Art nouveau, international art movement in 1890s; characterized by decorative forms

and asymmetrical curving lines; popular revival of style today

Pre-industrial
From ancient times until the 18th century, the craft of furniture making changed
remarkably little. The tools and techniques used by the craftsmen of ancient Greece and
Rome would have been familiar to their counterparts in the Middle Ages or 18th-
century France. The woodworker's tools included axes, adzes (hammer-shaped cutting
tools with arched blades), large saws, files, rasps, chisels, planes, hammers, small saws,
measuring devices, and lathes.
Furniture was constructed in this pre-industrial period with relatively few methods. The
simplest furniture consisted of boards and planks simply nailed together, or, as in the
case of some Egyptian beds, the joints of the supporting framework were lashed
together with cord. More elaborate furniture was constructed with various methods of
holding wood together, including the mortise-and-tenon joint, used by joiners to create
paneled forms, and the dovetail joint, characteristic of work by craftsmen designated as
cabinetmakers. Animal glue was often used as an adhesive, and techniques of bending
wood have been used since antiquity to fashion curved elements.
The pre-industrial furniture maker worked alone or, more commonly, in a small shop
consisting of a master, journeymen, and apprentices. Specialization was established at
an early date and was common by the 18th century in urban centers such as Paris and
London. Shops headed by such men as Thomas Chippendale and William and John
Linnell of London employed many carvers, gilders, turners, chair makers, upholsterers,
and other artisans. Skills were passed from one generation to the next through the
apprenticeship system. Because of the conservative nature of apprenticeship, the
products of a particular shop tradition can often be recognized by their similarities.
Specialization within the craft is another reason why the products of a given region can
be identified by their similar treatment of details. In large European cities groups of
craftsmen formed guilds to maintain standards in the trade and to protect themselves
from outside competition (see Guild).
Post-industrial
Beginning in the late 18th century, and with full force since about 1840, the
manufacture of furniture has involved the use of various types of water, steam, and
electrically generated power machinery, designed to save labor and to assist in the mass
production of component parts. By the late 19th century most furniture, particularly
inexpensive furniture made for mass distribution, was produced in large factories with
many employees such as those companies located in Grand Rapids, Mich. This trend
continued unabated into the 20th century, though even the mass production of furniture
involves a considerable amount of skilled handwork in the assembling and finishing
stages. Since the 1890s there has been a small but significant amount of furniture
produced by self-conscious craftsmen utilizing the tools, techniques, and shop practices
of the pre-industrial world. While many of these craftsmen are home hobbyists, other
modern woodworkers in this tradition consider their products to be works of art as well
as craft and teach woodworking in universities and art centers.
STYLE
Egypt
The furniture of the ruling class of ancient Egypt was richly ornamented and
sophisticated, though houses were sparsely furnished by 20th-century standards. Much
of this furniture has survived from the Egyptian custom of burying household objects in
tombs where they were preserved until rediscovered by archaeologists in modern times.
Other evidence is derived from pictorial sources.
The principal forms were the bed, the throne chair, small tables, stools, and boxes and
small chests. The bed consisted of a simple, rectangular frame with short legs--often
carved in the form of animal legs--that supported a framework of woven cord.
Crescent-shaped headrests were used in place of pillows. Throne chairs, reserved for
individuals of great importance, also often had legs and feet carved to resemble animal
legs. Their square backs were inlaid with ebony and ivory, and their seats were of
leather or woven cord. Small stools, some with crossed legs terminating in duck's
heads, were common. Small boxes and chests were used for storing linen, clothing, and
personal goods such as jewelry.
Decoration in gold and silver foil or leaf was not uncommon on the most expensive
furniture, while less costly objects were painted in imitation of more valuable materials.
Images used for decoration were often taken from Egyptian gods and other religious
symbols. Inlay was usually applied in geometric or nearly abstract designs. While
relatively simple furniture was used by most people, the furniture of Egypt's ruling
class was very richly designed.
Greece
The ancient Greeks were the inheritors of the Egyptian tradition. Greek furniture
consisted of chairs, stools, couches, tables, and chests. Virtually no furniture from
ancient Greece has survived, so it is known today only through pictures on vases and
other items and from a few written descriptions. As with Egyptian furniture, stylistic
change was slow, and houses were furnished relatively simply. Greek designs borrowed
from those of Egypt with some innovations. Throne chairs were again reserved for
important individuals, but the basic chair was the klismos, a simple chair with a curving
back and sharply curving legs. This handsome design was widely copied during the
revival of early Greek style in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The multipurpose
couch was used for sleeping and for reclining at mealtime. Tables were lightweight and
portable so they could be easily removed when the meal was over. The diphros, a type
of small stool with legs fashioned by turning, was also popular. Case furniture for
storage was uncommon.
Rome
The Romans inherited their designs from late Greek styles and moved toward richer
designs. They produced the same basic forms as the Greeks, and again the couch was
popular. It eventually reached a characteristic form with a high back and high scrolled
ends that terminated in carved animals' heads. Much of the imagery was derived from
the animal world. The Romans also developed more permanent tables with round or
rectangular tops supported by three or four legs to accommodate their increased
number of household goods.
China
In Eastern cultures furniture has played a far less prominent and in many ways less
significant role in interior design than in the West. Chinese furniture is noted for its
superb proportions, quiet simplicity, and excellent craftsmanship. Constructed of many
kinds of hardwoods, particularly of the rosewood family, the typical low k'ang tables,
high side tables, and chairs were placed against the walls of the room. As in Western
cultures, the armchair was a seat of honor and was traditionally reserved for men.
Cupboards and chests were often decorated with lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay.
Dating from as early as the 8th century, lacquerwork has a long tradition. Lacquered
screens and cupboards of the 17th and 18th centuries were a major influence on
Western furniture.
Japan. Because the Japanese were accustomed to sitting and sleeping on floors covered
with tatami--mats of rice straw and rushes--beds, chairs, and tables of Western style
were not necessary. Most Japanese furniture consists of small, low armrests, writing
tables, book chests, and cabinets. Lacquerwork was carried to the level of extremely
high art in Japan and was an important part of the artistic Japanese tradition. Movable
screens were another significant element of interior design in Japanese homes.
India and Southeast Asia
There was also a general absence of furniture in India and Southeast Asia until
European traders influenced taste. The throne, chair, and stool, however, were known
from antiquity and again served as symbols of authority. An Indo-European style
developed after contact with Portuguese and Dutch settlers in the 16th century and
English colonists in the late 18th century.
Africa
Furniture in sub-Saharan Africa and in other primitive societies was, by Western
standards, very restricted in its number of forms and in its size. Nevertheless, the
furniture that was used--such as stools, headrests, and thrones loosely inspired by and
copied from European-style chairs--was invested with great symbolism. In some
instances these personal forms of seating became sacred objects that supposedly carried
with them the soul and power of their owner. Headrests perhaps were used primarily
because it was thought that the head of an important leader should never touch the
ground. While often simple in form, more elaborate stools and headrests were carved
with representations of humans and animals.
Byzantine and Early Medieval
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the western portion of Europe sank into a
period in which little furniture was made, and the Classical tradition was nearly lost
under the influence of nomadic invaders. Chairs, stools, benches, and chests were the
most common forms produced, and furniture was transportable so that it could be
moved with the wealthy nobles on their travels. In the eastern portions of the empire,
sophisticated furniture continued to be made, combining Classical models with
ornament influenced by the Orient. Byzantine furniture, produced in an empire
dominated by the great city of Constantinople, was made to a high level of
craftsmanship.
In the early Middle Ages folding stools and chests were common. Chests were often
carved with architectural motifs such as arcades and columns.
Gothic
After about 1250 furniture began to be influenced by the architectural style known as
Gothic, which had begun in the early 12th century. The slim, attenuated columns of
Gothic cathedrals and the pointed arches, trefoils and quatrefoils (three- and four-lobed
tracery), cusps and crockets (projecting ornaments), and elegant tracery patterns in
windows and other decorations of these churches were reflected in furniture ornament.
As the Middle Ages progressed, this style was adopted throughout northern Europe,
though it never took hold in Italy. Furniture of all but the simplest kind was owned only
by the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes. Much fine furniture, particularly
lecterns and desks for reading and writing, was produced for churches and monasteries.
(See also Architecture, "Gothic.")
In this age of chivalry and heraldry, furniture was still designed to be easily
transportable. Trestle tables, or tables with removable tops supported by cross-braces,
were popular, for example. The chest was still the most common domestic furniture. It
often served as a chair, table, or even as a bed. Chairs were few in number, and their
ownership remained a sign of high social status. A good example is the coronation
chair of about 1300 in Westminster Abbey. Another folding chair had an x-shaped
frame, while heavier, boxier chairs with high backs developed from the chest form.
The size, numbers, and complexity of storage furniture increased in size during this
period. Cupboards, dressoirs (sideboard cupboards with upper shelves), and aumbries
(special cupboards) were some of the forms used for the display of silver at festive
banquets or for the storage of food and clothing.
In addition to Gothic motifs, linenfold carving of Flemish origin began to be common
on paneled furniture and walls in the 15th century. Painting and gilding were widely
used, even on carved furniture. Paintings of the period reveal that beds, couches, chairs,
and even cupboards were draped and hung with colorful textiles. The Gothic style,
which began to be superseded by the Italian Renaissance in the late 15th century,
remained popular in northern Europe and especially in England until the 17th century.
Renaissance
The rediscovery of the art and learning of the ancient Classical world was the focal
point of what is known as the Renaissance. Beginning in Italy in the early 15th century,
the new humanism spread throughout Europe during the next several centuries.
Italy
Italian Renaissance furniture is often decorated with Classical architectural columns or
with elaborate cupids, scrolls, and strapwork (carved designs resembling interwoven
leather straps). In the late Renaissance style known as Mannerism, forms and ornament
became exaggerated, and designs included grotesque masks and arabesques. The
cassone, or marriage chest, was a typical form on which much attention was lavished.
These chests were carved and painted by the greatest artists of the time, often with
scenes derived from the Bible, literature, or mythology. The practice of intarsia, a type
of inlay or marquetry, was carried to a high level.
France
The influence of the Italian Renaissance spread northward throughout Europe. It was
adopted in France under Francis I in the early 16th century, when furniture of a refined
and delicate order was produced at Fontainebleau and elsewhere. The published designs
of such men as Jacques Androuet du Cerceau and Hughes Sambdin were influential in
establishing French Renaissance furniture in the second half of the century. The
caquetoire chair, with a wide, trapezoidal seat to accommodate the flaring clothing of
the period, was a favored type of seating.
Northern Europe
In Switzerland and Germany Italian designs were interpreted in a more ponderous
fashion in large cupboards and chests. In the Low Countries the published designs of
about 1580 by Hans Vredeman de Vries included large rectangular forms loaded with
heavy scrolls, carving, and strapwork. This style influenced the adoption of
Renaissance and Mannerist styles in England. Florid ornament was common on the
bulbous legs of the heavy oak tables, beds, and cupboards characteristic of English
furniture of the last half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century. Prosperity had
moved down the social ladder during the reign of Elizabeth I, and many homes were
furnished quite lavishly.
The 17th Century
Furniture in the baroque style for the ruling classes of Western Europe in the 17th
century included many of the most elaborate and sculptural household objects ever
constructed. Conceived as an integral part of formal interior designs, this expensive and
ostentatious furniture played a major role in reinforcing the authority of royalty and the
aristocracy. While Renaissance designs had moved steadily northward from Italy, there
was no corresponding straightforward transmission of the baroque style. Improved
communications and the migration of skilled craftsmen created shifting patterns of taste
and fashion. Although each country developed its own specialties and interpretations of
the baroque style, some general attributes were common throughout Europe. In large
homes and palaces in each country, visitors were led through a series of rooms of state
in which furniture was invariably arranged with precision in accordance with strict
guidelines of etiquette and protocol. Tall, high-backed chairs were placed in rows
against the outside walls, and seating at court--especially in France--was determined by
social rank. Pier tables were flanked by candlestands and surmounted by large mirrors.
Furniture made for use by people outside of court society, of course, was of a less
costly and stylish nature.
Cabinets and large cupboards decorated with spiral-turned columns, heavy moldings,
and inlaid decoration of semiprecious hard stones, known as pietra dura, or veneered
with exotic woods were the showpieces of the baroque era. Sometimes these cabinets
and large side tables were supported by carved human figures, dolphins, shells, or
eagles. By the second half of the 17th century, trade with the Orient had led to a craze
for objects in a fashion known as chinoiserie. Italian silks and cut velvets added
richness to beds and seating furniture as the role of the upholsterer became more
pronounced.
Italy
In Italy wealthy families vied for social position through the acquisition of elaborate
furniture such as that made by the sculptor Andrea Brustolon. The time-consuming and
expensive skill of pietra dura was practiced extensively in Florence. Visitors on the
"Grand Tour" to Italy often purchased these Florentine mosaics in small panels and had
them inserted into furniture when they returned home.
Low Countries
In the Low Countries (now The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) veneering
was a specialty. Floral marquetry, or pictures of flowers and foliage in inlaid wood, was
characteristic of their cabinets. Carving and turned elements--such as the twisted
columns and round bun feet on large case pieces--were common. Daniel Marot, a
French emigre, was an influential designer whose engravings of room interiors and
four-poster state beds with heavy curtains were widely copied.
France
French furniture was influenced by the Low Countries during the first half of the
century. During the reign of Louis XIV in the second half, however, French furniture
developed to a high level of sophistication. The craftsmen who were gathered together
by the crown in the Gobelins' workshops outside Paris produced tapestries, metalwork,
and furniture for the palace at Versailles under the direction of Charles Le Brun from
1663. The published designs of Jean Berain were important in disseminating the French
version of the baroque. Closely associated with Berain was Andre-Charles Boulle, the
most famous and influential French furniture maker of this era, who was noted for his
marquetry in tortoiseshell, pewter, and brass.
England
When Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, European fashions in the
baroque style began to have an effect on English furniture. This influence became more
pronounced after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, when many skilled
French Huguenot craftsmen left France for England. Furniture lacquered in imitation of
authentic Chinese lacquer was known as japanned work and was popularized in a book
published in 1688 by John Stalker and George Parker entitled 'A Treatise of Japanning
and Varnishing'. Japanned cabinets supported on elaborately carved bases were
common in the finest houses such as Ham House, the residence of the duke of
Lauderdale, outside London. A style of naturalistic carving of fruit, flowers, game,
birds, and vegetables was practiced by Grinling Gibbons and others on both furniture
and woodwork. By the late 17th century the designs of Daniel Marot were influential.
In London cane chairs became a specialty. These high-backed chairs, with carved and
turned legs and stiles and paneled backs and seats of interwoven cane, were exported in
large numbers.
America
American furniture of the 17th century closely resembled the furniture made in the
parts of England and Europe from which its makers had emigrated. Large cupboards,
chests, chests with drawers, boxes, and various types of tables and stools were the most
common types. Much case furniture, fashioned generally of native oak and pine and
frequently painted, was decorated with shallow floral or strapwork designs carved in
low relief. These patterns usually corresponded to regional types of English provincial
furniture and reflect the late survival of Renaissance and Mannerist designs.
Some sophisticated furniture made in Boston, Mass., and New Haven, Conn., was
derived from London styles of ornament, including inlay, split spindles, bosses
(projecting ornaments at the intersections of moldings), heavy moldings, and
architectural motifs. Chairs were generally made of turned posts, spindles, and
stretchers or solidly framed with paneled backs (wainscot chairs) or upholstered with
colorful textiles (Turkey-work chairs) or leather.
Most surviving furniture made before 1700 was produced in eastern Massachusetts,
coastal Connecticut, the Connecticut Valley, and New York. New Amsterdam (now
New York) was originally a Dutch colony, and the first furniture produced there shows
in its massive forms and heavy ornaments its Dutch background. A large cupboard
known as a kas, made for hanging clothes, was often used by immigrants from the Low
Countries and Central Europe.
At the end of the 17th century, a new style of more elegant furniture began to be
produced in America's urban centers, particularly Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
Characteristic was the use of veneer, often of native burl walnut, on high chests of
drawers and matching dressing tables, each supported on a framework with turned legs.
These objects were made by cabinetmakers that succeeded the joiners of the preceding
century as the most important furniture makers. Bright, swirling surface decoration,
highlighted by the first use of imported brass escutcheons, and a feeling of instability
distinguish this furniture from the more massive, heavier objects of the 17th-century
style. Desks and bookcases began to be produced from about 1690 to 1720. Tall,
banister-back (having semicircular spindles) chairs were a popular American
counterpart to English cane chairs, imported into America in large numbers. In rural
areas paint was often substituted for the more expensive veneers found on city
furniture.
The 18th Century
In the 18th century, often called the golden age of furniture making, there were three
succeeding basic styles: the late baroque, the rococo, and the Neoclassical. The shift
from style to style occurred at different times in different countries, with France leading
the way as the most influential style center. As always, styles in rural areas changed
more slowly.
Late baroque
The Regence style predominated in France during the first three decades. Works by
such men as Charles Cressent were more curvilinear than their immediate predecessors,
and the impact of the new style was also felt in the greater degree of informality
permitted in room arrangements. Throughout the century furniture was made to be
more comfortable than in the past. There were many specialized types of objects such
as little tables designed for women. In England early 18th-century objects retained a
Classical feeling. Designs by the architect William Kent featuring architectural motifs
were produced in the Palladian style, named after the Italian Renaissance architect
Andrea Palladio.
Rococo
By the 1730s in France and the 1740s in England, the exuberant and fanciful rococo
style began to be in fashion. Known in France as the Louis XV style, the rococo
rejected the heaviness, symmetry, and Classical reference of the baroque in favor of the
lighter, freer, more naturalistic mode of expression found, for example, in the drawings
of Juste-Aurele Meissonier. Ornament composed of shells, rocks, foliage, c-scrolls,
ribbons, and other motifs was applied to furniture asymmetrically. In the best rococo
furniture the impression is of a rich, active surface, almost as if the object was on fire.
In some cases the ornament breaks the bounds of the object's form and becomes the
form itself. The most dramatic rococo furniture was made in France and Germany; the
rococo of England and America tended to be somewhat more restrained.
The Chinese taste remained significant, and many objects were decorated with genuine
and imitation lacquer panels. The bombe commode, or bulbous chest of drawers, and
the large bureau plat, or writing table, were common French rococo forms. They were
often decorated with marquetry and with superb cast and chiselled mounts of ormolu, a
brass imitation of gold. Jean-Francois Oeben, cabinetmaker to the king, was only one
of many French craftsmen working in this style. The rigid guild system in Paris honed
and sharpened the skills of specialist craftsmen, including the menuisier (joiner),
ebeniste (cabinetmaker), carver, painter, gilder, and upholsterer. Important businessmen
known as marchands-merciers acted as middlemen between patrons and craftsmen.
In England the rococo was popularized by pattern books of ornament published by
many designers, including Thomas Chippendale, whose 'The Gentleman & Cabinet-
Maker's Director' was first published in 1754. The designs in this influential pattern
book were in the rococo, Chinese, and Gothic tastes; the latter found particular favor in
England.
Neoclassical
By the 1750s, however, recent archaeological discoveries and a renewed interest in
ancient Greece and Rome led to the development of the Neoclassical style.
Neoclassical objects are decorated with ornaments selected from antiquity and are
made with rectangular outlines and straight, usually tapered legs. The accent is on ovals
and other geometric shapes, and rational, balanced forms contrast sharply with the
irregular, fluid shapes of the rococo. In France the most representative cabinetmaker
was Jean-Henri Riesener. French furniture was sometimes inlaid with plaques of Sevres
porcelain, and there was an interest in mechanical furniture such as elaborate folding
ladies' desks.
In England the Neoclassical style is most closely associated with the architect and
designer Robert Adam (see Adam). Cabinetmaker's pattern books were again
influential, particularly George Hepplewhite's 'Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide',
published in 1788, and Thomas Sheraton's 'Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing
Book' (1791). These books were important vehicles in the transmission of the
Neoclassical style abroad.
America
In America the late baroque style began to be popular by the late 1720s and remained
so until the 1760s. Objects in this style, often made in walnut, emphasized line and
form rather than ornament. Chairs had solid, vase-shaped splats (flat ornamental pieces
of the back) and various curved parts, including cabriole legs. The serpentine outline of
the cabriole leg, described by the artist William Hogarth as "the line of beauty," is the
dominant and distinguishing characteristic of this furniture. Regional styles began to be
discernible as local schools of cabinetmaking developed in the urban centers of Boston,
Newport, R.I., New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, S.C. Most of this furniture was
influenced by English furniture, and English provincial furniture, or that made outside
London, is similar to American colonial objects of about the same date.
By the 1750s a restrained version of the rococo began to be made in America. In
Philadelphia elaborately carved high chests of drawers and matching dressing tables
were the most sophisticated forms. The style was never as popular in New England.
Chairs in this style are characterized by pierced splats and carved ornaments on their
crest rails, knees, and feet. Many of these chairs and other objects were loosely derived
from illustrations in Chippendale's 'Director' and other English pattern books. In
Newport members of the Goddard-Townsend family of cabinetmakers and others
produced blockfront case furniture with large, carved shells. This was the most original
furniture produced in 18th-century America. Imported mahogany was the most
fashionable wood, while simple city and rural furniture was often made of native
woods such as cherry, birch, maple, and pine. The Windsor chair, which had developed
earlier in England, was a universal form of seating furniture in America during the last
half of the 18th century. Although English influence remained predominant, an
important group of furniture with painted designs in Central European styles was made
by German immigrants in Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley.
Neoclassicism reached America with full force after the Revolution. Despite the
political break with England, cultural and artistic ties with the mother country remained
strong. The English pattern books of Hepplewhite and Sheraton were thus important in
the transmission of this new style. American Neoclassical furniture of the period from
1790 to 1820 is characterized by light, elegant forms supported on turned or tapered
legs and was often decorated with inlay. The card table, tambour desk, and sideboard
were popular forms. Mahogany and mahogany veneer remained the most fashionable
woods. The shops of furniture makers were sometimes quite large. Duncan Phyfe, a
Scottish immigrant who became New York's leading manufacturer of furniture,
employed many craftsmen. Some French influence came from the work of the French
immigrant Charles-Honore Lannuier of New York. A study of card tables made in this
period has found that about 80 percent of the tables were ready-made of more or less
standardized parts; only the remaining 20 percent were custom-made for specific
clients. This sort of activity foreshadowed the factories and showrooms of the 19th
century, when the split between manufacturer and retailer developed.
The 19th Century
Furniture was made in the 19th century in a series of succeeding and overlapping styles
derived from history or borrowed from other traditions. This eclecticism is the key
characteristic of the Victorian age. Labor-saving, power-driven machinery was applied
to furniture making, new marketing methods developed, new materials were
introduced, and there was a fascination with innovative and mechanical furniture. All
of these were part of the movement from craft to industry as the era progressed.
Revivals
The first revival style of the 19th century had its roots in the 18th century and was a
heavier and more archaeologically correct form of Neoclassicism. Known as the
Empire style in England, this furniture in imitation of ancient models was also popular
in the United States. A version known as Biedermeier originated in Austria and
Germany and was a popular kind of middle-class furniture in Europe.
As the century progressed, furniture was made in the Gothic, Renaissance, Elizabethan,
rococo, and other revival styles, while Turkish, Moorish, and influences from the
Middle East were also popular. It was said that "too much was not enough" for 19th-
century taste, and this aptly summarizes the rich, crowded, plush interiors of the period.
The revival furniture resembles the originals, but it was only a resemblance; the final
product always expresses the taste and techniques of the later era.
Technological innovation
was also a major development. Many types of ingenious mechanical furniture were
patented. Some, like a piano that folded into a bed, were more ingenious than practical.
The introduction of metal coil springs marked a major change in the construction of
upholstered seating furniture. Machines for carving in some cases led to a profusion of
ornament. John Henry Belter, a German immigrant to New York, made extensive use
of laminated wood in his rococo revival furniture. Some of Belter's furniture was made
with as many as 16 laminations, or layers, of curved wood. The Vienna-based Michael
Thonet produced bentwood chairs in designs that have remained popular (see Industrial
Design). Design and pattern books remained influential. Great international fairs and
expositions, such as the Great Exhibition of Industry of All Nations at the Crystal
Palace in London in 1851 and the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, were
also major aspects in the transmission of styles. Companies produced elaborate
showpieces for these fairs that represented the best their countries produced.
Arts and Crafts Movement
Before the end of the century, a reaction against what were perceived to be the excesses
of machine production and historical revivalism took place. Pioneered by William
Morris in England, the Arts and Crafts Movement advocated an idealistic return to
"honest" construction and design and traditional handcraft techniques (see Morris,
William). The furniture of Ernest Gimson and members of the Barnsley family in
England and Gustav Stickley and others in America reflected these ideals at the turn of
the century and later.
Art nouveau
A brief-lived style of art nouveau furniture, most popular in Belgium and France, also
flourished at the turn of the century. Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde of Belgium
and Emile Galle and Louis Marjorelle of France designed furniture with the languid,
free-flowing lines typical of art nouveau furniture, ceramics, glass, and metalwork.
America
American 19th-century furniture followed the general pattern of historical revivalism
prevalent in Europe. The large cities of the eastern seaboard remained important centers
of furniture making. In New York, for example, the Belter firm was only one of many
makers of fine revival furniture in the third decade, including Alexander Roux, Charles
A. Bauduoine, J. and J. Meeks, and Leon Marcotte. By the 1870s and '80s,
manufacturers such as Berkey and Gay of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Mitchell &
Rammelsberg of Cincinnati, Ohio, were a major part of the furniture industry,
especially as makers of furniture for the middle and lower classes.
Two specific themes in American furniture of this period demand attention. One is the
production by the Shaker religious sect of simple furniture with clean, elegant lines and
little or no decoration. The other is the large number of lightweight, usually painted or
stenciled, factory chairs. The Hitchcock Company of Connecticut was one of the most
prolific and well-known makers of these common chairs.
In the last two decades of the century, a sense of national pride and nativism, combined
with the general interest in revivalism, led to furniture in the "early American" style.
This was a part of a colonial revival that included the first collecting of and writing
about antique furniture (see Antique).
The 20th Century
Furniture of the 20th century is characterized by much stylistic diversity. While much
furniture has been made in a recognizably modern style, many people have consistently
preferred furniture that is traditional in terms of its materials, construction, and
appearance. Even more than in the 19th century, technological innovation and new
materials--such as molded plywood, fiberglass, and plastics--have played a part in
furniture production, particularly after World War II. The machine has come to
dominate furniture making, with the small yet important exception of a few craftsmen
in every country who have perpetuated the handcraft tradition.
Generally, furniture has been influenced by changes in social life. Living has become
less formal than in the past, rooms have become smaller and have lower ceilings, and
increased mobility has led to built-in furniture and furniture that is portable and
lightweight. There has been much attention to producing furniture cheaply and
efficiently in order to meet the demands of a rising middle class.
Art Deco
In the 1920s and 1930s one of the most fashionable furniture styles was named Art
Deco, after L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes,
held in Paris in 1925. The finest Art Deco furniture was luxurious, made of exotic
woods like macassar ebony and Caucasian burr walnut, and decorated with ivory and
shagreen, an untanned leather.
The furniture of the Frenchman Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann is most closely associated
with this high-style Art Deco. The greater informality of the period is reflected in the
low chairs and the development of the cocktail table and radio cabinet. Art Deco was
also made on a less expensive level for a wider audience, and the style was revived in
the 1960s and '70s. The forms of Art Deco furniture tend to be angular or abstract, and
materials such as formica and bakelite, an early plastic, were used extensively.
Functionalist modern
Another type developed in the 1920s in The Netherlands and Germany called
functionalist modern or international modern. It emphasizes simple, clear forms based
on function, good quality of workmanship and materials, and economical production.
The rectilinear, disjointed furniture in red, yellow, and blue made by Gerrit Rietveld
and other designers of the De Stijl school in The Netherlands foreshadowed this
movement.
But the single most influential center for the design of this furniture was the German
craftsmen's workshop called the Bauhaus, founded in 1919 under the leadership of
Walter Gropius. Still popular after 50 years, the cantilevered chairs and tubular
chrome-plated metal chairs designed in the 1920s by the Bauhaus architects Marcel
Breuer and Mies van der Rohe demonstrate their interest in technological innovation
and beautiful form. The 1929 Barcelona chair by Mies is a monument of this style. (See
also Breuer; Gropius; Mies van Der Rohe.)
Danish modern
Another kind of 20th-century furniture, more closely linked with the Arts and Crafts
Movement, was produced in England and Scandinavia. The makers of this practical,
comfortable furniture again looked to the past for inspiration. Ambrose Heal and
Gordon Russell made this kind of furniture in England, and in Scandinavia the work of
Kaare Klint of Denmark, Karl Bruno Mathsson of Sweden, and Alvar Aalto of Finland
is representative of what is often called Danish modern (see Aalto). Generally
constructed in light-colored native woods such as the Finnish birch preferred by Aalto,
this furniture embodied a continuation of the principles of the craft tradition in its
simplicity and grace.
Post-World War II
 After World War II the most forward-looking furniture was made in the United States,
Scandinavia, and, in the 1960s, Italy. The molded plywood and fiberglass chairs of
Charles Eames of the United States are superbly suited to mass production. The
pedestal chairs and tables of Eero Saarinen and the wire chairs of Harry Bertoia, to
mention only a few, is outstanding. In the 1960s plastic began to play an even more
important role in furniture as designers sought to achieve pleasing forms that could be
economically cast in a single mold.
Much 20th-century furniture, however, reflects a continuation of the 19th-century
obsession with historical revivalism and eclecticism. In the United States, for example,
reproductions and adaptations in the Early American style have been popular since the
1870s and were a veritable craze in the 1920s. Early American remains a common style
produced in the factories of Michigan, North Carolina, and New York.