Antique Furniture

Wonderful eighteenth and nineteenth century antique furniture originated in such disparate locations as cosmopolitan Barcelona and rural communities of upstate New York. A small museum in Antoni Gaudi’s Park Guell houses examples of this architect’s flowing Art Nouveau furniture, while there are Shaker museums from New England to the American South that display this functional, minimalist designs.

Furniture Periods

Older styles of antique furniture from England and America include William and Mary, Queene Anne, Chippendale and Federal. Empire furniture is associated with Napoleon Bonaparte. other French antique furniture styles go by the names of several King Louises, while Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo are more continental furniture periods.

Antique Talk's Guide to Western Furniture Styles has a detailed chart with descriptions of furniture periods and styles.

Influences on Antique Furniture

Often architects, such as the previously mentioned Antoni Gaudi, or the American Frank Lloyd Wright, design furniture too. Decorative arts, in addition to painting, sculpture and architecture, are influenced by broader trends. For instance, the discovery of Pompeii had a major impact on furniture style.

Ancient Pompeii

When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, it buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under many feet of ash, freezing in time these Roman cities. It was not until 1748 that theses cities were discovered. The excavation of ancient Roman culture had a wide-ranging effect, and the decorativeness of the ancient world was incorporated into furniture design. Thomas Chippendale, a British furniture maker, was one of the many artists and designers influenced by this neoclassic style.

In 1754, Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) published The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, an extremely influential book about the various kinds of furniture. He designed many pieces of neoclassic furniture for Harewood House, an English country house built in the mid-eighteenth century. This estate is located near Leeds, England, north of London, and has large grounds with formal gardens and woods that are open to tours, spectacular art and antiques collections in their state rooms, and many examples of Chippendale furniture.

The Chippendale Collection, a page of the Thomas Chippendale at Harewood House website, features photographs and descriptions of period Chippendale decorative art. You can click sections such as Chairs & Stools, Mirrors & Lighting, Beds, Tables & Desks, and Cabinet Furniture to learn more.

Leigh and Leslie Keno

Popularizers of antique furniture are the identical twins, Leigh and Leslie Keno. They become well-known appraising antique furniture on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow and received the 2005 National Humanities Medal.

Leslie is a senior vice president for American furniture at Sotheby's, while Leigh is president of Leigh Keno American Antiques, a gallery in New York City that he runs with Mitchell Keno, their older brother. They have also written an interesting book with Joan Barzilay Freund called Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture. Part biographical, it recounts exciting antique furniture finds.

External Furniture Links

• The Art and Antique Dealers League of America - The AADLA bills themselves as the longest-running antiques and fine arts organization in the United States. They have over 100 members with websites that can be browsed.
• The National Antique & Art Dealers Association of America - The NAADAA is another non-profit organization of antique dealers.
• Park Guell - This park in Barcelona, Spain was designed by Antoni Gaudi. It has many examples of Art Nouveau architecture and decorative arts.
• The Shakers of Sabbathday Lake - The only remaining community of The United Society of Believers, or Shaking Quakers, is located at Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
• The Shaker Museum and Library at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village - A New York Shaker museum.
• The Shaker Museum and Library at Old Chatham - Another Shaker museum in upstate New York.
• The Shaker Museum at South Union - A Kentucky museum.

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