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GERMANY TOOK LONGER to embrace
the changes in decorative arts seen elsewhere in Europe. This was largely because it was still preoccupied with the prevailing Historismus style,
where design was centred on an interpretation of historic elements.
However, through the influence of the Belgian designer Henry van de Velde – who worked on a number of high-profile projects in Germany –and the innovative work of gifted German artists such as Richard Riemerschmid, Peter Behrens, and Franz von Stuck, the Art Nouveau style became popular. This style was known in Germany as Jugendstil
(Youth Style) – a name associated with the popular review Die Jugend (Youth) – and it subsequently flourished throughout Germany during the last decades of the 19th century.
Jugendstil embraced both Symbolism and a preoccupation with nature and natural shapes. It was applied to everything from architecture to furniture and simple household objects. Each element had to work as part of a whole in terms of form and design: a concept called Gesamtkunstwerk. The aim was to make the home a unified, total work of art: practical, simple, dignified, and beautiful.
Many of the exponents of Jugendstil
were painters who turned to the decorative arts as part of a reaction against the stifling historicism of the fine arts. Munich was home to some of these designers, and came to be the city at the heart of the movement.
INNOVATIVE DESIGNERS
Early advocates of Jugendstil included Hermann Obrist, who was inspired by the Symbolists’ emotions and the plant world, and architect August Endell, who played a pivotal role throughout the development of Munich’s Secessionist movement
by seeking to echo the
spirit of his Austrian
contemporaries. Endell designed boldly proportioned, clean-lined furniture in materials such as elm or forged steel, and paid considerable attention to decorative detail.
Among the furniture designers in the Munich group were Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul, and the architect, Peter Behrens.
Behrens was also one of the founding members of the Vereinigte Werkstatten fur Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Applied Art). His furniture combined traditional
rectilinear shapes with restrained
curves. Richard Riemerschmid,
a talented designer, painter, and architect, was also linked to the workshops. His furniture followed Behrens’ example but was also influenced by Celtic origins, which played a role in Germanys decorative traditions. His simply shaped furniture used wood in its natural state and colour, with the grain its most distinctive decorative feature. Bruno Paul, another protagonist of Jugendstil, developed comfortable, rectilinear designs called Typenmobel which he was able to mass produce. They were a forerunner of the industrial furniture production of Ithe I Q Ws and 40s.
Germany also spawned a host of artists’ guilds, established in an effort to realise the ideals of the British Arts and Crafts movement.
THE DARMSTADT COLONY
The most notable of these guilds was founded in 1899 by Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, and was based at Darmstadt. Largely the vision of the Austrian architect and designer, Josef Maria Olbrich, the Darmstadt colony included public buildings and residences that were designed, built, and furnished by various artists.
art” could be found at Darmstadt in the house that Peter Behrens designed for himself. The interior, furniture, and decoration created a unified whole.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Germany had embraced industrial production and increasingly turned its attention to improving the quality of mass-produced, industrial products. This signalled the death knoll for Art Nouveau, with its ideals of hand-craftsmanship, freedom of artistic creation, and refined decoration.

CIRCULAR DINING TABLE
This oak pedestal dining table was designed by Peter Behrens and made by the Vereingte Werkstatten far Kunst im Handwerk, Munich. It has a panelled top above an urn-shaped pedestal. The six C-scroll supports underneath the table repeat the symmetry of the six-panel circular top. The circular foot plate also
repeats the shape of the circular table top. With Richard Riemerschmid, Behrens was the first industrial designer, designing specifically for mass production. With this piece, Behrens moved away from his earlier elaborate and curvilinear Art Nouveau style towards a simpler style that depended on the quality of the wood, and simple shapes and proportions. c.1900.
SIDE CHAIR
This chair by Peter Behrens was designed for the poet Richard Dehmel’s house in Hamburg. Made of white painted wood, the chair is geometric in design, with bold cut-out shapes on the back and has straight legs.
YELLOW LACQUERED CUPBOARD
This pinewood cupboard was designed by Gertrud Kleinhempel and made by Dresdner Werlkstatten. Two of its four doors are pierced with heart motifs, and it is divided horizontally with three rows of rectangular, black and white scenic panels.
c.1900.

This stained pine commode, designed by Richard Riemerschmid, has a rectangular top with a three-sided splashback. The six drawers have nickel-plated pulls. c.1905.
This Patriz Huber cupboard is polished and partly carved. It has inlays of different exotic woods and copper mountings. The top has facetted glazing and shelves on either side. c.1900.
This mahogany table, designed by Richard Riemerschmid and made by Dresdner Werlkstatten, has a hexagonal top, a round second tier, and curved legs. 1905.
This oak chair by Otto Eckmann has square-section arms, rails, legs, supports, and stretchers, with the latter two bowed. It has a brass-riveted, leather-upholstered back and seat pads. c.1900.
SIX-DRAWER COMMODE
LEMON MAHOGANY CUPBOARD
COUCH TABLE
OAK FRAME ARMCHAIR
DINING CHAIR
This is a poplar dining chair which comes from a set of nine, designed by Peter Behrens. It is lacquered and has a
leather seat. c.1901.
BEECH FRAME ARMCHAIR
This beech chair was designed by Marcel Kammerer and made by Thonet of Vienna (see p.375). The bentwood frame is stained mahogany, and the stuffed seat and buttoned back are covered in brown leather. c.1910.

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Windsor Chairs
THE WINDSOR CHAIR is often associated with country timbers and provincial manufacture (particularly around High Wycombe in England). However, its origins were far from provincial. The Duke of Chandos had japanned Windsor chairs in his library at his Middlesex home, Canons, and there were mahogany examples in the library of St. James’ Palace in the early 18th century. However, by the early 19th century, they were restricted to humbler homes or taverns.
Windsor chairs were only ever produced in Britain and North America, but British and American Windsor chairs often display different characteristics. While the seat (generally a saddle type) is central to the construction of both, with the
elements of the back, legs, and arms all mortised into it, they were made in different timbers. In Britain, ash, yew, and fruitwoods were used, with elm for the seat and, occasionally, beech for the turnings. In North America, hickory, chestnut, oak, ash, and
sometimes maple were favoured, with tulip, poplar, and pine for the seats.
There are also some stylistic differences between the two types. For instance, the use of a splat was more typically British, while the low-back Windsor chair was entirely American until the 1840s. Similarly, the Neoclassical Windsor chair, sometimes called an “arrow-back” on account of the spear or arrow shape that constitutes the back sticks, was never produced in Britain.

The top rail is shaped and scroll-carved.
The spindle rails are turned.
Scroll-carved arms continue from a carved tub-shaped back rail.
The legs are
slightly crooked.
The splat is solid and vase-shaped.
CROOKED LEG WINDSOR
This is an early English Windsor chair made of fruitwood, ash, and elm. It has a ram’s horn- and shell-carved top rail that terminates in scrolled ears. The central back rail curves forward to provide the scroll-carved arms, while
the solid, vase-shaped, central splat is flanked by elegant, turned spindle rails. There are three main spindles that continue from the top rail to the seat, and extra spindles in the lower section. The shaped seat is supported on four crooked legs. c.1750.

AMERICAN WRITING-ARM CHAIR
This high-back Windsor chair from Connecticut has an arched top rail, a mid rail with an arm and a writing paddle with drawer, a saddle seat with a drawer beneath, reel-turned legs, and an H-stretcher. 1797.
AMERICAN COMB-BACK CHAIR
This chair, from Philadelphia, has a serpentine top rail with scrolled ear terminals, a yoked mid rail with scrolled knuckle-arm terminals, a saddle seat, outsplayed legs, and an H-
stretcher.
GEORGIAN WINDSORS
Each of these yew armchairs has a hoop back and arms with a Gothic pierced splat and spars. The elm saddle seats are supported on cabriole legs terminating in pad feet and joined by hoop stretchers. 1750-70.
FAN-BACK WINDSORS
Each of this pair of English elm, walnut, and fruitwood fan-back Windsor armchairs has a shaped seat supported on turned legs joined by an H-stretcher. The chairs bear traces of their original paint finish. c.1770.

WINDSOR SETTEES
DESIGNED VIRTUALLY AS AN ELONGATED CHAIR, THIS TYPE OF SETTEE
WAS ONLY PRODUCED IN BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA.
There is little agreement on the differences between a settee and a sofa and indeed the preferred term seems to be largely dictated by current fashion. However, “settee” generally designates a particular type of furniture made in the late 18th and early 19th century that was much more closely related to chair, rather than sofa, design.
Often conceived as a chair extended to seat two or more people, its origins lie in the chair-back settee of the mid 18th century and the settle. Consequently, it might have a caned seat and back, or a
pierced back with splats, just like a chair, rather than the complete upholstery of a sofa. The Cape rusbank was a simplified variation of this type of furniture.
Windsor settees are peculiar to Britain and North America. They are constructed in the same way as Windsor chairs, with a wooden seat into which the back, arms, and legs are mortised. The backs are either of a continuous form, running into the arms with vertical splats, or take the form of a series of chair backs.
An English Regency settee This beech piece was overpainted in verdigris and gilt. The back of the settee has four lattice backs with musical trophy panels below an outscrolled top rail and down-scrolled arms. The caned seat is supported on turned front legs with brass caps and casters. Early 19th century.
A Philadelphia bow-back Windsor settee This black- and gold-painted settee has bamboo turnings. There are 29 spindles below the curved top rail and the downswept arms are on modified
S-curved supports. The seat is supported on bamboo turned legs joined by swelling H-stretchers.
An American arrowback, painted Windsor settee This has a flat top rail and scrolling arms set above a planked seat. It has turned legs and turned panel stretchers. Early 19th century.

PHILADELPHIA WINDSOR
This Windsor armchair has a top rail with a butterfly and seven spindles with bamboo turnings above a shaped seat.
AMERICAN BOW-BACK WINDSOR
This mahogany and painted armchair has an arched, moulded top rail, nine flaring spindles, down-curved arms over raked bamboo supports, a squared, shield-form seat, and raked bamboo
AMERICAN WINDSOR SIDE CHAIR
This side chair has a bow-shaped back with nine spindles above a saddle seat. The seat is supported on splayed legs with bamboo turnings and is joined by an H-stretcher.
GOTHIC WINDSOR CHAIR
Made from ash and elm, this chair has a lancet-shaped back with pierced splats. The chair seat is shaped and supported on cabriole legs with a hooped stretcher. One of a set of four.

GEORGE IV AND WILLIAM IV
WHEN GEORGE III in 1820, his
scandalous son, who had been ruling as Regent for nine years, became King George IV Known [or his extravagant tastes, the interiors created during his reign, particularly those at Windsor Castle, are some of the most sumptuous in British history. The reconstruction of the apartments on the east and south sides of the Upper Ward of the Castle between 1824 and
1830 was entrusted to the architect Sir Jeffry Wyattville. The furniture and upholstery was supplied by cabinetmaker Nicholas Morel. These heavily gilded interiors have a French flavour.
On George’s death in 1830, his brother became William IV In contrast to the worldly pursuits of his predecessor, William’s reign was dominated by the Reform Act, which brought about parliamentary reform.
However, this period also marked an important period of transition between the Regency and Victorian eras. Much of the furniture was still Neoclassical in style although it was generally
heavier than Regency pieces.
TOUS LES LOUIS
The interest in 18th-century French
styles dates from the late 1810s, when
French furniture became
available after the Revolution.
These pieces, especially those with tortoiseshell and brass boullework, were collected by, amongst others, the Duke of Wellington and the Prince Regent. Sometimes called the Rococo revival, it was known (incorrectly) at the time as the Louis XIV style. The serpentine lines of Louis XV furniture were re-interpreted on furniture typical of Louis XIV or XVI.
style was particularly appropriate to seat furniture with buttoned, upholstered backs or sides and plump, cabriole legs. Case furniture tended to have rectilinear, classical lines.
The Old French Style was promoted in a series of pattern books from 1825, including publications by John Taylor, Henry Whitaker, and Thomas King.
John Weale published reprints of mid 18th-century pattern books by Thomas Chippendale’s .
LATE REGENCY
Much of the mahogany furniture of the period was a heavier version of Regency designs, anticipating Victorian solidity. Carving was often Classically inspired and combined with gadrooning and ribbing. Bun feet were used on chests of drawers or plinth supports. Chair and table legs were often turned and ring-turned rather than outsplayed or sabre-form. Bed-posts were similarly designed, sometimes with acanthus carving.
This burr-oak and ebony-inlaid rectangular George IV library table has a crossbanded top above a frieze with two drawers. The table top is supported on quadruple baluster end columns linked by a stretcher. Stamped Holden & Co, Liverpool. Early 19th century.
LIBRARY TABLE
WILLIAM IV SOFA
The panelled top rail of this elegant mahogany sofa is flanked by scrolling terminals depicting acanthus leaves. The lower arms of the sofa are upholstered to match the back and seat cushion. Two bolster cushions provide added comfort. The piece has leaf-carved urn
terminals and is supported on turned and carved tapering feet with brass caps and casters. Early 19th century.
The arms are decorated with leaf motifs.
The back of the sofa is decorated with scrolling acanthus carving,.
WILLIAM IV TRIPOD TABLE
This painted tilt-top table has a rectangular top above a single column, which is supported on a tripod base. There is an armorial design painted on the surface of the table. The piece terminates in bun feet. c.1835.
This elegant mahogany bed has a moulded cornice decorated with a carved frieze and supported on four turned and carved bed posts. At the foot, the posts are reeded and leaf-carved, while at the head of the bed the posts
GEORGE IV LIBRARY ARMCHAIR
The upholstered tub back of this library armchair has a U-shaped front, which has been faced in mahogany and carved with reeds and roundels. The chair is supported on turned and reeded legs that terminate in brass casters.
The chair is one of a pair. Early 19th century. DN
are plain, enclosing a panelled head board (formerly the foot board). The scalloped pelmet and drapes are made of a floral fabric. Early 19th century.
This mirror has a rectangular plate within a gilt and silvered wooden frame, surmounted by a laurel wreath and carved with berried laurel. The lower section has a central scallop shell motif with a thistle below, flanked by rocaille, plants and foliage. One of a pair. c.1830.
WILLIAM IV MIRROR
LIBRARY TABLE
This tortoiseshell-veneered library table has a moulded edge above a shaped apron, and is supported on cabriole legs. All of the surfaces are decorated with tortoiseshell and embellished with gilt-metal mounts. c.1830.

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Storage furniture
The earliest movable storage furniture was the hollowed-out log, and these primitive beginnings are still evoked by the name “trunk” for a travelling container. During the medieval period simple chests and coffers were employed as containers for a wide variety of objects ranging from textiles to musical instruments. However, such chests were not the most convenient form of storage, and as furniture-making techniques became more sophisticated during the 17th century, the chest-of-drawers evolved, as did other forms of furniture designed for storing specific objects such as books, linen, of clothing, or, in the very grandest examples, purely for the ostentatious display of wealth.
Chests and coffers
As the main storage furniture of the medieval period, chests were made in large numbers for all kinds of purposes. Chests are containers with flat, hinged lids; they usually have feet but no handles. They were designed for storage inside buildings, their feet keeping the contents clear of damp floors. Coffers are generally travelling trunks without feet that may have carrying handles and a domed lids. From the 13th century chests were produced by the joiner, and coffers by the cofferer, who was primarily a leather worker; coffin-making was another of his tasks.
A Cassone.
Cassoni were important items of furniture in the Renaissance Italian palace Many, such as this walnut example, reflect Classical inspiration in their sarcophagus form and decoration The base was made in the 16th century, the feet, bottom panel, and part of the lid are of a later date.
EARLY CASSONI
In terms of domestic purposes, the Italian cassone has special significance: often, but not always, a marriage piece. Some cassoni were embellished with intricate inlay (intarsia) in different woods, while others were finely painted with figurative or mythological subjects or covered in designs in pastiglia, a technique where gesso was laid onto the surface, pressed or modelled into relief patterns, and then painted and gilded. Some of the richest 16th-century cassoni were of carved and polished wood, decorated with Mannerist designs. Important marriage cassoni were often made in pairs and decorated with heraldic devices and other symbols of the respective families. Further down the social scale, cassoni were used to hold the linen, clothing, and household textiles that constituted a dowry. Some were carved with the initials of the bride and groom and the date, and were handed down.
The low-relief carving on the frieze and front panels on the oak-panelled chest is typical
of the huge numbers of chests made in various parts of Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many carved patterns have strong regional associations, however, many were added during the 19th century.
WOODS AND CONSTRUCTION
Oak was mainly used for chests in northern Europe, while walnut was used further south. Pine was probably used much more than surviving examples would suggest; being subject to woodworm and rot, pro-19th-century pine chests are rare. Aromatic cypress and cedarwood was
proof against moths and other insects, and was therefore used in chests intended for clothes and textiles, particularly in northern Italy and the southern alpine regions. Ash and lime were used, notably in southern Germany and Switzerland; chestnut and walnut in southern France. Sometimes more than one type of timber was employed in a single piece.
A simple chest consists of six planks nailed or rudimentarily dovetailed together, with the vertical “slab” ends shaped at the bottom to form feet. Another kind of boarded chest was the hutch, from the French huche (chest). In this form the horizontal planks of the front and back are housed at either end in wide vertical members (stiles), which extend downward as the feet. Hutch chests thus have their feet at the front and back,
The top of the German oak coffer indicates this type of furniture’s origins as a travelling trunk, the domed shape could throw off the rain or sea-spray better than a flat top. Wooden coffers were replaced by smaller, lighter leather-bound travelling trunks. The raised cartouche panel is typical of the type made between the 17th and 19th century. It may have been a marriage piece, and the inscription reads “JOHANN … MU … ANNO 1772″, which may have been added at a later date.
Storage furniture
unlike slab-ended chests with feet at the sides. Some chests of such housed or “clamped-front” construction have framing at the sides, and simple chip-carved decoration on the front. This form survived for high-quality chests in parts of Germany until the 18th century, by which time panelled construction was being used in most of Europe.
Chests of framed and panelled construction were developed during the 15th century, and by the 16th were produced in considerable quantities. Oak chests of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the large numbers of 19th-century reproductions of them, are most often of this type. The front and sides of a panelled chest consist of top and bottom horizontal rails united by vertical bars (muntins), with vertical stiles at each end. In most examples the stiles continue downward to form the feet. The panels, which were of thinner wood and slightly chamfered at the edges, were designed to slide into grooves in this framework, which was fastened together with mortises and tenons secured by wooden dowels. Lids were either panelled, like the front but without carved decoration, or composed of planks jointed together, some with cleated ends. Inside, many of these chests were fitted with a small compartment, or “till”, which might be lockable for valuables.
DECORATION
While carving was prevalent, inlays of contrasting woods, bone, or mother-of-pearl were not unusual. The most elaborate inlays were applied to the so-called “Nonsuch” chests made in Germany and the Low Countries, or by German and Flemish craftsmen working in England in the late 16th and the 17th century. They are distinctive for their patterned architectural inlays filled with vistas of turreted buildings in an intricate mosaic of coloured woods. Pine chests were usually painted, particularly in Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Switzerland, and Austria; the mainly floral patterns varied from one region to another. Painted pine became popular in England during the 19th century-, but decorative treatments were restrained, and mainly confined to simulations of timber or marble.
The carved decoration imitating pleated fabric, known as linenfold, was used for the panels of many chests. Formalized plants, geometrical patterns, and strapwork and low-relief arcading were other favourite designs for panels and training. High-relief carving, particularly of figurative subjects, appeared on some northern European chests during the medieval and Renaissance periods.
THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH OR GERMAN STYLE
“Dutch” was a general term used in Pennsylvania for all Central European settlers who came to the region in the late 17th century from European villages ravaged by the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Rural settlers continued to use Germanic construction such as wedged dovetails, and also to paint their walnut, pine, or poplar furniture with decoration and the names and dates of their owner. The flat-top blanket chest became the most common piece of furniture in these households, often given to a young girl or boy to store their belongings. Rural communities developed their own styles, and regional differences are based on idiosyncratic construction and painted decoration: in Lancaster County there were three arched panels divided by pilasters; unicorns were painted on chests from Berks County, while stencilled designs were applied to those made around the area of Schwaben Creek in Northumberland County.
• COLLECTING chests were usually made of oak; after generations of wear and polishing, many examples have developed rich dark patinas; plain plank chests were of the slab-ended type; decoration was minimal, with scratch- or chip-carving; pre-16th-century furniture is usually heavy, and unaltered examples are very rare.
• BEWARE decorative panels, sometimes taken from other pieces of furniture (e.g. beds, linen-presses, and wall panelling), were often “recycled” during the 19th century when vast quantities of traditional oak panelled chests were produced using both old and new timbers; many plain old chests were “improved” with chiselled or chip-carved decoration, or were inscribed with spurious dates and initials; such pieces are now antiques in their own right, but should be distinguished from wholly genuine 17th- and 18th-century (or earlier) pieces; feet have been frequently replaced –these were often detached during transportation.