Such was the rich, compelling character of Georgian period art and design that most English
reproduction office furniture today is modeled directly after Georgian style examples.
In fact, our office furniture collection owes virtually all of its designs and many of its construction techniques to
the efforts of the master craftsmen of the Georgian and Victorian periods.
The Georgian period, so named after the first four King Georges, lasted from about 1714 to 1820.
A few of the period’s most influential furniture designers were Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite (whose first name
is coincidental). Contemporary furniture styles included the French Régence, Directoire and the internationally adopted
Empire style (known in German-speaking nations as Biedermeier style and in England as Regency). Furniture of the
Georgian style was characterized by a simple elegance that was markedly different from ornate Empire styles as well as
from previous, more lavish styles such as in the Jacobean (1600-1630) and Queen Anne (1700-1715) periods. For
instance, rather than the exquisite carvings that characterized Jacobean furniture or the frequent use of cabriole legs
in Queen Anne furniture, Georgian furniture saw more conservative, imposing designs that reflected the English
return to neoclassical art and design. In this sense, it was more in keeping with Empire furniture styles, but differentiated
from them in its simpler English adaptation to contemporary tastes, which for the most part opted for conservative
stateliness in place of opulence. Examples of distinct characteristics of Georgian furniture would include a general
absence of intricate carvings as well as the use of turned or square-tapered legs instead of cabriole or French style.
Even so, Georgian furniture craftsmen employed a great deal of knowledge that was developed in other periods and styles, including
the classic gateleg table design that finds its origin in the Jacobean period. Ornamental inlays were preserved,
the most common among them being crossbanding, although other inlays such as the classic “fan” inlay were sometimes used.
The most common woods used by English furniture craftsmen during the Georgian period, as in other styles
and periods, were oak, walnut and mahogany. The use of solid oak remained standard throughout the Georgian period,
while mahogany became more popular near the end of the period, and solid walnut pieces all but
disappeared from Georgian furniture. In place of solid walnut and mahogany, 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 old times 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.
Among common Georgian 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, oval
and swan-neck style pulls, and astragal glass moulding. Many of these concepts and techniques carried over into the
Victorian and Edwardian periods, and continue to be used by contemporary reproduction craftsmen today. More than
Georgian style furniture techniques were recycled, however: many Victorian tables and other pieces (particularly demi-lune tables)
were either marriages of Georgian and Victorian furnituer pieces, or re-used materials and pieces from the Georgian period.
One convention in English furniture history has been to combine a top and a bottom half as in, for instance, a secretary
bookcase or a dresser with a hutch.
