Furniture History- The 18th Century

The eighteenth century is widely classed as one of the richest the world has ever known. A new level of prosperity occurred, paving the way for people to start spending more money on lavish living and showing off their newfound wealth.

Furniture during the eighteenth century continued to evolve at a fast pace. As trade levels throughout the world began to increase, people started to encounter new cultures and furniture design styles. Styles, which had not been seen before on the shores of Europe.

These new experiences and styles influenced a change in tastes of buyers, and a demand for different furniture designs was born.

These influences started to evolve the classic furniture design styles of the 17th century into something new and very different. Craftsman started to risk the long overseas voyages in the hope of finding new inspirations and materials to create unique furniture pieces to fill this ever increasing demand.

These new modern design styles started in France, moving over to England, then from England over to the new world colonies in America. With each move, the design styles of the furniture evolved slightly. Each craftsman would apply his own influences and experiences to a design and create something new and exciting.

The design of furniture changed from the massive, ornate Baroque styles of Louis XIV to a more refined, delicate Rococo furniture style under the reign of Louis XV. Toward the latter end of the century, the neo-classical designs of Louis XVI took over and stayed popular in France well into the later part of the century.

The Queen Ann period ushered in the start of the golden age of English furniture design. A rapid succession of furniture styles followed including; Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. These styles would later be classed in a more general term as the Georgian style. The Georgian style is named after the successive reigns of the three Georges that sat on the throne over this period.

Towards the later part of the century furniture pattern books started to appear. With these new books, copies of great masterpieces were being reproduced. These design copies were not of the same quality as the master craftsmen’s furniture but were helping to fill the demand for new age furniture in this new and prosperous era.

Over in the colonies, the news of these new design styles spread quickly. The wealthy colonists imported original pieces of furniture from their mother countries to keep up to date with fashion and their counterparts in Europe.

The new furniture design styles filtered through the colonies allowing local craftsmen to start producing adaptations of the furniture for themselves. These new furniture styles were a mix of the original designs from Europe, combined with their own new world designs. By doing this combination, they created something completely new and unique for the bold new world that they were living in.