Antique Home Furnishings and Furniture

The article provides some information on home furniture sets. If you're interested in the issue like that, you're recommended to turn your attention to the home furnishings review as well. Nowadays, considering the variety of the available home furniture sets styles and tendencies, there is sense to settle an issue and to shed light on the antique furniture styles in the course of time.

First of all, it's essential to determine what furniture can be referred as "antique furniture" and why. Antique furniture is the articles which are dated back at least 100 years. Eventually, more and more vendors used to claim vintage furnishings as antique home furnishings. However, vintage is something that has been in vogue 25-50 years ago. So, if you are not a good judge at antique furniture, it's better to ask for the help.

So, let's return to the issue of the antique furniture styles. Since XIII c., Gothic style has been popular. Gothic antique home furnishings are characterized by strict shapes, plant ornaments, dark colors. The beds are high, with large and heavy canopies; the benches are made of oak or chestnut. 

Then, Renaissance antique home furnishings come. This style was created in Italy. Thus, Italian materials and paintings dominate. The Italian home furniture sets include a bench (that is a chest at the same time) with two small boxes on the both sides, chairs of two types: one has four fretted legs and another one has two legs, beds without canopies, fretted wardrobes and nailed arm-chairs. Baroque home furniture sets are richly decorated with gold ornaments. 

The furniture is made of oak and nut wood. Rococo is more capricious style: no plain lines, no simple decorations, everything is exotic and luxurious. On the contrary, Classicism brings the idea of practicalness and balanced palette. At last, Empire is a popular style of XIII c. the features of which remind Classicism with the deviation to the Antique Roman and Greek styles.

American antique furniture style resembles French and English models, but still has its unique interpretation of furniture designs. There are a lot of different styles and they influenced on one another, but we still can distinguish two basic periods. The Colonial period dates from 1620 to 1780 and represents Jacobean, Chippendale and Queen Anne styles of American antique furniture. And the Federal period (1780-1820), which includes Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Classical styles. These styles are considered to be an abstract of American antique furniture and have been reproduced for many years.

Nowadays there are a lot of different companies, which offer you to purchase American antique furniture. All of them created own recognizable style, which as usual is associated with the city, where the companies are established. The most popular among them are the John and Thomas Seymour in Boston, Isaac Vose and Emmons & Archibald in Baltimore. Philadelphia is famous for such designers of office American antique furniture as Joseph Barry, Henry Connelly, Anthony Quervelle and Ephraim Haines. Duncan Phyle is considered to be the most influential and popular designer in New York.

The first half of Federal period of American antique furniture is influenced by the Adam and Sheraton styles. The pieces of American antique furniture of these styles are elegant, made of exotic woods and are decorated with splendid elements. The designers of the furniture of this period were inspired by the culture of Roman Empire.

The second part of Federal period represents the influence of France on American antique furniture. But different French styles are inspired with Greek and Egyptian art. So, these styles of antique dining room furniture often represent the pieces of art, which are resembling a human being, different animals, decorated with bronze and as usual are made of mahogany.

Nowadays the pieces of furniture of this style have become very popular as well as expensive. Different collectors are eager to have some pieces of American antique furniture and are ready to pay any price for it.

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