Eighteenth-Century Chairs The History of the Origin of the Design Period Known as Early American Colonial Furniture

William and Mary's reign in the tracing of the origins of the style known as early American colonial furniture was not very happy. William was a foreigner and not popular, and after Mary's death, people were doubtful as to who would succeed him. Chair-makers seem to have reflected this sober spirit. Much decoration left their work although they were busy experimenting. They introduced a curved leg in front instead of the straight up-and-down leg. The chair was beginning to forget its "box" ancestry. Another experiment took the stretchers diagonally across, so that people had room for their feet.

All this change and experimenting settled very quickly during the short reign of Queen Anne (from 1702-1714). Very beautiful and restful walnut chairs were made. The stretchers were simplified, and the maker found that his construction was so good that they could be dispensed with altogether. The curved front leg took the delightful shape called the "cabriole", a French word derived from the Latin " caper", meaning a goat. This shape was used in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and it may have been some copying of old forms that led to its use in France and its introduction to England. The origin of the shape as an animal's leg usually shows in the feet, which are often in the form of a flattened hoof and sometimes are the well-known "ball and claw". All the elaborate carving of Charles II's chairs went, and the back became just a frame enclosing one broad splat. One most important change was introduced. Chair-makers seemed at last' to realise that people's backs were not straight as a poker but were curved, and that a chair, in order to be comfortable, should have a shaped back. A great change also was coming over social life. No longer was the master of the house the only person who sat upon a chair. An "arm-chair" was still provided for him, but stools, forms and benches became more and more the furniture of schools, inns, chapels and such places, and in the homes of the well-to-do chairs without arms were beginning to be made in sets for the family and guests.

Four facts make the years we are now approaching memorable in the history of English chair-making in the tracing of the origins of the style known as early American colonial furniture:

Trade was making England a rich country.
This wealth enabled people to travel and to see the work of foreign craftsmen.
English craftsmen, under the leadership of a succession of master workmen and designers, attained the highest craft skill.
Draw all you can of Greek ornament.
The regular importation of mahogany after 1715 gave the chair-makers a wood which enabled them to carry out their designs to the full.

For a time the English designer was strongly influenced by French work, just as the French worker was influenced the chair in the tracing of the origins of the style known has early American colonial furniture work. In England the Hanoverian Georges had little taste or influence in furniture-making this effected the tracing of the origins of the style known has early American colonial furniture, but in France this was patronised by a powerful Royal Court. The French sovereigns were no longer satisfied with the lack of comfort in the mediaeval castles. They built new and splendid palaces, the most marvellous of which is at Versailles. These needed furnishing. Cabinet-makers were engaged from neighbouring countries. Workshops were established in the Royal Palace itself. Cost was no object. It is no wonder that French furniture became a source of inspiration and that English craftsmen were continually influenced by it.

Wealthy English nobles, land-owners and merchants were also finding the old manor houses inconvenient places in which to live. They engaged architects to plan and build new houses. These studied the Greek and Roman styles of building. The new houses needed new furniture, and architects and master craftsmen borrowed Greek and Roman forms of decoration, and even the shapes of chairs and couches.

Then it chanced that the French came into close contact with Egypt-Napoleon invaded the country and Egyptian ways of decoration and furniture construction became fashionable in France and England. Mixed with all these was the strong influence from China, of which we have in the tracing of the origins of the style known has early American colonial furniture. A new kind of workman also was entering the workshops. All kinds of schools were becoming common, and' almost all intelligent artisans could read and write. Printing had become common and cheap, and a new kind of book was appearing. For the first time craftsmen and designers, mainly in London, were writing about furniture-making and design, and two kinds of people bought the books eagerly, the gentlemen in the country, who wished their new furniture to be in the fashion, and the master woodworkers in the country workshops, who wished to keep up-to-date.All this makes a study of chairs the tracing of the origins of the style known has early American colonial furniture while the four Georges sat on the throne one of constant change and sometimes of bewildering variety.

Plate XXIV
William and Mary Chair and Queen Anne Chair

William and Mary Chair