Furniture style
A furniture style is that for a certain period , a field , a carpenter or evenists or a service characteristic, by uniform, similar or comparable characteristics in the nature or shape marked character of furniture .
Furniture styles are closely related to general cultural developments , to the respective zeitgeist and to the architectural and artistic styles of their epoch, but are not identical with the latter. Like these, they are subject to the currents of fashion .
determination
The criteria used to determine a style are the materials used and the type of processing or treatment, the shape of the furniture body and legs as well as the texture and ornamentation of the carvings , veneers , inlays and incrustations , frames , upholstery , furniture covers and fittings .
While the structural elements (wood and metal work) are based on the architecture of the buildings and the styles prevailing there, and generally lag behind them in time, the decorative elements, in particular paintings and covers, follow the interior design ( interior painting , wall hanging or formwork ) , and, like these, are subject to rapid changes in clothing fashion - typically, seating furniture , for example, is redesigned more often in this regard, so that different styles can be mixed here. Functional furniture such as table furniture , chests or cupboards ( box furniture ) are more conservative in their appearance than lights , screens and the like.
Furniture style includes, on the one hand, highly innovative elements that change within a few years, but also strictly conservative elements, some of which are passed on far beyond those of the other visual arts.
Temporal classification of furniture styles in Europe
The table below gives an overview of the chronological classification of various art and furniture styles. The dates are only to be regarded as a guide, as styles are subject to fluid development. Furthermore, it should be noted that furniture styles are sometimes named after the rulers who ruled at the time they came up, but whose reigns do not or only rarely coincide with the introduction and end of a furniture style. The years below refer to the dating of the styles.
| General art- historical epochs |
Germany, Austria | France | England | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000-1250 | Romanesque | 1020/1030-1250 | Romanesque | 1000 - 1200 | Romanesque | 1066-1170 | Romanesque | ||
| 1150-1550 | Gothic | 1220-1520 | Gothic | 1140-1500 | Gothic | 1170-1550 | Gothic | ||
| 1500-1650 | Renaissance | 1520-1650 | Renaissance | 1490-1589 | Renaissance | 1550-1650 | Renaissance | ||
| 1520-1610 | mannerism | 1589-1643 | Louis-treize | ||||||
| 1600-1750 | Baroque | 1620-1770 | Baroque | ||||||
| 1643-1715 | Louis quatorze | 1702-1714 | Queen Anne Style | ||||||
| 1714-1727 | Early Georgian ( Georg I. ) |
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| 1720-1770 | Late baroque / rococo | 1730/40 - 1770 | Rococo / Austrian: Theresian | 1715-1723 | Régence | 1720-1770 | Mid Georgian / English rococo ( Georg II. ) |
||
| 1735-1750/1760 | Louis quinze | 1750-1805 | Chippendale | ||||||
| 1750-1830 | classicism | 1760-1790 | bourgeois Braid style | 1750/1760 - 1792 | Louis-seize (including transition ) | 1760-1790 | Adam style | ||
| 1770-1790 | Austrian: Josephinian | 1770-1811 1785-1790 |
Late Georgian ( George III ) Hepplewhite style |
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| 1792-1804 | Directoire (including consulate) | 1790-1830 1790-1806 |
Regency-Style (future George IV. ) Sheraton |
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| 1805-1815 | Empire | 1804-1815 | Empire | ||||||
| 1815-1830/48 | restoration | 1815-1848 | Biedermeier | 1815-1830 | restoration | ||||
| 1830-1852 | Louis-Philippe | 1830-1850 | Early Victorian | ||||||
| 1850-1910 | Historicism / eclecticism | 1850-1910 | Old German style | 1852-1870 | Second Empire (Napoleon III) | 1850-1875 | High Victorian | ||
| 1880 - | Modern | 1896/1897/1903 - 1920 |
Art Nouveau / Austria: Secession / Wiener Werkstätte ( influenced by Expressionism after 1914 ) |
1895/1900 | Art Nouveau / Style Métro / Ecole de Nancy | 1870-1920 1890-1910 |
Arts and Crafts Glasgow School |
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| 1920-1940 | Art deco | 1920-1940 | Art deco | ||||||
Art styles began to internationalize in the middle of the 19th century, and furniture of a similar style can be found in the entire European-North American region, as well as in the world regions culturally linked through colonization . On the other hand, style elements from non-European high cultures and ethnic styles are increasingly being incorporated: Here, dating mostly from the First World War , was the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Since the middle of the 20th century, the stylistic design of furniture has also been increasingly determined by a more global design language. The approaching living habits around the world - at least in urban areas - give rise to similar formal solutions: This eclectic mix of styles is characteristic of postmodernism .
Rustic furniture
Peasant furniture is a collective term for the stylistic language of rural regions, some of which remains unchanged over several generations. Their design is based on the respective style epoch, often with a delay. In southern Germany and the Alpine region, Gothic, Baroque or Classicist forms are usually decorated with peasant paintings, in other regions they are made from hardwood that has been left visible. In the process, the individual regions developed stylistic elements that today reveal the origin of farmhouse furniture. The delay in the development of style could last for several decades: at the beginning of the 19th century, furniture in baroque shapes was still being made in rural areas, while the Biedermeier era had already established itself in the cities . The later date of creation can only be recognized by details, such as the painting or the fittings, as these were made by other craftsmen.
Production took place in small family businesses. In southern Germany and the Alpine region, the furniture was made exclusively from coniferous wood. To hide this fact, they were richly painted. Magnificent ornaments, marbling techniques and sham inlays were painted on. Particularly splendid specimens are additionally decorated with gilding or silvering, which were modeled on the luxuriously furnished interiors of castles, churches and monasteries. In particular, cupboards decorated in this elaborate way were often acquired by parents of the bride from the affluent rural area. Filled with dowry textiles, they were prestigiously pulled through the village on the bridal wagon with the doors open, and thus displayed. Such furniture procured on the occasion of a wedding is often marked with the names of the bride and groom and the year of the wedding.
Beyond rural areas, peasant furniture was also used in larger cities like Munich to equip servants' chambers .
This type of furniture production reached its peak at the beginning of the 19th century. In Upper Bavaria , at the instigation of the Bavarian King Maximilian II, production in large numbers developed, especially in the area around Bad Tölz . As so-called "Tölzer goods", they were shipped over the Isar by raft to Linz, Vienna and Budapest.
In other regions, for example in the Palatinate or the Eifel, but also in large parts of northern Germany, hardwood, mainly oak, but also walnut or cherry tree, was used, painting was unusual here. Some of this furniture was also decorated with carvings and inlays . Similar to the southern German furniture, it is also possible for the connoisseur to recognize the regional origin of a piece by certain peculiarities.
The number of types of furniture is generally lower in the rural sector than in urban furniture: Mainly you will find cupboards and chests, beds, tables, chairs and benches, in some regions grandfather clocks were also popular, and in some areas you can also find built-in furniture that is an integral part of the house and were often connected with wall paneling.
Farm furniture such as chests, boxes , tables, benches and beds are coveted collector's items today. Owning them was already considered chic by artists like Gabriele Münter and Wassili Kandinsky around 1900 and was propagated by architects like Gabriel von Seidl . The Heimatstil is related to this. On the other hand, the industrial production of furniture began at this time and also reached rural households. The farm furniture that had been passed on for generations was now considered old-fashioned and was placed in attics or barns. The antique trade also began to satisfy the interest of collectors and buy up this furniture. At the same time, the first local history museum came into being, which in addition to traditional costumes and farm equipment, also collected farm furniture.
During the Third Reich, rural cultural assets were ideologically exploited and often instrumentalized as "folkish". In the time of the Second World War and the immediate post-war years, old farm furniture was often continued to be used out of necessity, as many people had lost their belongings and new furniture was not available. With increasing prosperity, some peasant furniture was also "modernized" by painting, removing ornaments or pasting smooth plywood panels. Other items found secondary use in attics or in sheds for storing tools or the like.
In the 1960s, 70s and 80s the lively demand from collectors for old pieces repeated itself. During this time, a lot of farmer's furniture was bought up on a large scale by traveling traders, as there was no longer much left for them in the country and (having become wealthy due to the economic miracle ) they preferred to buy new pieces of furniture as they were known from catalogs or TV advertising . In the city, on the other hand, collectors paid very high prices for the old pieces and wanted to purchase them as objects of representation. Much of their furniture was no longer used in the original sense, but integrated into modern, urban apartments, e.g. For example, wardrobes (which traditionally had their place in the bedroom) were placed in the living room, chests were used to set up the television, etc.
Many original and culturally and historically valuable paintings fell victim to this general antique boom. The painting was not restored, but stripped off in order to make the covered wood visible or because it was not able to properly restore it. In addition to any visible remains of the painting, such furniture can be recognized by putty, roughly patched wood defects and similar traces that were originally covered by the painting. The stripped and mostly excessively restored furniture was partially redesigned in the 1970s by skilled artisans with new paintings of different quality and often inappropriate motifs in order to achieve a higher resale value. Most of the pieces are patinated and sometimes with fictitious dates, which should give the impression of a dignified, historical piece of furniture. Furniture made from hardwood, which was not originally painted, often fell victim to improper “ restorations ”. It also includes conversions, for example the legs of tables were sawed off to make a low coffee table, old beds were converted into benches, etc.
Due to the great demand, there were other questionable practices, for example new pieces were put together from old (furniture) individual parts, often using other objects made of old wood, such as room doors, wall paneling or floorboards. Such “marriages” were and are unfortunately not always declared as such, but - out of ignorance or even consciously - offered as supposed originals. However, the boundary between a legitimate restoration or addition to an old piece and an object newly built from old material is fluid and not always easy to prove.
With the turnaround , the antique boom repeated itself for a short time. Many residents from the former spheres of influence of the USSR now wanted to participate in the western lifestyle and sold their antiques at low prices.
Today, raw wood replicas are perceived as "rural" and offered as a country house style . This also includes types of furniture (such as TV cabinets, CD racks, fitted kitchens, etc.) that did not previously exist in this form. The often stained, industrially manufactured softwood furniture of the early days is not farmer's furniture in the strict sense of the word . They no longer have regional characteristics, but were sold as industrial products throughout Germany, both in the country and in the city.
In general, the prices for farmhouse furniture have tended to fall again in recent years, apart from particularly beautiful and well-preserved pieces. In addition, since many of the collections that were created during the “wave of antiques” in the 1960s to 80s are currently being closed down by their owners (or their heirs) due to reasons of age, the supply is comparatively large. Since then, many dealers have made it their business to base their range on restoring old farmhouse furniture and reselling it to a higher quality.
Typically classified rustic furniture to centers of part-time carpenter, about Bünder style eastern Switzerland, Antholzer Furniture in South Tyrol, the very valuable green Tyrolean furniture ( Alpbach and Zillertal Bauernkasten ) or often blue-ground Upper Bavarian furniture.
The Shaker style of America, which as an autochthonous style development goes back to the roots of European immigrants, should also be seen in this context .
See also
literature
General
- Renate Dolz: furniture style studies. Beautiful furniture and furnishings from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Empire, Biedermeier and Art Nouveau . 11th edition. Heyne, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-41012-2 .
Rustic furniture
- Monthly magazine of the Historical Association of Upper Bavaria . 1898.
- Franz Zell: Farmer's furniture from the Bavarian highlands . Keller, Frankfurt am Main 1899.
- Bernward Deneke: Country furniture. A guide for collectors and enthusiasts . Keyser, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-87405-010-6 .
- Bärbel Kleindorfer-Marx: Folk art as a style. Designs by Franz Zell for the Schoyerer furniture factory in Cham . Roderer, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-89073-909-1 .
France
- Lydia L. Dewiel: French furniture . 2nd Edition. Heyne, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-453-41262-1 .
- Christophe Renault, Christophe Lazé: Les styles de l'architecture et du mobilier . Gisserot, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-87747-465-8 .
- Francine Thieffry de Witte: Le mobilier des châteaux de la Renaissance à l'Empire . Ouest-France, Rennes 1999, ISBN 2-7373-2411-4 .
Web links
- Stilkunde Möbel , tischlereivalta.com - with examples, lexicon and timeline
- So-called throne of Dagobert I , BnF, Paris, France
Individual evidence
- ↑ ifAntik-Ing Rudolf Fabsits: rustic furniture. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .