Know Everything About Famous Furniture Designs Followed by Royals
Many people in
different countries use their own styles and there has been a lot of
the copying and exchanges in the designs and decorations styles of
furniture. Here we are gong to look at some of the countries and
their designs and works and the different kinds of woods they used to
make the furniture.
GERMANY
At the time
when Queen Anne walnut-veneered furniture was being made in England,
rather similar pieces were made in parts of Germany. They can be
distinguished from one another by the more extravagant lines of those
from Germany: whereas an English
chest might have a gently shaped front with straight sides, the
German equivalent would have a deeply curved front, and the sides
would be curved also.
German walnut bureau-bookcases
(a sloping-front bureau with a cupboard above) have been offered from
time to time as genuinely of English manufacture, and in some
instances their more obvious curves have been skillfully reduced.
Later in the eighteenth century Germany copied the prevailing French styles.
HOLLAND
Dutch
furniture has always had close links with English, and much Dutch and
Flemish oak has been, and still is, mistaken for English work. In the
times of William and Mary and Queen Anne, there was a flow of Dutch
craftsmen 10 England and much of the furniture of those periods could
have been made in either country. Some of the walnut-veneered and
marquetry pieces are, like the German, rather over-shaped and too
heavily decorated to be of English make.
Large two-door
cupboards of walnut and ebony were popular; these were constructed to
take to pieces for transport and are found in Holland and farther a
field. Dutch chairs of a design reminiscent of the work of Robert
Adam, with carved ornament of leaves and ribbons, were made in
mahogany and can be mistaken for English. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century, the Dutch cabinetmakers made some attractive furniture
of oak veneered with satinwood and inset with shaped panels of
lacquer. Tables,
cabinets and fall-front secretaires are to be found in this style.
Much of the
Dutch walnut and mahogany
furniture inlaid with marquetry of flowers and birds, often
bookcases with glazed doors, and sloping-front bureaus, have had the
marquetry added long after they were made. This was done when plain
furniture was temporarily unfashionable.
ITALY
Italian
furniture inspired or followed the design of most of the main types
of other European countries. Marquetry was first used there, and
developed later in Holland and England, and by Boulle in France. The furniture
of Italy varies from district to district, not only in details of
design but in the timber from which it was made. Many pieces were
veneered, others were gilded, and others lacquered. The painted or lacquered
furniture made in Venice in the eighteenth century is much in
demand at present.
SCANDINAVIA
Much English
furniture was imported into the Scandinavian countries in the
eighteenth century. The most famous and valuable that was actually
made there was the work of a Swede, George Haupt (1741 to 1784),
trained in Paris and London, who made furniture in Stockholm in the
Louis XVI style. His work is rare and valuable.
German copied
English style and later in the eighteenth century Germany copied the
prevailing French styles. Dutch
furniture has always had close links with English. Italian
furniture inspired or followed the design of most of the main
types of other European countries. These countries use different
kinds of woods to make furniture like the chairs,
tables,
doors, and other cabinets. |