The Edwardian period represents in many ways the last period of English furniture craftsmanship in
which bench-made furniture pieces played a central role, with later styles of furniture more or less abandoning traditional
precedents in favor of cheap materials and machine production. Today, only a handful of English furniture manufacturers
continue the tradition preserved by Edwardian craftsmen, among them the third-generation cabinetmaker who supplies
our own line of furniture.
So named for King Edward VII’s reign from 1901-1910, the Edwardian period continued the Victorian
tradition of reviving and blending older styles. Georgian furniture inspirations occupied the forefront of Edwardian
furniture-making, however, and thus the period produced a kind of neo-Georgian style, with key differences. Among these,
for instance, was the revived prominence of Queen Anne style furniture, which tended to employ cabriole legs, serpentine curvatures in
chests, and chair backs curved to fit the body, with walnut as a favourite wood type. The Art Nouveau style was also a
contemporary of the Edwardian period.
Typically, Edwardian furniture-makers used mahogany, often in butterfly or quarter-veneer styles.
Square tapered legs and spade feet were common. Satinwood was the favoured wood type for inlays, usually in combination
with ebony. Satinwood inlay patterns included fan, swag, festoon, and string inlays. In fact, very often Edwardian
furniture would include a combination of all of these inlays, producing a richly ornamented appearance, even in the absence of
heavily worked carvings, and in this respect Edwardian craftsmen favoured the simple yet elegant Georgian approach to
ornamentation.
