Antique Reproduction Furniture

Dian abadi - Antique replica furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:56:00 +0000

Antique Reproduction furniture products by Dian Abadi Furnishing.
Dian Abadi Furniture has been known as one of Indonesia's best supplier for Unfinished and finished mahogany furniture. Successfully built a wide spread network of production among the Jepara furniture artisans, sculptor and fine painter with many years experience, strict quality control and backup by on time delivery.

The network producing classic European and American furniture from 18th periods, Jacobean, Edwardian, Victorian, Hepplewhite, French baroque, rococo, regency, etc. Below are the links to it's product categories :

JEPARA50 Mahogany wood furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Although Jepara50 is known as a modern and contemporary wood furniture maker, some of its products are made in classic style to meet customers specifications.

Recently, one of the customers ask Jepara 50 to make furniture based on an interior magazine pictures, with some modifications of course. The customers send the picture of the furniture he wanted to reproduced, based on the image Jepara 50 drafter make sketches that will be sent back to the customer for approval. This entire communication process, sending images, sending back sketches and approving the final drawing by customer is done through internet.

Once approved by the customer, Jepara50 and furniture craftsmen started making furniture. The whole process strictly supervised by the Jepara50, ranging from the selection of wood, making the components, to the assembly process.

Furniture decoration carving, sanding, staining, finishing, packing and delivery are done in Jepara50 furniture factory. These are images of the reproduction results, cropped using Adobe Photoshop by myself (i swear :)).

Late Victorian

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:27:00 +0000

Chippendale Reproduction Chair

Late Victorian Era

The late Victorian era, from the 1860's until the end of the 19th century, sees the rise of two movements in furniture design in England, the Arts and Crafts movement and the Aesthetic or Art Furniture movement. Alongside these important developments there was also a number of revivals of antique styles of earlier centuries, new foreign influences, and the late rise of the avant garde.

In general terms furniture produced in the late Victoria era was composed of straight lines, solid wood usually stained black or dark green, and had not as much upholstery compared to early Victorian furniture. Painted decoration was preferred to carving.

Art Furniture

Every article of manufacture should indicate by its general design the purpose to which it will be applied.

From the 1867 "Hints on Household Taste" by Charles Eastlake as well as this complaint about the design of sideboards:

The backs are curved in the most senseless and extravagant manner.

Aesthetic Style Armchair, 1868.

Art furniture of the late Victorian era designed by Eastlake and others was solidly built, well constructed and had few decorative effects for their own sake. The wood was unvarnished and usually without veneer, and the whole appearance was one of simplicity and usefulness. It drew on a number of traditions, mainly the Gothic and medieval as well as the oriental.

Revivals

Chippendale Reproduction Chair, c.1870

In the mid to late nineteenth century a number of revivals of antique styles took place. There was some renewed interest in Egyptian designs as well as an "Etruscan" and Greek phase. Especially from the 1860's a revival of the Robert Adam style occurred with many neoclassical style pieces being made and additionally there was some interest in the mid Georgian period and the work of Thomas Chippendale with many reproductions of his coming onto the market.

The Exotic

1876, Ebonised table from mahogany inspired by Japanese woodwork.

In 1853 trade lines with Japan were opened and interest among those in search of novelty such as E.W. Godwin and Bruce Talbert grew in the tradition of Japanese craftsmanship and decoration motifs. As a result some amount of black and ebonised furniture was made in the late Victorian era with Japanese painted fretwork panels and imitation bamboo arms and legs.

Arts and Crafts Movement

Men living amongst such ugliness cannot perceive of beauty and, therefore, cannot express it.

William Morris and John Ruskin inspired the Arts and Crafts Movement with their reaction against the machine age and its effect on ordinary working people. The term "Arts and Crafts" was coined in 1888 and the movement saw the peak of its influence from 1890 to 1910.

1893, Cabinet, a popular Arts and Crafts design.

Victorian Arts and Crafts style furniture in England was handmade in a country or farmhouse style and often looked nicer than it was to sit on in the case of chairs. Morris and co. also produced simply made cabinets and sideboards on which Morris painted scenes of medieval fantasy. The designers of the Arts and Crafts style wanted to show the superiority of handmade furniture and they made pieces that were affordable for most classes.

Art Nouveau

The final days of late Victorian England witnessed the rise of the art nouveau or avant garde movement in design. English Art Nouveau furniture was pioneered by the designers Arthur Mackmurdo, Charles Voysey, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Hugh Baillie Scott. Art Nouveau continued to have some influence in the following Edwardian furniture period.

Early Victorian Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:50:00 +0000

"the luxury of ease"
In the homes of early Victorian age England in the 19th century we see furniture, for the first time, that was made with concerns about ordinary comfort being the determining factor in its design and making. With a great increase in the numbers of middle class homes and houses more furniture was needed and it was made in an abundance of styles, but again for the first time in history, with the desires of the consumer most to the fore.

Victorian Interior, 1855.

The early Victorian age in England from around 1835 witnessed the decline in popularity of the smooth and relatively simple Grecian style of Regency furniture in the preceding period in history, 1800-1830. It was largely replaced by more serious furniture, more imposing, rounded, with ample ornament, decoration, curving, and gloss. Classical styles however did persist in "male" areas such as clubs as well as in the dining room.

The Battle of the Styles

Gothic Revival Table, 1852.

No single style emerged as dominant in the homes of the early Victorians, rather furniture designers, and now manufacturers, drew on, or ransacked, a multitude of styles from earlier periods in history with Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, and Neo Classical battling it out for prominence. The Gothic revival style was probably the most "important" in furniture history terms while the exuberant Rococo revival may have taken the honours in the popularity stakes.

Rococo Revival Chair, 1845.

Mahogany and rosewood were the woods of choice with oak making something of a nationalist comeback from the depths of time, admired for its Englishness. Iron also made its appearance in the early Victorian age particularly in Victorian bedroom furniture. Paper mache was also used in Victorian age furniture.

Victorian Paper Mache Chair, 1850.

Victorian Decadence
"it seems to us that the art manufacturers of the whole of Europe are thoroughly demoralized"
So said the "The Times" in 1851 commenting on the furniture and other interior decorations displayed at the Great Exhibition in London, 1851. The furniture exhibited at the Exhibition shows early antique Victorian furniture at its most extravagant and flamboyant and somewhat cut off from reality.

Victorian furniture, 1851.

By this time, around the middle of the nineteenth century, good design may be said to have suffered in much early Victorian furniture, even in country areas, with the partial exception of chair making. The demands of the mass market, with its concerns of economy, led to a probably inevitable decline in standards of ordinary domestic furniture with lots of showy, hastily and cheaply put on ornament and veneer attempting to conceal the lack of quality craftsmanship.

Late Georgian Period

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:48:00 +0000

...we have been able to seize, with some degree of success, the beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to transfuse it, with novelty and variety, through all our numerous works. - Robert Adam
From about the time of George the third's accession to the throne, 1760, a reaction set in against the overbearing Palladian style, and the curvy and vivacious Rococo style designs of the preceding early and mid Georgian eras. Paralled in France and there called the Louis XVI style, this movement in furniture history is known as the Neoclassical style, or Neoclassicism, and English Neoclassicism is most associated with the names of the designers Chambers and Stuart, and the more famous Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.

Mahogany with inlay Wash Table by James Stuart, c.1760, one of the earliest examples of neoclassical furniture in England. The legs end in capitals modelled on those placed above the caryatids (sculpted female figures) on the Erechtheum, a temple in Athens.

Sometimes called "Greek", "Grecian", and "Etruscan" the Neoclassical style came about due to a renewed interest in the heritage of the ancient classical civilisations of Greece and Rome, and in particular the results of excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum and the study of the remains there.

1769, by Sir William Chambers, for serving coffee. Satinwood, oak and pine, inlaid with ebony and hardstones.

In the neoclassical furniture and interior design style that resulted from such study of classical remains there is great emphasis on form. Straight lines, logically ordered, replace the curves and flounces of Rococo furniture. Ornamentation and decoration are sometimes detailed and careful, nearly always abundant. There is much use of painting, inlay, veneer, light carving and relief, and marquetry. Mahogany is the primary wood of choice but some use is also made of satinwood.

Neoclassical Period Furniture
Early Travels to the Ancient World
Neoclassic furniture in eighteenth century England is first seen in the works of Sir William Chambers and James Stuart. Chambers had been to Rome and Paris and later developed a style that let go of the cabriole leg in favour of straight lines and narrow tapering legs adorned with twisted fluting.

James Stuart published, in 1762, "The Antiquities of Athens" after having studied archaelogical sites in Greece and Italy. He then proceeded to design furniture with decorative motifs and carvings based on surviving ancient monuments.

"The electric power in this revolution in art"
Robert Adam had the greatest impact on the early development of the neoclassical style ( see Adam Furniture ). He had made detailed studies of classical ornament in Italy and made great use of them in designing room interiors in a Roman style. He not only made furniture, but, when set to the task, would design and decorate whole rooms down to the last detail, all in the same neoclassical style.

Adam designed armchair, 1764, made at Thomas Chippendale's workshop.

Adam had many imitators and the most famous of them was George Hepplewhite. Hepplewhite's "Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Guide" of 1788 was largely based on Adam designs but in a simplified way, more suited to the needs of everyday craftsmen. Of most enduring interest in the "Guide" are designs for the famous shield back Hepplewhite chairs, settees or Hepplewhite sofas, and upholstered stools. His furniture tended to the slender side with inlaid and painted decoration rather than carving.

The final phase of neoclassicism is seen in the works of Thomas Sheraton. Sheraton furniture had a huge practical impact and produced very elegant, sophisticated furniture in the neoclassical style in great numbers.

Mid Georgian

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:46:00 +0000

English Rococo Furniture
Ay, here's none of your straight lines here, but all taste, zig-zag, crinkum-crankum, in and out, right and left, so and again, twisting like a worm.
The Palladian taste of the early Georgian period in 18th century England persisted for some years, especially in bookcases design, but was never widely popular and suffered from being quite expensive for ordinary furnishing needs. The demands of the wider middle and upper class market were more inclined to the curvy, light, and less architectural style that had developed in France in the Louis XV era, called the Rococo, sometimes spelled rococco.

While Rococo came to dominate the mid Georgian era in England from about 1740 there was much variety of furniture styles with frequent calls being made back to the earlier Palladian tradition as well as to the older and ever present Gothic style. Additionally we note much use of pseudo Chinese and Chinoiserie motifs.

"After the French Manner"

Rococo ornament surrounded by shell-like "rocailles", leaves and C-scrolls.

The term Rococo comes from the French "rocaille" and refers to rock-like and shell motifs. "After the French Manner", rococo was a combination of Baroque and grotesque and fantasy styles of motifs and ornamentation which came to dominate French design from around 1700.

In England in 1735 St Martin's Academy was established by the painter William Hogarth and the spreading of Rococo style began. Between 1741 and 1748 the first Rococo furniture pattern books were published and did much to popularise the Rococo ideas that straight lines were unnatural, that the S-curve was the "Line of Beauty and Grace" - "How inelegant would the shapes of all our movables be without it!".

Rococo Style Armchair, 1755, in limewood and pine, carved and gilded, by Mathias Lock.

Apostles of English Rococo Style
The designer Mathias Lock pioneered the Rococo in England creating some fine gilt furniture based from his design books "Six Sconces", "Six Tables" and the "Principles of Ornament". Lock had carefully studied Rococo style and produced tables with S curved legs with the gap between the legs narrowing toward the bottom and linked by showily decorative stretchers with trophy ornaments.

Thomas Langley, after studying French prints, produced a sidetable with front legs carved in the shape of female terms intertwined. The carver James Pascal made a number of gilt wood sidetables, sconces, and chairs in the rococo style. John Channon made a set of bookcases with ormolu mounts and inlay topped with broken pediments.

While the new French style of furniture was overwhelmingly attractive to English designers they did not seek to make slavish copies but rather to outdo their French rivals and this resulted in the rococo style becoming Anglicised and a touch less brash:

Far be it from me to condemn my countrymen for adopting any invention in arts or sciences, which owes its birth to the fertile genius of our bitterest enemies. No - let us endeavour at raising ourselves to an equal, if not superior pitch or excellence.
Thomas Johnson was another worker in the area, and his 1761 " One Hundred & Fifty New Designs" shows the wild, fantastic side of Rococo design in England.

Chippendale
The name of Thomas Chippendale stands most closely associated with English rococo style furniture. In the middle of the eighteenth century Chippendale published his "Gentleman's and Cabinet Makers Director" which cemented the rococo style of interior display in England. His rivals William Ince and John Mayhew came out with their own "Universal System of Household Furniture" in 1759 with 89 engraved plates of somewhat more restrained rococo furniture.

Chippendale Rococo Mirror, 1762. Fine rococo carving, with flowers, leaves, bullrushes and birds.

By 1762 Chippendale produced the third edition of the "Director" this time catering to popular crazes for Gothic and Chinese designs, as well as Rococo furniture, and also later in his career made neo-classical furniture more associated with the late Georgian period.

Chippendale specialised in the Rococo style, particularly gilded furniture like pier glasses and very elaborate furniture for royal apartments such as state beds and ladies' dressing tables. Wherever many people were likely to be found, assembly and drawing rooms for example, Chippendale went to town. However he was also capable of making simpler pieces, painted bedroom furniture in the chinoiserie style, as well as more classical pieces. Antique reproduction Chippendale furniture in the rococo style remains ever popular.

Early Georgian

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:45:00 +0000

Early Georgian
For much of the early Georgian period of English furniture history the styles that had come to the fore in the Queen Anne period and before continued in popularity and underwent modifications of their own.

Mahogany
The most important change that occurred in the reigns of the George I and George II was the replacement of walnut by mahogany. Mahogany rapidly won favour among cabinet makers due to it being very strong, long lasting and having close grained wood well suited to experimentation. Mahogany was less prone to infestation, didn't scratch, crack, or warp, didn't need varnishing, and its dark reddish colour suited the design temperament of the early Hanoverian age.

Gilt Wood Side Table, in the Palladian Style, 1750.

Palladian Style Furniture
One such cabinet maker who took to the use of mahogany was William Kent. Kent, like many of the early Georgian period had gone on the Grand Tour to Rome, and there had taken up the Italianate architectural ideas of Andrea Palladio, Palladianism, an Italian architect of the sixteenth century.

Italian Palladian Console Table by William Kent, c. 1730.

Architecture and Furniture
Architecture and furniture have always had a close relationship but in the designs of the Palladians and their imitators in early 18th century England this relationship became a deep intertwining, a pervasive and dogmatic ideology, the "Rules of Taste".

The original architects of the Palladian style had made no designs for furniture, being more interested in the overall layout of buildings, grounds, and gardens. Furniture was a mere addition and had to be in line with the other elements. Therefore Kent set about creating a style of Palladian furniture that would compliment and blend in with the architecture of great homes and their interiors, enhance their architectural symmetry, and be complementary to their existing windows, doors, chimney pieces, and cornices.

Early Georgian Bookcase by John Channon, 1740.

The "Kentian" furniture that resulted was ornate, of monumental size, heavy, only barely movable with lavish carving and golden ornamentation. It was sculpture like and could have just as easily been carved out of stone as of wood. Palladian style furniture made much use of elaborate pediments, masks, and sphinxes.

Common items included side tables, especially pier tables, usually with marble tops, chairs peaked with shells and legs graced with fish-scaled scrolls, bookcases and gilt mirrors.

These designs were largely inspired by classical architecture elements such as moulded doors, large pediments, and various sculpture forms of the ancient world.

Miniatures Cabinet, inspired by Palladian architecture, 1743.

Palladian style furniture stood apart from most other early Georgian furniture in that it was designed and made for a small, very wealthy class of people and appeared only in their great country homes, mansions, and palaces. It had, as a consequence, little lasting influence, never making the leap to common use and acceptance.

When taken out of its context, away from the matching interior decoration of the rooms it was designed for, Palladian style furniture may seem to us bizarre, too big, and grotesque, very far out of tune with the modern taste.

Queen Anne Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:43:00 +0000

"one can no longer send such fashions because the English have their own, which are followed here now"
History
So wrote an observer in 1715, a year after the end of the Queen Anne period. Queen Anne of England had reigned from 1702 and in this age English baroque furniture, a tradition begun in the time of Carolean furniture and continuing in the William and Mary era, reached a mature stage, the peak of its history.

The Queen Anne era sees all the forces that had been at work through the preceding half century of history, the French and Dutch importations, both in human and idea form, the rise of the cabinet maker, and the flowering of local design talents, come to fruition, in a restrained and elegant way, with the best embodiment of this being seen in Queen Anne chairs.

Prior to the period of Queen Anne furniture England had been a backwater in design terms, a pale shadowing of the great things which had been accomplished in France and Italy. Queen Ann furniture puts the efforts of English furniture craftsmen almost on a par with their French and Dutch neighbours, not however slavishly copying, but in a uniquely English compromise and fusion.

Queen Anne Style
English furniture makers of the Queen Anne period attained a mastery of foreign techniques and evolved a distinct style of their own, in a fairly limited way it must be admitted, that nevertheless, laid the foundations for much of the quality work to come.

The reasonableness of English taste reasserted its influence in this time after the preceding decades had seen much copying of foreign fashions, and although fashion still led the way, we can see a real flowering of native English craftsmanship, fine furniture that was elegantly proportioned and sparingly decorated, without caring too much about being compared to the masterful but overpowering works of ornamental furniture that were the product of French cabinet makers and designers.

What was still very decorative and elaborate about Queen Anne style furniture was largely the lacquer work, the rich oriental wares and china, the use of gesso design, and the Dutch marquetry cabinets, with their bombe sides and fronts and profuse decoration.

English furniture of this period however saw little of the clustering scrolls, the wandering trails of acanthus, the amorini, heraldic motifs, and all the rather haphazard mixture of decorative ideas that had embellished the late Stuart furniture.

Wood & Main Features
Walnut was the main wood used, although in the country oak, beech and other woods easy at hand to the village craftsmen were employed. Makers of Queen Anne style furniture found that their clientele was growing, because the taste for comfortable and graceful furniture, such as wing back chairs, was by no means confined to the upper and idle classes alone. Many of the homes of modest merchants, traders, lawyers and the professional classes could boast of furnishings at least of equal merit to those found in interiors reserved for the well born.

Stretchers & Claw and Ball Feet
The stretcher piece was generally discarded, as in card tables, and stools, couches and the stands of cabinets all benefited from the added grace afforded by the abandoning of it. The feet in which the legs of furniture terminate underwent alteration and improvement. Ultimately claw and ball feet make their appearance, or rather their reappearance, for the claw and ball foot is an ancient design, and makes an attractive finish to the heavier type of cabriole leg that evolved after the disuse of the stretcher.

Scroll feet are generally associated with the earlier Queen Anne furniture, but there were also club feet, spade feet and a square moulded type of foot; and the club foot was sometimes square, the leg in this case being square in section also. Although carving was sparingly used, a little appeared on the knees of cabriole legs.

The reproduction of claw and ball feet is very common in Indonesia furniture industry.

William and Mary Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:43:00 +0000

King William and Queen Mary ruled England from 1688 to 1702. William of Orange was Dutch and hence a great deal of Dutch influences entered into English life, not least in the area of William and Mary style furniture.

Large numbers of Dutch furniture cabinet makers and craftsmen came with William III to England and worked for him at Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. They tended to be very skilful in the fine arts of furniture design and decoration and lifted the standards of English furniture making by considerable degrees and brought it closer into line with the major movements in Europe.

Not only Dutch but French influence was to be found in the William and Mary period. William III spoke French in preference to English and Dutch and although he was politically opposed to Louis XIV there was a great deal of sneaking admiration and jealousy. There was more than a bit of the "keeping up with the Jones" attitude in the way William viewed the court of Louis XIV and it appears that considerable effort went into attempts to imitate it. Celia Fiennes is given to remark at Windsor Castle on the decoration of the State Drawing Room, 1701:

It looked very glorious and was newly made to give audience to the French Ambassador to show the grandeur and magnifigence of the British Monarch - some of these fooleries are requisite sometimes to create admiration and regard to keep up the state of a kingdom and nation.
Additionally, after 1685, due to persecution, numbers of French Protestant refugees began arriving in England, with furniture designers among them, such as Daniel Marot, as well as manufacturers of silk tapestry.

Other important influences on William and Mary furniture included the refining and proper application of classical architectural forms as developed in the work of Sir Christopher Wren, in architecture, the handmaiden of furniture.

Major Characteristics

Dutch Marquetry Cabinet
William and Mary furniture was graceful and decorative, it had a well-developed sense of display and articulation. While much of English furniture in previous periods seems to us today rather strange, Gothic, primitive, harsh, and uncomfortable, in William and Mary period furniture we often see something more recognisable, a foreshadowing of things to come, especially in William & Mary chairs and settees.

Decorative
There was much use of ornate decorative effects on surfaces such as veneering, parquetry, lacquer, and marquetry, particularly in side tables. This was the beginning of the era of the cabinetmaker and men such as Gerrit Jensen exceled at very fine inlay and marquetry work.

Laquer
Laquer furniture continued to be made in great amounts. Laquered cabinets often had gilt stands and were made curvy by the use of foliate scrolls. Cabinets, as well as writing bureaus and escritoires, gained domed tops, and were set on heavily baroque style stands with doric columns, as were tables.

Chair Styles

Upholstered Chair
Chairs were set on turned legs whose stretchers were tied and curved and mirrored the carving decoration of the crest at the back. Upholstered chairs had square back rests and supports separating them from the seats and their upholstering was more ample and comfortable. However on the whole it has to be said that for the most part William and Mary style chairs were still a way for owners to "show off" and had many elaborate accents and fringes that made no bow to the needs of comfort.

Wood
Walnut was very much in demand by the immigrant Dutch and French furniture makers of the William and Mary period. Oak was rapidly sliding into country obscurity and mahogany was just making its very first inroads. There was also use of kingwood and amboyna for inlay work and ebony was used for very fine, fancy pieces such as looking glasses and curio cabinets.

Antiques & Revival
Antiques of the era have survived in some number although few walnut pieces have made it through the years. Revival and reproduction works are particularly popular in the American market. Sometimes though, when pieces are called William and Mary reproductions it is doubtful what this really means.

Check our William and Mary Style antique reproduction furniture.

Restoration Period & Carolean Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:41:00 +0000

Restoration period, or Charles II furniture (Carolean), brought the English furniture tradition back into line with European design movements and reestablished the connection between furniture and architecture in an emphatic, often extreme manner, after the years of Puritan austerity in the 1600's and represents the beginning of the English baroque furniture tradition.

The Restoration Period
Charles the Second ascended to the throne in 1660 bringing to an end England's republican experiment, or Commonwealth, under Oliver Cromwell. The restoration of the monarchy was generally welcomed by lords of the manor and ordinary peasants alike weary of conflict and the years afterwards of Puritan discipline.

Carolean Furniture Origins
Prior to becoming king Charles 2 and his court had spent years in exile in the fashionable centres of France and Holland and had learnt to admire the styles of furniture, and living, that they encountered there and as a result, on their return, they transplanted French and Dutch baroque tastes to London. ( See description and pictures of a Restoration era period room and more on the influence of the royal court).

Table & Candlestands, c.1670. Typically for the period with spiral turned legs.

Upon doing so they found many imitators and the fine and elaborate furniture of the European continent, particularly that belonging to the Louis XIV Baroque style, spread into the homes of wealthy Londoners. Typically, however, in provincial areas of England country furniture craftsmen continued with making furniture in the semi-Gothic Jacobean and the plain and simple Cromwellian styles.

In accentuation of Charles' own tastes, this was a time of a considerable influx of Dutch and French immigrants, some among them becoming the manufacturers of Restoration era furniture and bringing with them, especially the Dutch, the techniques of veneering, gilding, marquetry, and laquer furniture work which were so important to the development of Carolean furniture.

Restoration Period Decoration
Restoration furniture was decorative and colourful and epitomising this was the use of marquetry.
Floral Marquetry Table Marquetry, the applying of any number of pre-prepared and mixed veneers onto a body of wood, was used in especially floral patterns during the Restoration period up to about 1690. Furniture craftsmen of the Charles II era specialised in designs of flowers with birds, or cupids and acanthus leaf motifs nearly always in exquisite, finely detailed forms. Examples of this are especially evident in the small tables of the period.

Wood carving was also employed more than in the preceding periods, Grinling Gibbons being the master of the time, specialising in carvings of fruit and flowers in architectural, decorative styles on Venetian style glass mirrors especially.

New Models
The new forms of decorating furniture combined with improved construction techniques had a role in the introduction of numbers of new furniture items such as daybeds, designed to go as a set with Carolean era baroque chairs, (see picture of Restoration interior), freestanding bookcases, chests of drawers, more structurally advanced gate leg dining tables, English clocks, and dressing tables - these models mostly being in the Baroque style prevalent among the advanced European nations.

Laquer Table, 1680. Veneered with pieces of Japanese laquer.

Wood
While oak was still used in English country furniture making, especially in oak chairs of the time, the restoration period saw walnut wood usurping the place of oak in the towns particularly in the case of very fine, decorative cabinetry and veneered furniture. Walnut, imported from Virginia and France, was used both as a solid and a veneer and came in two types. The first being pale brown with black veins, the second, a stronger type and less susceptible to infestation, being grey-brown with dark markings and veining.

In addition to walnut and oak there was also used olive, white cedar, kingwood, and coromandel among others.

Jacobean

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:39:00 +0000

The Jacobean Era
The Jacobean era is named afer King James I who ruled from 1603 until 1625. James 1 belonged to the Stuart family as did his son and successor King Charles I reigning from 1625 until 1649. The term Jacobean era furniture is used here to refer to the period of both kings.

The Jacobean, or Jacobethan, era was another phase of English Renaissance architecture, theatre, and decoration and formed a continuation, begun in the Elizabethan age, of the the Renaissance's penetration into England.

Jacobean Style Furniture
Early
The early Jacobean furniture period, which inspired much of the early American furniture of the pilgrims (in America Jacobean style furniture is often called Pilgrim furniture), was similar to Elizabethan furniture in that it was still largely made of oak, and of a solid, sturdy construction. Early Jacobean furniture was somewhat inward looking, not fully embracing exotic influences, and its ornamentation became less prominent and applied in a less willy-nilly, more ordered, fashion than previously, as can be seen in pictures of early carved furniture.

Jacobean Stool

A highlight of the period were Jacobean chairs in particular the Farthingale, and also the development of its mule chests and long tables.

Jacobean Oak Bench

Late Jacobean - Charles I
Charles 1 was more cultured than his father and took much care and interest in the furnishings of his palaces and mansions and especially in the collection of great art and paintings. In Charles's reign we see more attention paid to domestic comfort with much more use of padded upholstery, carpets instead of rush mats, and finer embroidery. This was the time of the great architect Inigo Jones, the introducer to England of Palladian architecture.

Gate leg tables are a development of the Charles the first time.

Jacobean Settle

Jacobean Interiors
"Turkey", English knotted woollen pile, carpets were put on floors naturally but were also often used as covers of beds and covering for Jacobean windows. In furniture some veneering and inlay were used, and many pieces were painted, and tapestries, crewelwork, wool, linen, silk, and velvet were used as upholstering materials.

Relief carvings of geometric or floral motifs, and accentuated mouldings used to divide areas into geometric shapes were also features of Jacobean design.

Antique Jacobean Furniture
Understandably expensive most "Jacobean antiques" available for sale are actually 19th century reproductions. Check our Jacobean period resources section for some ideas on buying Jacobean antique reproduction furniture.

Elizabethan

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:35:00 +0000

Queen Elizabeth I belonged to the tudor line of English royalty but played such a magnificent role in her young country's fortunes that her time is signified by her name rather than her father's King Henry VIII. Elizabeth Tudor came to the throne in 1558 and reigned until 1603. The Elizabethan age is most famous for, of course, its theater, hair styles, dress and fashiox, music, but it is the furniture of the Elizabethan period that holds our interest presently. At the close of the Elizabethan era in English furniture history furniture and interior decoration styles had undergone significant changes from the preceding tudor period and furniture had begun to be made in larger quantities and varieties. These developments occurred due to changes in house plans and design and greater European, such as Italianate style, influence on the furniture makers of the English Renaissance. The Elizabethan era, or as some would have it, Elizabethan, of English furniture history saw a gradual absorption of the Gothic tradition, dominant in the Tudor furniture period, into a native English version of the Renaissance movement, particularly that part of the Renaissance as had developed in Holland, Germany, and the Flemish lands.

At the end of Elizabeth's time a highly decorative and architectural, some would say garish, style had become established among wealthy and fashionable persons of the period derived from the Flemish Renaissance, but applied with perhaps less knowledgeable artistry than had obtained on the continent.

Flemish Inlaid Box, late 16th century.

Few bare, unadorned surfaces, whether walls or on furniture, escaped the attention of enthusiastic carving folk bent on leaving at least some form of mark. The plain linenfold panelling of early Tudor times was supplanted by strapwork ornamentation, lozenge decoration, masks, grotesques, and fruit and flower motifs, particularly grape and vine leaf ornament.

This emphasis on great amounts of ornamentation in the Elizabethan time can perhaps be looked at in two ways : for those who really admire classic decoration, that is, the finished and exquisite beauty of Greek and Roman ornament, then the myriad of bizarre distortions of such ornamental forms that were made in the name of enrichment on the furniture of late Elizabethan times can be painful or embarrassing; but if the decoration of Elizabethan furniture is looked upon as the free and graceful expression of a craftsman's developing skill, if the vigour of the ornament is appreciated and the source of its inspiration forgotten, then we can perhaps see a very real beauty and force in such work, a foretaste of much better things to come. The true copy of this Elizabethan furniture can be found in Antique Reproduction furniture website of Haqure.

If we look at the melon bulb legs of the heavy mahogany tables, similar to the one in the picture, crowned by a quaint rendering of a Greek Ionic capital and laced over by sprawling acanthus leaves, we can see that it is richly decorative in a bold and lively way. Later on in the history of English furniture, in the long period of oak furniture making, decorative features for furniture were to gain a refinement, a tasteful holding-back, that brought style and grace to the fashioning of tables, chests and beds; but the first attempts of the Elizabethan age in the adaptation of Renaissance and Italianate forms strike us as being simply over zealous and uneducated.

Tudor Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:32:00 +0000

The tudor period in English history begins with the ascent to the throne of King Henry VII in 1485, this event signifying the end of the Middle Ages in Britain and supposedly the historic beginning of the English Renaissance. The tudor era, for our purposes, continues through the reign of King Henry VIII and ends with the crowning of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558.

The tudor era of sixteenth century England saw many interesting developments in the arts, fashion, architecture, theater, and of course also in the realm of home decor and furniture to a certain extent.

Tudor Furniture Characteristics
Early tudor furniture, what there was of it, was little distinguished from the medieval furniture and gothic furniture periods preceding it. Ordinary, poor people had very little furniture possessions and even in the large houses of the wealthy there would only stand beds, benches, stools, tables, and chests. Chairs were reserved for the owner of homes when presiding over meals in the hall - their guests made do with stools, perhaps with cushions, as a small nod to comfort.

Furniture & Interiors
Such Tudor English furniture as existed in this era was made of oak, was imposing, heavy, strong, and uncomfortable. Tudor interiors, in contrast to the lack of grace and quantity in furniture, were often beautifully decorated with tapestries, embroidery, carpets, and fabrics.

Tudor Hutch Table
With Gothic carving, used for placing jugs and cups on, an original cup board.

The Tudor English furniture reproduction is availabe at Antique Reproduction Furniture by Dian Abadi Furnishing website.

Medieval

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:31:00 +0000

Romanesque Imported to Britain by the Normans following the conquest in 1066. Rounded arches - a typical Romanesque feature - occur on chests as late as the 17 thC, But the few examples still in existence which I date from earlier than 1300 are simply constructed and mostly carved with roundels bearing little relation to Romanesque architecture.

Gothic About 1300 to 1550. The change from! Romanesque was gradual. Paneled construction from dates from about 1480, the panels were often carved with linen-fold. The coronation chair at Westminster Abbey has a back with a pointed arches made in 1296 by Master Walter of Durham, it was the first English piece firmly attributable to a named maker. The Gothic style was revived in the mid-late C and again in Regency and Victorian times. Medieval furniture was primarily made of oak, since it was easy to obtain, strong and durable. Perhaps the most important piece of medieval furniture was the chest or coffer. Chests were originally made from hollow tree trunks banded with iron, hence the origin of the modern word 'trunk'. A type of chest known as the hutch could be used for packing household possessions when traveling, but it was also used as a seat, a desk, a table, and a couch for sleeping purposes. When not traveling, the hutch was used for storage.

13th Century Hutch Chest
For the very early years of the medieval age, when Europe was in great disarray, little can be said until we meet the rise of the Carolingian dynasty in Germany in the mid 8th century. Following the Carolingian reordering of European society we encounter the great, settled traditions of medieval art, the Romanesque, and Gothic. Also discussed in this section is the Eastern contribution to furniture design in the Byzantine world.

Visit Indonesia Furniture

Antique Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (voila) — Tue, 10 May 2005 08:45:00 +0000

19th century carved
walnut bench with cane
seat from Spain

19th century papier-mache
tilt-top table and chairs,
painted with floral bouquets
surrounded by gilt highlights
and abalone inlay

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18th century Dutch
marquetry sette

French guilded iron
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