Posted by Chris under Furniture Commentary on August 06, 2009

Anybody who knows antiques and the reproductions that follow them knows that familiarizing yourself with various furniture periods can be a big help. That's why we decided to offer our readers a few useful summaries of the major furniture periods of England, starting with one of the first. This post is the 6th in a series of 7, continued from a discussion of Regency furniture.

The same period that produced both an infamous Puritanical moralism as well as On the Origin of Species, the Victorian period is often seen as a time of contradictions, which any look at literature and art from the period can discern. The same can be said of Victorian furniture, where the stately propriety of the day clashed with a clamor of human passions to produce some of the finest, well-crafted furniture pieces of all time. Today, Victorian furniture is often considered the epitomized combination of orderliness and rich ornamentation. Indeed, furniture-makers at the time were so successful that succeeding styles took inspiration from the Victorian period, and even today many of the finest furniture styles (including our own collection) owe their design and construction techniques to the master craftsmen of Victorian period furniture.

Named for Queen Victoria, whose reign lasted throughout the period, the Victorian period lasted from 1837 to 1901. This was a particularly unique time, since it was during this time that England became the first industrialized nation. With industrialization came cheap mass production that conflicted with traditional craftsmanship, and eventually in 1861 a reaction to mass production culture precipitated in the form of the Arts and Crafts movement, started by William Morris. The Art Nouveau style developed as a result, which was heavily influenced by the Glasgow School centered in Scotland, and 20th century art and design would draw heavily upon the precedent it set. Other movements that played a significant role during the Victorian period included Eclectic Revivalism, which was a tendency to adapt older styles to contemporary tastes and requirements. Gothic Revivalism is one such example, a style that featured the use of older, simpler styles like those of the Georgian period, to which craftsmen and designers added the rich ornamentation characteristic of medieval period designs, such as in the Gothic and Tudor styles.

Although not as easy to characterize as cohesive periods like the Georgian period that preceded it, Victorian furniture generally took on this concept of combining old styles with new ornamental flair. Distinct characteristics include the increased use of intricate carvings, which grew heavier and more ornate near the end of the period, barley twist framing, paneling, and “marriage” furniture pieces that usually consisted of a Georgian bottom and a Victorian top (or vice versa), as in a Welsh dresser or secretary bookcase, or else featured the replacement of feet, as in the replacement of Georgian shaped bracket feet with turned feet. One of the most unique furniture types of the Victorian period was the Scottish chest of drawers, which was usually quite large with carved columns and at least one shaped drawer face. Among common Victorian furniture designs and techniques were the classic two-over-three drawer dresser, satinwood and yew wood crossbanding, shaped bracket feet, leather paneling with gold tooling, solid brass hardware, and swan neck style pulls. Many of these designs were borrowed from Georgian furniture and continue to be used today.

The most common woods used by English craftsmen during the Victorian period, as in other styles and periods, were oak, walnut and mahogany. The use of solid oak and pine remained standard throughout the period, while mahogany continued to be less common and more expensive, as it was imported from foreign sources. Craftsmen often used solid oak with thick mahogany and walnut veneers, which in many cases produced a more refined appearance than otherwise. Unlike contemporary conceptualizations of veneer work, the use of veneers in Victorian furniture was recognized as skilled and elegant; the term did not acquire the generally pejorative sense until the 20th century, when mass-production furniture manufacturers used thinner veneers or wood substitutes like plastic or composite materials.

Tags: furniture, history, victorian

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