Antique Furniture England 1500-1600

Antique furniture portraits of Tudor monarchs show the continuing English use of the ceremonial X-framed chair and canopy. In most ordinary households chairs were few in number, benches and tools still being the most usual type of seating. In the 1520s the decoration of heavy box-chairs, constructed like a furniture chest and often having a hinged seat, sometimes combined Gothic linenfold carving on the panels of the base with Renaissance Grotesque motifs or romaine heads (profile heads in medallions) on the stiles or rails of the panelled back. The French-inspired caqueteuse (gossip-chair) evolved in the 1530s; this had a seat narrower at the back than the front, a tall back and, in place of the side panels of the box-chair, splayed arms. Later in the century the backstool developed: this had upholstered square seats and rectangular backs, and straight-cut or turned legs joined by stretchers.

Standing tables of jointed construction with a strong underframing were used for dining; trestle tables were still used for the main body of the household. Table supports in the 1580s were carved with cup-and-cover decoration. Draw tables, with extendable leaves supported on slides, became popular from the 1540s, and small tables were in use by the end of the century, the inlays of some denoting the table’s use in their designs, such as cards, musical instruments and games boards. The use of inlay spread during the Elizabethan period with the arrival of immigrant German craftsmen in London in the 1580s.

Antique furniture the early 17th century

Very few antique furniture types were used in the early 17th-century house: tables, chairs and stools, chests, coffers and cupboards, and beds. Most of these had hardly changed since the late 16th century, and were made with the same woods – oak, and occasionally walnut – and using the same construction techniques.

The late 17th century

In the second half of the century the picture changed. An imposing staircase led from the entrance hall up to a saloon (the old great chamber), on either side of which were apartments, sets of rooms consisting of an anteroom, bed-chamber and closet, some with the addition of a withdrawing room and presence chamber for royal use. For these splendid rooms the finest antique furniture was made: tables, looking glasses and torchères (candlestands) set against the piers (spaces between tall windows), lavishly upholstered beds and chairs, exquisite cabinets and writing desks. Furniture became increasingly specialised, with chests of drawers, bookcases and other pieces made for specific purposes. Walnut replaced oak as the standard material, and other woods – laburnum, kingwood, ebony – were used for exotic effects. Oriental lacquer and its European imitations were fashionable, and their dark tones contrasted with carved and gilded wood. Textiles lost their importance.

Different crafts developed to make these new styles. Joiners, who had made most early 17th-century were not rivalled by carvers and gilders, and, most importantly, by cabinet-makers, who used marquetry (thin, decorative wood veneers)

These craftsmen, working in London, made the finest pieces. Of course plenty continued to be made using traditional methods and materials and ignoring new fashions. Simple oak chairs, stools, chests and tables were made well into the 18th century: the details of a chair back or the panels of a chest might differ from 17th-century examples, but the basic type altered little. Regional variations continued too, and a chair or chest from Wales or the north-west of England would have decorative motifs peculiar to that area. Although often attractive and always useful, these pieces were not stylistically important: it was made for the royal palaces and great houses that set new trends.