furniture

furniture, properly such movables as chairs, tables, and beds; it is extended to include draperies, rugs, mirrors, lamps, and other furnishings. In its gradual evolution from periods of earliest civilization, the history of furniture parallels the progress of culture. Furniture has been made in a great variety of materials and decorated by many methods, the most usual being inlaying, painting or gilding, wood carving, veneering, and marquetry. Western furniture has drawn motifs of ornament from four main sources: Egyptian, Asian (Persian and Chinese), Greek, and Gothic.

Probably the first pieces to be in demand were the chest, the stool (prototype of the chair), the table, and the bed. From remote times Oriental furniture has exhibited carving and inlay on ebony and teak. Egyptian pieces 6,000 years old display an advanced form of woodworking, structure, and decoration and are characterized by inlays of gold and ivory and by carved supports representing animal forms. The Greeks favored the low couch, the tripod, and a chair with graceful, curved outlines. The Romans adopted Greek and Etruscan forms and during the imperial period developed many ornately decorated variations.

The heavily carved Gothic furniture reflected styles in architecture. Under Italian influence, the Renaissance brought richly decorated pieces designed specifically for domestic interiors. Peasant pieces were generally solid, painted or rudely carved, and slow to change in style. Provincial pieces followed in simplified form and in native woods; the period styles developed in the centers of culture. France became a leading influence with the Louis period styles, Directoire style, and Empire style.

English period styles include Elizabethan, in oak, with huge, bulbous supports; Jacobean, lighter and more comfortable, with spiral supports; William and Mary, introducing curved outlines, the trumpet leg, and the inverted-cup foot; Queen Anne, in walnut, characterized by cyma curves (double curves formed by joining a convex and a concave line), the rounded cabriole leg, and the broken pediment; Georgian, with its fine cabinetwork in a number of styles set by such designers as Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Robert Adam and his brother James, and Sheraton.

Early American furniture adapted current English styles in utilitarian form and in native woods—pine, maple, cherry. Later Phyfe, Savery, John Goddard, and other expert cabinetmakers added walnut and mahogany. The late 19th cent. brought mass production of machine-made furniture and saw an expression of flamboyant taste in golden oak of rococo design; this was followed by a reaction in the United States to the Mission style of rectilinear construction in weathered oak.

Around the turn of the 20th cent., the organic forms of the art nouveau style achieved popularity. In the 1910s and 20s many attempts were made to develop a new and at the same time functional design. The efforts of the Dutch group de Stijl are notable, especially those of Gerrit Rietveld. Modern materials were effectively employed by Miës van der Rohe in his famous Barcelona chair made of unadorned steel and leather, and contributions were also made by Saarinen and Bertoia. Other popular materials are welded metal and plastic. The use of fine woods in starkly simple design is the keynote of the elegant work that has been produced in the Scandinavian countries and won worldwide popularity since World War II.

Household equipment designed for a variety of purposes. It may be made of wood, metal, plastics, stone, glass, fabrics, and related materials. It ranges from the simple pine chest or country chair to the elaborate marquetry-work cabinet or gilded console table. It is usually movable, though it can be built-in, as are kitchen cabinets and bookcases. It can either reveal or hide how it was constructed, and it can be highly stylized. The design and building of furniture is related to both architecture and interior design. Throughout history the functional and decorative aspects of furniture have been influenced by economics and fashion. See bentwood furniture; Early American furniture; Shaker furniture. Seealso particular categories of furniture: e.g., bed; chair; table.

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Type of furniture made of wooden rods bent into shape after being heated with steam. The method was used on the 18th-century Windsor chair, but its principal exponent was Michael Thonet, who exploited its possibilities in the 1840s. His bentwood chairs are among the most successful examples of early mass-produced furniture. Bentwood is light, comfortable, and inexpensive, as well as strong and graceful.

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Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects which may support the human body (seating furniture and beds), provide storage, or hold objects on horizontal surfaces above the ground. Storage furniture (which often makes use of doors, drawers, and shelves) is used to hold or contain smaller objects such as clothes, tools, books, and household goods. (See List of furniture types.)

Furniture can be a product of artistic design and is considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. Domestic furniture works to create, in conjunction with furnishings such as clocks and lighting, comfortable and convenient interior spaces. Furniture can be made from many materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflect the local culture.

History

Furniture has been a part of the human experience since the development of non-nomadic cultures. Evidence of furniture survives from the Neolithic Period and later in antiquity in the form of paintings, such as the wall Murals discovered at Pompeii; sculpture, and examples have been excavated in Egypt and found in tombs in Ghiordes, in modern day Turkey.

Neolithic Period

A range of unique stone furniture has been excavated in Skara Brae a Neolithic village, located in Orkney, Scotland. The site dates from 3100-2500BC and due to a shortage of wood in Orkney, the people of Skara Brae were forced to build with stone, a readily available material that could be worked easily and turned into items for use within the household. Each house shows a high degree of sophistication and was equipped with an extensive assortment of stone furniture, ranging from cupboards, dressers and beds to shelves, stone seats and limpet tanks. The stone dressers were regarded as the most important as it symbolically faces the entrance in each house and is therefore the first item seen when entering, perhaps displaying symbolic objects, including decorative artwork such as several Neolithic Carved Stone Balls also found at the site.

The Classical World

Early furniture has been excavated from the 8th-century B.C. Phrygian tumulus, the Midas Mound, in Gordion, Turkey. Pieces found here include tables and inlaid serving stands. There are also surviving works from the 9th-8th-century B.C. Assyrian palace of Nimrud. The earliest surviving carpet, the Pazyryk Carpet was discovered in a frozen tomb in Siberia and has been dated between the 6th and 3rd century B.C.. Recovered Ancient Egyptian furniture includes a 3rd millennium B.C. bed discovered in the Tarkhan Tomb, a c.2550 B.C. gilded set from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres, and a c. 1550 B.C. stool from Thebes. Ancient Greek furniture design beginning in the 2nd millennium B.C., including beds and the klismos chair, is preserved not only by extant works, but by images on Greek vases. The 1738 and 1748 excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii introduced Roman furniture, preserved in the ashes of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, to the eighteenth century.

Early Modern Europe

The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented with carved designs. Along with the other arts, the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century marked a rebirth in design, often inspired by the Greco-Roman tradition. A similar explosion of design, and renaissance of culture in general, occurred in Northern Europe, starting in the fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs that frequently incorporated a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament. Starting in the eighteenth century, furniture designs began to develop more rapidly. Although there were some styles that belonged primarily to one nation, such as Palladianism in Great Britain, others, such as the Rococo and Neoclassicism were perpetuated throughout Western Europe.

19th Century

The nineteenth century is usually defined by concurrent revival styles, including Gothic, Neoclassicism, Rococo, and the Eastlake Movement. The design reforms of the late century introduced the Aesthetic movement and the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was influenced by both of these movements.

Modernism

The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. Art Deco, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Wiener Werkstätte, and Vienna Secession designers all worked to some degree within the Modernist idiom. Postmodern design, intersecting the Pop art movement, gained steam in the 1960s and 70s, promoted in the 80s by groups such as the Italy-based Memphis movement. Transitional furniture is intended to fill a place between Traditional and Modern tastes.

Asian history

Asian furniture has a quite distinct history. The traditions out of Pakistan, China, India, and Japan are some of the best known, but places such as Korea, Mongolia, and the countries of South East Asia have unique facets of their own.

Traditional Japanese furniture is well known for its minimalist style, extensive use of wood, high-quality craftsmanship and reliance on wood grain instead of painting or thick lacquer. Japanese chests are known as Tansu, and are some of the most sought-after of Japanese antiques. The antiques available generally date back to the Tokugawa era.

Chinese furniture is traditionally better known for more ornate pieces. The use of uncarved wood and bamboo and the use of heavy lacquers are well known Chinese styles. It is worth noting that China has an incredibly rich and diverse history, and architecture, religion, furniture and culture in general can vary widely from one dynasty to the next.

Types of furniture

External links

• Furniture Manual
• Le Garde-meuble, ancien et moderne (1841 -1851) Digital Exhibition of an influential French furniture magazine. Smithsonian Institution Libraries
• Images of furniture design available from the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) - including images from the Frederick Parker Chair Collection, Design Council Archives, and the Design Council Slide Collection