tables. The tables consisted of boards laid on trestles, sometimes supported and made more permanent by iron stays; they could be taken down and stored away, or packed up and moved in times of trouble. Benches were comparatively rare, except in the more stable religious communities, where there was less risk of having to pack up and go.
Romanesque furniture was decorated with carving and painting, and decorative iron-work. The carved motifs consisted of geometrical patterns, Biblical and legendary pictures, and traceries of round arches derived from Romanesque architecture. From the evidence of illustrated manuscripts and signs on the few pieces of Romanesque furniture that we have, it seems that most of the furniture was brightly painted—both in solid colours, and, on the parts that were not carved, in pictures.
GOTHIC (1300-1500)
From about 1300 to 1400 the furniture was still made by carpenters, who were, however, by this time beginning to discover the methods of joinery. In some early Gothic chests joined frames were used, but the frames were boarded over with thick planks—thin panels were not yet used. Most of the furniture, in fact, was like the Romanesque furniture in construction, although Gothic detail (traceries of pointed arches, for instance) was introduced into the carving.
By about 1400 the methods of joinery had been perfected. The new furniture was made by the joiners. Their work differed greatly from that of the carpenters, for they dispensed with iron bands and used framed panels. They continued to make furniture of the same native woods that the carpenters worked in. The carpenters still made some furniture, especially in the country districts.
Gothic furniture that has survived includes bench-ends from churches, stalls in cathedrals, chests and tables, chairs with box-seats (like chests) and straight panelled backs, a few cupboards on legs, and turned chairs. The box-chairs sometimes had carved canopies over them. The religious furniture was, of course, public furniture, and it was made to look like the religious buildings—the same kind of detail that we see on a Gothic cathedral was imitated to a smaller scale on Gothic furniture. Since the Church was the most important institution at the time, the domestic furniture was made in the same style as the religious furniture : private furniture imitated public furniture because the Church dominated private life.

The late 1920s saw the emergence of a Modern movement” of innovative American furniture designers. Inspired by European immigrants, including several key members of the Bauhaus, they explored new materials such as tubular metal. American Modernism was relatively small-scale, but it set the stage for a generation of industrial designers who from the mid-1930s reshaped interiors with enormous flair.
American Art Deco furniture falls into three broad categories: commercial copies of formal French pieces in exotic wood veneers and inlay; innovative and avant-garde work, which was never produced in large quantities and is scarce today; and industrially produced, mostly metallic and laminated wood furniture, based loosely on Bauhaus concepts. Produced from the 1930s until after World War II, this third category is much collected today.
PAUL T. FRANKL
Frankl (1886-1958), an Austrian architect and engineer, emigrated to the USA at the outbreak of World War I. He began designing and manufacturing furniture in New York City c.1920, working in a traditional European formal style. By the mid-1920s he was designing economical, compact, practical, modular furniture, inspired in part by the architect–designers Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965). The best Frankl furniture (1925–c.1930), produced Linder the tradename “Skyscraper”, was inspired by the evolving New York skyline. Bookcases and tall cabinetry of stepped, rectilinear form are typical, often with a black, red, or pale-green lacquer finish with silver-leaf edging. Natural woods, including California redwood and oak, were also used, with a red, black, or silver trim.

Dressing tables, desks, and mirrors arc also found, often with mirrored-glass tops or shelving and Bakelite drawer-pulls, which suggest a slightly later date. Bookcase cabinets usually have simple wooden pulls. Skyscraper furniture was designed to be economical, and standards of cabinetry are basic.
During the inter-war years Oriental interiors were extremely fashionable in the USA, and Frankl produced lacquered furniture such as dining-chairs, cocktail bars, dressing-tables, and small tables, usually in black, pale green, or red with gold- or silver-leaf details, sometimes with brass fittings. This furniture is less popular than the Skyscraper range, because collectors prefer pure, Modernist lines, particularly if they evoke the works of the Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian, who was
also inspired by mid-1920s New
York architecture.
DONALD DESKEY
The designer Donald Deskey
(1894-1989) collaborated with Frankl during the late 1920s,
designing screens and large
cabinetry in lacquered and metallic-leaf finish with vivid, jazzy
decoration featuring zigzags. He also produced more mainstream designs for numerous other American manufacturers, working mostly in hardwood veneers. He is best known as the principal interior designer for New York’s Radio City Music Hall,
which preserves many of his pieces in situ. Pieces with Radio City provenance occasionally appear on the market and are eagerly sought.
Between 1927 and 1931 Deskey worked in partnership with Phillip Vollmer, designing furniture in Bauhaus taste, made of metal and glass, sometimes together with Bakelite and cork. Most of Deskey’s work is unsigned, but his designs are well recorded in contemporary catalogues, and many specialist dealers in the USA recognize them.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is one of the best-known and most influential American architects and designers. Any designs attributed to him command a premium, particularly the Modernist oak creations from the first decade of the 20th century. However, his later post-war commercial furniture, mostly oak and maple tables and low, horizontal seating, is currently of little more than decorative value.
Most of Wright’s work cannot be considered Art Deco, but some of his furniture of the inter-war years appeals to Art Deco enthusiasts. The best examples were designed for Wright’s residential buildings, and are therefore extremely scarce. Pieces for commercial interiors were made in larger numbers and are more common today. Enamelled metal furniture, such as that made for Wright’s S.C. Johnson Administration Building (Wisconsin) in 1937, and several types of wooden chair are relatively common on the market.

THE CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
In 1925 the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (18731950) began work on the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan. In 1932 he became president and art director of the academy, serving there until his death. The building retains many of the original furnishings that he designed.
In most of Saarinen’s designs a formal, Scandinavian influence is evident in the elegant lines and relatively small scale, although some are comparable to the more organic style of the Wiener WerkstRte designer Dagobert Peche (1887-1923). Saarinen preferred rich wood veneers and natural materials, which he sometimes Used in combination with steel or polished metal.
The Cranbrook Academy, like the German Bauhaus school, is best known for its influential alumni. The most celebrated Cranbrook graduates from the 1930s are Florence Knoll (b.1917), whose name appears on much American Modernist furniture made under her direction; Charles Eames (1907-78), who designed laminated wood, leather, and fibreglass furniture for the Herman Miller Co. and others from the late 1930s; and Eero Saarinen (1910-61), Eliel Saarinen’s son, who collaborated with Eames as well as pursuing an independent career as both an architect and a furniture designer. Popular designs were produced over several decades (some are still made); earlier pieces can be identified by tags and generally higher-quality craftsmanship, as well as by wear and tear. Followers of Eames whose work is of interest to collectors include Gilbert Rohde (1894-1944), who designed Bauhaus-influenced tubular steel furniture produced by the Herman Miller Co., and George Nelson (1907-86).
OTHER AMERICAN ART DECO FURNITURE During the 1930s, American Modernism took root throughout the USA, partly because so economical a style of design was appropriate to a country in the grip of the Depression. Leading designers include Russel Wright (1904-76), Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960), and Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), who all specialized in industrial-style commercial products and lighting, using new materials such as aluminium, chrome, and plastic. Karl Emmanuel Martin (”Ke”) Weber ,1889-1963) studied under Bruno
Paul in Berlin before moving to California in 1914. He designed both individually commissioned and mass-produced furniture, typically in laminated wood, chromed metal, and sprung steel.
The architect Eugene Schoen 1880-1957) designed elegant furniture in Modernist materials including glass and nickel. Examples of tubular steel furniture influenced by the
Bauhaus include -pieces designed by Wolfgang Hoffman (1900-69), son of the famous Austrian designer Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), during the 1930s. Prestigious firms included John Widdicomb, Johnson Furniture, and Barker Brothers Furniture Co., all in Los Angeles, and S. Karpen of Chicago, all of which employed leading designers.

Paul T. Frankl
•    COLLECTING rarely found outside New York City; Oriental style is less popular than Skyscraper; collectors prefer signed pieces in unrestored condition; surface restoration is common as decoration is easily worn
Marks
Authentic Skyscraper pieces are stamped “SKYSCRAPER FURNITURE, Frank) Galleries, 4 East 48th Street, New York”
Donald Deskey
•    VALUE interesting provenance, such as Radio City Music Hall, adds greatly to value
•    COLLECTING Deskey-Vollmer signed pieces are more desirable than Deskey’s later, traditional designs; vivid, jazzy designs are very collectable – beware of fakes
Marks
Some pieces of Deskey-Vollmer have a metal tag
Frank Lloyd Wright
•    COLLECTING Art Deco style is less valuable than pieces from c.1900 to 1910, but more valuable than post-1945 pieces; original condition is all-important; provenance from notable interior schemes adds greatly to value
Marks
Wright furniture is rarely marked, but is well documented and easily identifiable through style
Saarinen and The Cranbrook Academy of Art
•    COLLECTING Saarinen: designs are scarce but well documented; Eames: very collectable, particularly early work
Other designers
•    COLLECTING identifiable pieces by lesser-known American designers are rare but still not greatly sought after; provenance is important in determining value; commercial furniture is less valuable than domestic
Marks
Pieces are rarely signed by the designer but may bear a maker’s or retailer’s mark; Weber pieces may bear a tag from Lloyd Manufacturing Co.

Settles and sofas before 1840
The box-settle was in existence in northern Europe by the 15th century. The earliest examples usually have planked seats and pierced trellis or linen-fold panelled backs, and are often richly carved. A plainer and sturdier form was the oak “monk’s table”, which had a bench-like seat, often set above an enclosed well used for storage, and a hinged back, which when brought forward served as a table. This basic form was adopted by furniture-makers in Britain (particularly in the provinces), and the Low Countries from the 16th century. Early box-settles were usually of oak, although elm, chestnut, and fruitwood were increasingly used during the 18th century; they continued to be made in the provincial tradition until well into the 19th century.

DOUBLE CHAIR-BACK SETTEES
The double chair-back settee dates from the mid-17th century, and its evolution reflects that of the chair back (splat). Invariably of walnut, this type of furniture is distinguished by caned seats, carved upright splats, and baluster-turned or strapwork legs joined by stretchers. By the late 17th and early 18th centuries the double chair-back settee was characterized by a drop-in, upholstered seat, slightly serpentine toprail with vase or baluster-shaped splats, and cabriole legs with pad feet. Usually made of walnut, it became increasingly bold and elaborate in form and decoration; by the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14) settees were frequently veneered with burr-walnut and enriched with seaweed marquetry on the splats and legs. George I examples (1714-27) were often inspired by the architect William Kent (c.16851748), and have carved shells, foliage, lion-masks and paws, and eagle’s-head arm terminals and claws. Mahogany settees were first made under George II (1727-60); those from the 1750s and 1760s frequently follow chair-patterns in the Chinese, Gothick, and French Rococo styles popularized by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62). Continental examples were often gilded or painted with flowers and chinoiserie decoration, and are far more Rococo in form than their English counterparts, with exaggerated cabriole legs, serpentine toprails, and asymmetric splats. This latter feature is also characteristic of Dutch double-chair back settees, which parallel English Queen Anne and early Georgian examples, save for the enrichment of floral marquetry. However, Dutch chair-back settees with floral marquetry on a mahogany, as opposed to a walnut, ground are more usually 19th century. English settees of the late 18th and early 19th centuries are usually of carved mahogany or satinwood. Painted designs include peacock feathers and flowers in the manner of George Seddon & Sons (est. 1785), and Etruscan-black decoration, inspired by Classical vases. These painted examples are usually of beech and often display caned or rush seats with squab cushions.
CANAPES AND CHAISES-LONGUES
Canapes with padded backs and seats dating from the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715) usually have walnut frames with simple channelled decoration to the legs and stretchers, scrolled arms, and cabriole legs. The most sophisticated canapes of the Regence period (1715-23) are masterpieces of the carver’s art; their giltwood or walnut frames were carved with foliage, shells, and chimerical dragons, and their backs strewn with flowers in the style of Juste-Aurele Meissonnier (1695-1750).
During the 1730s and 1740s, Rococo canapes became even more exaggerated in form and detail. They were usually gilded or of walnut, although Italian craftsmen also employed a mix of silver and gold leaf, a decoration known as mecca. Italian canapes are often less well constructed than French seat furniture.

The chaise-longue was characterized by its long seat, which enabled the sitter to recline horizontally, and was first recorded in France, Italy, and England in the late 17th century. Louis XIV chaises-longues were usually of carved walnut or beech, with caned seats and squab cushions. During the early 18th century the frames became richer and more florid, often being gilded or japanned in imitation of Oriental lacquer, while the caned seats were rejected in favour of fully stuffed and upholstered seats. Usually carved in lime or beech, and intended to be painted or gilded, inid-18th-century Continental chaises-longues were of a pegged construction. Although rarer, day-beds, usually without side-supports, were also made in England during the mid-Georgian period.
It was under the influence of the Prince of Wales (later George IV) and his circle that the chaise-longue reached its apogee in England. The form was the perfect vehicle for the reproduction of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian ornament. Simpler Regency chaises-longues were also widely manufactured, mainly in mahogany or rosewood, perhaps inlaid with brass in the “Buhl” manner. Painted examples with Etruscan-inspired ebonized and parcel-gilt decoration, or with a grained or stencilled finish, also abound. The earliest Regency chaises-longues are light and elegant, with simple, free-flowing lines, sabre legs, and brass caps and casters. Examples from the 1820s and 1830s are increasingly florid and heavy; they are supported on claw feet and arc often richly carved with exaggerated, stylized foliage.
DUNCAN PHYFE (1768-1854)
The best-known New York cabinet-maker of the early and mid-19th century, Duncan Phyfe also gave his name to the generic term for American furniture in the Neo-classical style, making use of the forms and ornament of Classical Greece and Rome. The work of Phyfe and his contemporaries incorporates “curule” (Grecian-cross design) legs or sabre legs, paw feet, harp and lyre backs, caned toprails, and decoration showing sheaves of wheat, thunderbolts, cornucopia, and swags. Unless documented by a bill or label, New York Federal and Classical furniture should be attributed to the Phyfe school. Phyfe-type furniture was made into the mid-19th century, with a revival in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

EARLY 19TH-CENTURY SOFAS
The development of the chaise-longue in the 19th century was mirrored by that of the sofa. From c. 805 to 1810 sofas became increasingly bold and luxurious. Frames of plain mahogany were initially fashionable, carved with Grecian ornament as promoted by George Smith (active c.1786-1828) in his book A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808); these were superseded by more florid examples in rosewood and, later, walnut, upholstered with bolster cushions at each end. This extravagance was continued in the design and decoration of the frames, which often had tightly scrolled arm-terminals and were embellished with gilt-bronze mounts or inlaid in the “Buhl” manner with foliate arabesques, as on sofas by the firm of Gillow (est. c.1730). The sofas were supported by hairy-paw feet. As seen in the designs of Michel Angelo Nicolson (c.1796-1844) in The Practical Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and Complete Decorator (1826), the basic Regency form persisted throughout the 19th century. However, sofa designs became heavier as the century progressed, with the introduction of shorter and fatter legs, often reeded, and tapering to brass caps and casters.

•    BOX-SETTLES the most lavishly decorated settles, particularly those with linen-fold panelled backs, are often examples of 19th-century antiquarianism, in which old panelling has been reused or plain types have been later carved or embellished
•    DOUBLE CHAIR-BACK SETTEES the majority of these are 19th-century copies, which may be identified by the quality of the timber and carving, and by the use of carved ornament borrowed from different periods
•    CHAISES-LONGUES mid-18th century Continental chaises-longues should be of pegged construction; 18th-century examples were widely copied in the 19th century – these later pieces are usually betrayed by the stiffness of the carving; chaises-longues have very often been regilded (this will not affect the value if the work is of a high quality); examples that were once brightly painted have often faded

Storage furniture.
Chests-of-drawers after 1840
The practical nature of the chest-of-drawers ensured its continued popularity after 1840. It was considered an essential part of any household and produced in vast numbers throughout Europe. Chests-of-drawers, called commodes if made in France or in the French manner, with serpentine curves and Rococo characteristics, range from the utilitarian to the virtuoso.
WOOD AND CONSTRUCTION
Despite the internationalism of styles, each country in Europe tended to use its native woods especially for the carcases; for example, France and The Netherlands used oak and Scandinavian countries used pine. Typically, Dutch drawer-linings are of oak, nailed together or dovetailed. Satinwood for veneers was imported from the East and West Indies. The satinwood used for furniture of the Edwardian period usually has strong lines, and is more likely to come from the East than the West Indies. Although birch was native to Europe and had been used for a long time on Scandinavian furniture, in Britain it had been confined to cooking utensils and provincial furniture. With the growth of furniture production in the 19th century, satin-birch was used as an alternative to the expensive satinwood; when cut carefully the wood could produce a decorative figure. Birch has subsequently come to be used for plywood and in furniture of modern design. Dovetails throughout central Europe at this time were 10 to 15mm (X–yin) at their widest point. In southern Europe they were broader and coarser, but all were in marked contrast to those made in Britain. There, the dovetails were consistently much smaller, often finer than a pencilpoint. This is an instantly recognizable feature of British and North American furniture construction.
PLAIN CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
Many chests-of-drawers made in the 19th century were designed as parts of bedroom suites; the other components would be a bed, a wardrobe, and a pair of night tables. As a result of increased mechanization and the revival of styles, the choice for the Victorian purchaser was huge and designed to suit every pocket. The standard Victorian chest-of-drawers is of the very simplest form with two short and three graduated drawers constructed using traditional methods, with neat dovetailed joints. The proportions were generally rather heavy, and this was accentuated by a heavy plinth base. This type of chest-of-drawers was large and widely manufactured by firms such as Maddox of London (est. 1838) and William Smee & Sons (est. 1817). Pieces found today are likely to be originals and are modestly priced. Their plain, utilitarian design makes these chests long lasting.
The Wellington chest is also a relatively plain form of the chest-of-drawer. Named after the Duke of Wellington, whose succesful campaigns against Napoleon had made him a national hero, it was first introduced in the 1820s and originally intended to contain a collection of coins or other precious artefacts. It is characterized by its tall, narrow form and by the stiles (uprights) fixed to either side of the drawers. One of the stiles is hinged to cover the drawer ends at one side, which allows the chest to be locked. Wellington chests can have up to 12 drawers and occasionally a secretaire drawer in the middle. They were normally made of mahogany or rosewood, but there are also examples in pollard oak, burr-walnut, burr-elm, and yew.
Another type of plain chest was the two-part campaign chest. These were first made for use in the field during the military campaigns in the Peninsular War (1809-14), although they continued to be made throughout the 19th century. These chests are recognizable by their sunken handles and carrying handles at the sides, and feet that may be unscrewed and stored safely in the drawers while being moved. Of small, neat proportions they arc often made in teak.
TYPES OF DECORATION
As with other types of furniture, chests-of-drawers made after 1840 were decorated with a wide variety of ornamentation, reviving styles from previous centuries and employing mechanization to speed up production. The fine marquetry decoration that had graced Dutch cabinets-on-stands and other case furniture from the end of the 17th century, by such outstanding craftsmen as Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733), continued to be made throughout the 18th century and was still a popular form of decoration in The Netherlands during the I 9th century. The style normally associated with Dutch marquetry is that of flowers with birds and foliate scrolls. However, particularly from the second quarter of the 19th century, more Neo-classical motifs, including ribbon-tied swags, urns, and stiff leaves, were common, usually inlaid on mahogany grounds.
The fascination with Oriental art, dating from the 17th century, had a widespread appeal during the 19th.
One of the strongest expressions of this taste can be seen in the style and furnishings of Brighton Pavilion, designed for the Prince of Wales (later George IV) during the early 19th century. The style of the buildings and its furnishings continued the fashion for chinoiseries already set in the 18th century, using such materials as bamboo, japanning (a European version of lacquering), and caning. White real bamboo was generally used for Regency bamboo furniture, by the 1860s it had largely been replaced by imitation bamboo using such woods such as walnut and beech, and in the USA maple. The wood was turned, carved, and painted to simulate bamboo, in the manner already practiced by the Chinese in the 17th century. The Oriental influence was also strongly felt in the USA, where the production of imitation bamboo furniture was at its height during the 1880s. The forms made were distinctly Western, and the furniture was considered especially suitable for light, summery interiors in country houses, where the hot summer months would be passed, or for use in conservatories and as garden furniture. In Britain the craze for whimsical “bamboo” furniture was given a further boost when Japanese art was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, which gave rise to the Aesthetic Movement. Between 1869 and 1935 there were over 150 firms registered in Britain manufacturing “bamboo” furniture, including those with such exotic names as the Aizdu Bamboo Co. (est. 1884) in London and the Mikado Co. (est. 1893) in Birmingham. In the USA, where imitation bamboo was more popular than real bamboo, such firms as C.A. Aimone, the Kilian Bros, and George Hunzinger in New York were notable producers.
Another form of “Oriental” decoration was japanning. During the mid-18th century the Martin family in Paris were well known for their version of japanning, where the carcase was prepared and painted with Oriental designs or fetes galantes (open-air scenes) inspired by the paintings of Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher. Numerous coats of amber varnish were then added until a hard coating was achieved. This technique was revived in the 19th century, although the quality achieved was never the same.
Inexpensive timbers could be grained or stained to resemble luxury woods. Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) had given instructions in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), and Nathaniel Whittock had suggested several ways of imitating timbers such as rosewood in The Decorative Painters’ and Glaziers’ Guide ( 1827). Whittock also advised on the creation of marbling effects.
Pieces decorated in this way remained popular as occasional and bedroom furniture well into the third quarter of the 19th century, and were revived again in the early years of the 20th.
Painted pieces were produced in large quantities, but are now scarce in original condition as the paintwork has rubbed off, or worse, has been stripped off completely. The practice of stripping antiques has now largely stopped, and pieces with original decoration are keenly sought after.
THE REVIVAL STYLES
Throughout the 19th century the revival of styles affected all forms of furniture, and the chest-of-drawers was no exception. Of all styles, the most influential and pervasive throughout Europe were those of the Louis
XV and XVI periods. While every country revived furniture styles from periods that had national connotations (Britain “Gothic” and Elizabethan, Italy “Renaissance”), most manufactured furniture in these 18th-century styles. By the end of the 19th century furniture made in different countries was often so similar that it can be difficult to tell where it was actually made. The increasing ease of communication, mechanization, and manufacture continued to dilute national characteristics.
At the International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, the British firm of Wright & Mansfield (est. 1860) in London, won the supreme award for furniture. It showed a Neo-classical satinwood cabinet in the style of the architect Robert Adam (1728-92), decorated with plaques provided by the firm of Wedgwood. This gave rise in the 1880s to a revival of furniture based on the designs of Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and George Hepplewhite (d.1786). Sheraton Revival chests-of-drawers were usually made in light mahogany, satinwood or satin-birch, and decorated with inlaid stringing lines and shells or fan shapes, or painted with flowers and foliate scrolls. A series of books on interior design published in the late 1870s was directed at the middle classes and confirmed the fashion for Adam, Hepplewhite. and Sheraton, and in 1891 Sheraton’s
The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) and Flepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) were reprinted. Out of these revivals came the Edwardian style, which contained features of all three designers, adapted in shape and proportion, often using mahogany or satin-birch, and with bone inlay or painted ornamentation for decoration. Revivals were subject to misinterpretation, and copies were not always successful. For example, the slenderness of Sheraton forms was often slimmed down even more, and could look too attenuated and rather spindly.
After the eclecticism of the earlier 19th century, when various styles from different periods were thrown together, towards the end of the 19th century, there was a move by some firms to reproduce excellent, close copies of the original works. Some of these arc indistinguishable from the originals. Firms such as Gillow (est. c.1730) of Lancaster, and Edwards & Roberts (est. 1845) of London, developed reputations for these high-quality reproductions. Edwards & Roberts clearly stamped or labelled its chests-of-drawers. However, as it dealt in antiques and modern furniture as well as reproductions, and stamped or labelled everything that that came through its doors, it is often difficult to tell one of its copies from a genuine 18th-century piece. As well as precise copies by imitations by top firms, inexpensive were produced elsewhere.

• VENEERING check that veneers have not been used to cover poor construction.
• DATING Most Chests look distinctly 19th century, but there were fine copies of 18th-contury examples made, which can now be very difficult to distinguish; a 19th-Century mark or signature tends to be on mounts or locks rather than on the carcase, as in the 18th century.
• size as a general rule of thumb, smaller chests-ofdrawers tend to be more commercial – however, beware of fakes and items made from associated pieces.
• MARKS some firms marked their furniture with stamps or labels; marks can often be found on hinges.