Style furniture

Whether it's selling or getting a good deal at a garage sale, we would all like to know what style furniture we want and covet to make our interior a small masterpiece of decoration, and why not have a pretty room filled with antiques. To help you choose your furniture, we suggest you see the most widespread and most representative styles of classic furniture: the Louis XV style, the Louis XVI style and the Empire style.

How to recognize stylish furniture?

Know that each style of Antique furniture corresponds to a given era. Each era has proposed artistic particularities that today allow us to recognize the style of a piece of furniture. The symbols and ornaments found on each piece of furniture tell a story, just like the materials, colors and shapes. 

In general, types of furniture were designated either by their function or by their form. A secretary is used for correspondence and the secret storage of letters in a compartment closed by a flap. Other pieces of furniture are named according to their location in a room. This is the case of the corner, which is a seat with a square back and which is placed at the intersection of two walls.
Copies have flooded the market due to industrial production. That is why you need to define the age of the furniture so that you do not end up paying astronomical sums for simple copies.

Louis XV style furniture

To designate the Louis XV furniture, we generally speak of the Rococo or Rocaille style, of Baroque inspiration which favors curves, unbridled and asymmetrical patterns. The style is situated between 1730 and 1750-60, during the reign of King Louis XV (1723 to 1774).

The most common woods used at the time were oak, walnut, polished, natural, lacquered or painted beech in soft colours, amaranth wood and violet wood. The cabinetmakers of this period made light, elegant and comfortable furniture of great value.
It is by its precious wood that we recognize the Louis XV style furniture but also to its ornamentation. Indeed, the asymmetry of the decorations, rich in inspiration from the Regency style but also from chinoiserie, marked this style. The main motifs that we find are the shell, the acanthus leaf, the intertwined foliage, the birds, the bouquets, the fruits and the attributes of love. Bronzes and coppers are used on the locks, the ends of the feet, the angles and the edges.
Madame de Pompadour, who lived during the central period of the Enlightenment, was one of the greatest patrons of the applied arts in France. She encouraged the transition from the Louis XV style to the Louis XVI style. This is known as the Pompadour style.
The most common pieces of furniture at the time were: the chest of drawers, with its bronze and marquetry decorations; the corner cupboard generally matched with a central chest of drawers, the comfortable and light seat, the wardrobe and the sideboard, the secretary whose upper part folds down to form a writing desk, the table, the desk, the bed, the console and the pedestal table.

Louis XVI style furniture

Le Louis XIV-style is located between 1750-1795 and represents the majesty of the king whose emblem is the sun. Tired of the originality of the Rocaille style, Marie Antoinette is in love with naturalness and simplicity and has filled the Palace of Versailles with furniture marked by sobriety and well-proportioned balance. The geometric shapes are inspired by the discovery of the remains of antiquity in Herculaneum and Pompeii.

We recognize the Louis XVI furniture thanks to its wood: mahogany is highly prized, whether speckled, moiré, chenille or burled. Rosewood, beech, waxed walnut, maple, yew, amaranth and oak continue to be worked by cabinetmakers. Ebony is coming back into fashion after being banned under the Regency.
As for its ornamentation, symmetry and minimalism are the order of the day. The moldings are inspired by antique themes. The motifs that we find are rustic attributes, the ribbon knot, hearts pierced with arrows, pine cones, garlands of flowers. The gilding is still present but is used in a more discreet and finer way. Parallel or spiral grooves adorn the conical legs of the seats. The grooves are often found on friezes and flowerbeds.
The most characteristic pieces of furniture of the period are the high and low cupboards as well as the bookcases. However, this did not prevent cabinetmakers from evolving the style of certain pieces of furniture such as Louis XVI style chairs and armchairs. The back of this seat will take the form of a medallion, a shield or a gendarme's hat.

Empire style furniture

This style appeared during the reign of Emperor Napoleon I and was between 1804 and 1815. It is recognizable by its massive, luxurious and ostentatious furniture. The most commonly used woods are mahogany, sometimes inlaid with ebony, maple, elm burl, and lemon tree. Painted furniture is rare.

Its ornamentation is especially marked by the straight, tapered columns with gilded bronze laurel motifs. There are very few sculptures in the Empire style, while the motifs are in matte or shiny bronze, or gilded, black. We find the antique and warrior trophies, the imperial emblems: the crowned "N", the bee, the imperial eagle, the sphinxes, the griffins and the chimeras. The feet of this furniture are heavy, in column, in baluster, in sabre sheath and are extended by heads of women or winged sphinxes.
The characteristic furniture of the Empire style are heavy chairs, dark wooden chests of drawers, consoles, desks, psyches with solid plinth bases, wardrobes, bookcases and beds often placed on a platform.
Now you can recognize these three different styles. You can then prepare for negotiations with your antique dealer.

 

Read less