FURNITURE

household equipment, usually made of wood, metal, plastics, marble, glass, fabrics, or related materials and having a variety of different purposes. Furniture ranges widely from the simple pine chest or stickback country chair to the most elaborate marquetry work cabinet or gilded console table. The functional and decorative aspects of furniture have been emphasized more or less throughout history according to economics and fashion. Chairs are always for sitting in, but some are more comfortable or beautiful than others. The ideal of furniture design is to integrate utility, craftsmanship, and beauty into a harmonious whole. Accessory furnishings are smaller subsidiary items such as clocks, mirrors, tapestries, fireplaces, panelling, and other items complementary to an interior scheme. The word furniture comes from the French fourniture, which means equipment. In most other European languages, however, the corresponding word (German Mbel; French meuble; Spanish mueble; Italian mobile) is derived from the Latin adjective mobilis, meaning movable. The continental terms describe the intrinsic character of furniture better than the English word. To be furniture, it must be movable. Since furniture presupposes some degree of residential permanency, however, it is understandable that no independent furniture types seem to have been developed among the Africans, the Melanesians, the Eskimos in Greenland, the American Indians, or the Mongolian nomads in Asia. In general, furniture produced in the past 5,000 years has not undergone innovative development in any profound sense. An Egyptian folding stool dating from about 1500 BC fulfills the same functional requirements and possesses the same basic features as a modern one. Only in the mid-20th century, with entirely new, synthetic materials such as plastic and completely new fabrication techniques such as casting, have there been signs of a radical revision of the concept of furniture. household equipment, usually made of wood, metal, plastics, marble, glass, fabrics, and related materials and having a variety of different purposes. Furniture ranges widely from the simple pine chest or stickback country chair to the most elaborate marquetry work cabinet or gilded console table. The functional and decorative aspects of furniture have been emphasized more or less throughout history according to economics and fashion. Chairs are always for sitting in, but some are more comfortable or more beautiful than others. The ideal of furniture design is to integrate utility, craftsmanship, and beauty into a harmonious whole. Accessory furnishings are smaller subsidiary items such as clocks, mirrors, tapestries, fireplaces, panelling, and other items complementary to an interior scheme. Furniture is usually movable, though it can be built-in, as is common in kitchens and bathrooms. It need not be domesticthere is office furniture, hospital furniture, and church furniture. Sometimes lampposts, benches, and fountains are called street furniture. Curtains, hangings, cushions, and other fabric items are known as soft furnishings. Furniture implies a degree of permanence; however, there is travelling furniturethe military chests of 19th-century England are one example of furniture designed almost as luggage. Stylistically furniture is closely allied to architecture and to interior design. It has usually followed the architectural fashions of its daynot surprisingly, since furniture was designed, often by architects, to enhance and harmonize with interiors. One of the foremost architects who became celebrated as an interior designer and furniture designer was the Scottish architect Robert Adam of the 18th century. It is a curious feature of 20th-century architecture, particularly that of the modern movement of the 1920s and '30s, that architects turned their attention in particular to the design of chairs, often using modern materials such as tubular steel and, later, plastic. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Eames, and Alvar Aalto are among those modern European architects whose chair designs became classics. Furniture ornamentation usually follows that of architecture, so that in the Middle Ages pointed arches and linenfold panelling were prevalent decorative modes. Later such motifs as columns, arches, friezes, mouldings, and pediments appeared. Twentieth century furniture, like its architectural counterpart, eschewed ornament and instead emphasized utility, line, and materials. Many crafts may be employed to ornament furniture. These include the making of types of metal hardware, such as drawer and door handles or keyhole surrounds; marquetry, using different coloured woods to create a decorative design; carving; gilding; painting; turning; lacquerwork; and inlays of ivory, tortoiseshell, or porcelain. Clear or mirrored glass may also enhance a piece of furniture. After a period of relative dormancy in the early Middle Ages, the craft of making furniture was revived in the 14th and 15th centuries with an increase in affluence. About this time many innovative types of cupboards, boxes with compartments, and various sorts of desks began to appear. With the rise of veneering and the growing sophistication of carpentry techniques, the profession of cabinetmaking was born, followed by that of chairmaker, which has remained a separate branch of furniture making ever since. Continued affluence of the 17th and 18th centuries gave the furniture trade another boost. The importance of cabinetmaking, coupled with increased demands for furniture, led in turn to specialization and division of labour. Now instead of one man making an entire cabinet, there were turners, veneer makers, carvers, upholsterers, and finishersall performing separate operations in sequence. In the 19th century another important division occurred between those who made the furniture and those who sold it. The modern furniture industry bears a close resemblance to numerous other industries in which mechanization and mass production are central to the manufacturing process. Timber is cut to usable sizes in a main conversion shop and brought to the required moisture content in a kilning section. After drying, the wood proceeds to the planing and jointing shops, where it is reduced to the required sections and any tenoning, dowelling, or dovetailing is performed. It is then veneered and passed to the assembly shop. Furniture assembly lines usually do not move continuously; rather the work is normally pushed by hand over a series of rollers as each stage is finished. Next in sequence are the sanding, finishing, fitting, and finally inspection and shipping. With the modernization of the furniture-making process, the use of natural wood has declined sharply over the years. Natural wood tends to swell and shrink with changes in atmospheric pressure and humidity. It has also become very expensive because of reduced timber supplies and the high percentage of waste involved during the various cutting operations. As a result, furniture has increasingly been made from plywood, chipboard, plastic and metal, with natural wood going into veneers. Additional reading General works Ole Hanscher, Mobelkunsten (1966; Eng. trans., The Art of Furniture, 1967), is a chronological survey of the art of furniture (with illustrations). George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections (1981), is an inspirational commentary of a designer and crafter on the art of furniture making. Near East and classical antiquity A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 3rd ed. (1948), indispensable; Howard Carter and A.C. Mace, The Tomb of Thut-Ankh-Amen, 3 vol. (192327); Gisela H. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (1966), the standard reference work in this area. Middle Ages Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonn du mobilier franais de l'poque carlovingienne la Renaissance, 6 vol. (185875), an authoritative work. Renaissance and later (Italy): George Leland Hunter, Italian Furniture and Interiors, 2 vol. (1918), mostly illustrations; William M. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture from the 4th to the Early 19th Centuries, 2 vol. (191819). (Spain): Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley, Spanish Interiors and Furniture (1921), profusely illustrated with scale drawings and photographs. (Germany): Heinrich Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Mbels, 2 vol. (196870), thorough, illustrated history of German furniture. (France): Pierre Verlet, Le Mobilier royal franais, 2 vol. (194555); Les Meubles franais du XVIIIe siecle, 2 vol. (1956), a learned treatise on French furniture. (England and the colonies): Percy Macquoeo and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture from the Middle Ages to the Late Georgian Period, 2nd ed., 3 vol. (1954), documented survey of English and American furniture; Ralph Fastenedge, English Furniture Styles from 1500 to 1830 (1962), an excellent elementary introduction to the study of English furniture; Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture (1968), illustrated study of Chippendale and his contemporaries; Clifford Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and Other NeoClassical Furniture (1966), written by one of the best informed students of the Neoclassical English style of furniture; Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture (1966), a survey of Federal period furniture. See also Berry B. Tracy, The Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (1981); Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America (1981); John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (1983). 19th century and modern E.D. and F. Andrews, Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American Communal Sect (1937); R.V. Symonds and B.B. Whineray, Victorian Furniture (1962), with many illustrations; Serge Grandjean, Empire Furniture, 1800 to 1825 (1966); Mikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of Modern Design from William Morris to Walter Gropius (1960); Jean Cassou, Emile Langue, and Nikolaus Pevsner, Les Sources du vingtieme siecle (1961); John F. Pile, Modern Furniture (1979); Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Elizabeth Bidwell Bates, American Furniture, 1620 to the Present (1981); David A. Hanks, Innovative Furniture in America from 1800 to the Present (1981). General considerations Kinds of furniture Chair Of all furniture forms, the chair may be the most interesting. While most other forms (except the bed) are intended to support objects, the chair supports man. The term chair is used here in the widest sense, from stool to throne to derivative forms such as the bench and sofa, which may be regarded as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not clearly defined. The social history of the chair is as interesting as its history as an art and craft. The chair is not merely a physical support and an aesthetic object; it is also an indicator of human worthiness. One is offered a chair; one does not just sit down anywhere at all without being asked to do so. Chair forms may also involve an indication of rank. At the old royal courts there were social distinctions between sitting on a chair with arms, on a chair with a back but no arms, and having to make do with a stool. In the 20th century, the director's or manager's chair has been an indicator of superior dignity, and even in democratic parliaments the speaker sits on a raised level. As a furniture form, the chair encompasses a wealth of variations. There are chairs designed to match man's age and physical condition (the high chair, the wheelchair) and for his position in society (the executive chair, the throne). In the olden days there were chairs to be born in (birth chairs); in the 20th century, there have been chairs to die in (the electric chair). There are chairs with one, two, three, and four legs, chairs with or without arms, and chairs with or without backs. There are chairs that can be folded up, chairs on wheels, and chairs on runners. Modern living has developed special chairs for automobiles and aircraft. All of these chair forms have been evolved to conform to changing human needs. Because of its close association with man, the chair appears to its full advantage only when in use. Whereas it makes no difference to one's appreciation of a cupboard or a chest of drawers whether there is anything inside or not, a chair is best seen and evaluated with a person sitting on it, for chair and sitter complement one another. Thus the various parts of a chair have been given names corresponding to the parts of the human body: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat. Because the basic function of the chair is to support man, its value is judged primarily on how well it fulfills this practical role. In the construction of a chair, the designer is bound by certain static laws and principal measurements. Within these limits, however, he has great freedom. The history of the chair covers a period of several thousand years. There are civilizations that have created distinctive chair forms, expressive of the highest endeavour in the spheres of technique and aesthetics. Among such cultures, special mention must be made of ancient Egypt and Greece; China; Spain and Holland in the 17th century; England in the 18th century; and France in the 18th century during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Egypt Two ancient Egyptian chair forms, both the result of careful design, are known from discoveries made in tombs. One of these is a four-legged chair with a back, the other a folding stool. The classical Egyptian chair has four legs shaped like those of an animal, a curved seat, and a sloping back supported by vertical stretchers. In this way a strong triangular construction was obtained. There was apparently no marked difference between the construction of Egyptian thrones and chairs for ordinary citizens. The main difference lies in the decorative ornamentation, in the choice of costly inlays. The Egyptian folding stool probably was developed as an easily portable seat for officers. As a camp stool the form persisted until much later times. But the stool also took on the character of a ceremonial seat, its mechanical function as a folding stool being forgotten. This can already be observed, from as early as 136657 BC in two stools, executed in ebony with ivory inlay work and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They are in the form of folding stools but cannot be folded as the seats are of wood. The simple construction of the folding stool, consisting of two frames that turn on metal bolts and support a seat of leather or fabric fastened between them, reappears somewhat later in the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The best known of these is the folding stool, made of ashwood, found at Guldhj (National Museum in Copenhagen). History 18th century: the Rococo style The influence of French furniture was predominant in Europe during the 18th century. In the second half of the century England played a leading role in establishing the Neoclassical style, and for supreme craftsmanship provided an inspiration to workshops in several countries; but in the diffusion of the two styles, the Rococo and the Neoclassical, French designs were universally imitated, with varying degrees of success. France The transitional phase in French furniture from Baroque to Rococo is called Rgence. The heavy, monumental style of the earlier part of Louis's reign was gradually replaced by a lighter and more fluent curvilinear style. The leading exponent of the Rgence style was Charles Cressent, bniste (cabinetmaker) to the regent Philippe II, duc d'Orlans. In his work the ormolu (a brass imitation of gold) mounts, so important a part of the design of French furniture in the 18th century, became equal to if not more important than, the marquetry decoration of the carcass. The curvilinear form was introduced not only to externals, such as legs and supports, but, in the bomb (rounded sides and front) commodes that first appeared during this period, to the case itself. High-quality marquetry in coloured woods replaced ebony. The Rococo style, a development of the Rgence, affected French furniture design from about 1735 to 1765. The word is derived from rocailles, used to designate the artificial grottoes and fantastic arrangements of rocks in the garden of Versailles; the shell was one of the basic forms of Rococo ornament. The style was based on asymmetrical design, light and full of movement. The furniture of this period was designed on sinuous and complicated lines. Designs of Juste Meissonier, goldsmith to Louis XV, sculptor and architect, were instrumental in creating the Rococo. The repertory of ornament was large and included the C-scroll, scrolled foliage, floral motifs, ribbon, and, on occasion, trophies formed of musical instruments or gardening implements. The Rococo Chinese taste had conventions of its own: pagodas, exotic birds, Chinese figures, icicles, and dripping water. The graceful bomb commode, often with marble top and two or three drawers, the surface enriched with finely modelled ormolu mounts, was popular. Under Cressent's influence the mounts predominated, though later in the century the marquetry decoration gained first importance. Commodes and other pieces were decorated with marquetry of floral or geometrical patterns, or sometimes with lacquer decoration, again combined with ormolu mounts. The most celebrated makers of mounts during Louis XV's reign were Jacques Caffieri and his son Philippe. Jean-Franois Oeben was made bniste du roi (cabinetmaker to the king) in 1754; a pupil of Boulle, he was the most celebrated cabinetmaker of the period. History Egypt Beds, stools, throne chairs, and boxes were the chief forms of furniture in ancient Egypt. Although only a few important examples of actual furniture survive, stone carvings, fresco paintings, and models made as funerary offerings present rich documentary evidence. The bed may have been the earliest form; it was constructed of wood and consisted of a simple framework supported on four legs. A flax cord, plaited, was lashed to the sides of the framework. The cords were woven together from opposite sides of the framework to form a springy surface for the sleeper. In the 18th dynasty (c. 15671320 BC) beds sloped up toward the head, and a painted or carved wooden footboard prevented the sleeper from slipping down. The great beds found in the tomb of Tutankhamen were put together with bronze hooks and staples so that they could be dismantled or folded to facilitate storage and transportation; furniture existed in small quantities and when the pharaohs toured their lands, they took their beds with them. In the same tomb was a folding wooden bed with bronze hinges. Instead of pillows, wooden or ivory headrests were used. These were so essentially individual, being made to the measure of the owner, that they were often placed in tombs to be used by the dead man on his arrival in the land of eternity. Folding headrests were probably for the use of travellers. Early stools for ceremonial purposes were merely squared blocks of stone. When made of wood, the stool had a flint seat (later shaped concavely) covered with a soft cushion. In time the stool developed into the chair by the addition of a back and arms. Such throne chairs were reserved for use by personages of great importance. Footstools were of wood. The royal footstool was painted with the figures of traditional enemies of Egypt so that the pharaoh might symbolically tread his enemies under his feet. Carvings of animal feet on straight chair legs were common, as were legs shaped like those of animals. Boxes, often elaborately painted, or baskets were used for keeping clothes or other objects. Tables were almost unknown; a pottery or wooden stand supporting a flat basketwork tray held dishes for a meal, and wooden stands held great pottery jars containing water, wine, or beer. The Egyptians used thin veneers of wood glued together for coffin cases; this gave great durability. Egyptian furniture in general was light and easily transportable; its decoration was usually derived from religious symbols, and stylistic change was very slow. Mesopotamia The furniture of Mesopotamia and neighbouring ancient civilizations of the Middle East had beds, stools, chairs, and boxes as principal forms. Documentary evidence is provided chiefly by relief carvings. The forms were constructed in the same manner as Egyptian furniture except that members were heavier, curves were less frequent, and joints were more abrupt. Ornament was richly applied in the form of cast-bronze and carved-bone finials (crowning ornaments, usually foliated) and studs, many of which survive in museums. Mesopotamia originated three features that were to persist in classical furniture in Greece and Italy and thus were transmitted to other western civilizations. First was the decoration of furniture legs with sharply profiled metal rings, one above another, like many bracelets on an arm; this was the origin of the turned wooden legs so frequent in later styles. Second was the use of heavy fringes on furniture covers, blending the design of frame and cushion into one effect; this was much lightened by classical taste but was revived in Neoclassicism. Third was the typical furniture grouping that survived intact into the Dark Ages of Europe: the couch on which the main personage or personages reclined for eating or conversation; the small table to hold refreshments, which could be moved up to the couch; and the chair, on which sat an entertainerwife, hetaera (courtesan), musician, or the likewho looked after the desires of the reclining superior personages. From this old hierarchy of furniture derive the cumbersome court regulations concerning who may sit and on what, persisting in the palaces and ceremonies of 20th-century monarchs. History China Remarkably little systematic study has been made of Chinese furniture. Its origins remain comparatively obscure, its workshops mostly unrecorded, its designers unknown; consequently, its dating is extremely difficult. Most of the forms of Chinese furniture, such as the low table and the covered bed, are found in the oldest Chinese paintings in existence; the designs have been remarkably conservative throughout the ages. Chinese furniture can be divided into two main types: lacquered wood pieces either inlaid with mother-of-pearl or elaborately carved, and plain hardwood pieces. Of the first, almost nothing is known, and dating of pieces is possible only from the designs of decorative motifs, such as dragons and peonies, and from their background motifs. The most important historically in this class are black lacquer pieces inlaid with mother-of-pearl that have been preserved in the Imperial repository (Shoso-in) in Japan from the 8th century. Of the red lacquers, such as seats and tables, the earliest pieces date from the Ming dynasty (13681644); their workmanship is characterized by softer contours and freer, more spirited designs than the later pieces of the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12). These lacquered objects influenced European cabinetmakers. Plain hardwood furniture is frequently encountered. Its deserved popularity both in China and the West has been won by its classical simplicity, reserved ornament, and lack of pretense. In these products of the finest workmanship, purity of line, plastic strength, and a flawless polish produce a harmonious, solid effect. A Chinese house requires less furniture than a Western house. Correspondingly, the types of furniture are fewer, being limited mainly to wardrobes, chests, tables both high and low of all types and shapes (altar and couch tables, for example), stools, beds (sometimes testered with curtains), screens and stools for use by the bed, and chairs. Although the fundamentals of Chinese joinery must have been formed a millennium before the modern era, the great development in Chinese furniture took place with the introduction of Buddhism from India during the first centuries AD. Before that time the Chinese had sat cross-legged, or knelt on the floor or on stools. Buddhism introduced a more formal kind of sitting on stiff, higher chairs with back rests and with or without side arms. The chests and armoires are superb examples of careful joinery and often have finely worked metal mounts that greatly enhance the beauty of their solid design. A number of hardwoods were used for the plain furniture: purple sandalwood (the most distinguished); rosewood of many varieties, mostly imported from Indochina and called old, new, and yellow; redwood; burl (especially for inlay); and so-called chicken-wing wood. Rosewood in its many varieties is perhaps the most frequently encountered and the most popular for its seeming translucence and satin, soft finish. It is above all the faultless workmanship, so typically Chinese, and the fine polish of Chinese furniture that attracts the Westerner. It was the Chinese respect for the spirit of wood and their command of line, curve, and cubic proportions that became the ideal of the 18th-century Western cabinetmaker. Japan Japan was one of the few civilizations that did not develop many specialized furniture forms. Instead, the interior architecture of the house, with the garden as its focal point, served the aesthetic and social requirements that furniture has served in many societies. The chief requirement for the few forms that were developed was that they be easily movable. Thin mats made of rice straw called tatami covered the floors and were used for sitting. The tatami utilized only natural patterns for decoration, although they often were bound in cloth. Cloth cushions were also used, as were small tables of wood or lacquer, either folding or rigid. Dressing tables and writing tables were specialized forms that evolved from the simple table. The folding screen was an indispensable adjunct to the other furnishings as it could be moved to change the entire aspect of the room. The one stationary piece was the shoin, a type of bay window from which extended a fixed desk used for reading. Japanese furniture forms have changed little for centuries. Because there are few extant pieces from the early periods, information about early furniture is gleaned from literary descriptions, engravings on mirrors, clay images, and graphic representations.