Elizabethan period furniture. Stock of Antique Oak and Country Furniture, Original Antique English Furniture 2022-10-29
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The Elizabethan period, named after Queen Elizabeth I who ruled from 1558 to 1603, was a time of great cultural and artistic flourishing in England. During this time, furniture design and production also underwent significant changes and innovations.
One of the most notable features of Elizabethan period furniture was its ornate and elaborate design. Furniture pieces were often intricately carved with scrolling patterns and motifs, such as flowers, leaves, and animals. Inlaid woodwork, gilding, and other decorative techniques were also used to add further embellishment. The use of costly and exotic materials, such as ebony and ivory, further added to the grandeur of Elizabethan furniture.
Elizabethan period furniture was also highly functional and practical. Furniture pieces were designed to serve multiple purposes, such as serving as both a seat and a storage space. For example, a chest of drawers could also be used as a bench or a side table. Tables were designed with removable tops, allowing them to be used for different purposes, such as dining or writing.
One of the most iconic pieces of Elizabethan period furniture is the four-poster bed. These beds were made with tall, ornately carved posts and were often draped with expensive fabrics and hangings. They were a symbol of wealth and status, as they were only affordable to the upper classes.
Elizabethan period furniture was also influenced by foreign styles and materials, particularly those from the East. The trade routes to the East brought back exotic materials such as sandalwood, which was used to make inlaid furniture. The Islamic influence can be seen in the use of arches and geometric patterns in Elizabethan furniture design.
Overall, Elizabethan period furniture was characterized by its ornate and elaborate design, practical functionality, and foreign influences. It was a reflection of the wealth and cultural achievements of the time and remains a significant and enduring part of the history of furniture design.
Elizabethan Furniture Style (1520
Figure 4, Plate III. If the bedstead illustrated in Fig. It is the " Court Cupboard," then, that we will now discuss; and in Fig. Middle class and royalty demanded fine houses and furnishings. The tables thus upheld were mighty constructions, sometimes they can be pulled apart in an extension, but oftener bound by firm crossbars and almost immovable through their weight. Its vertical lines are always breaking through the horizontal of the invading classic; its reverend monsters look with special unkindness on the fantasticism of the new monsters that Cellini described as the promiscuous breed of animals and flowers; its ornaments insist upon their right before the Grecian; in architecture its gables still rise, although with a skyline gnawed out by the scrolls as worms gnaw out the sides of a leaf; and in furniture its cove surmounts the tops of those cabinets whose fronts are the facades of temples.
See page 35, and Plate 4 side-table, with a cupboard, or chest, placed upon it. Strapwork, a type of geometric, low relief carving or plaster work, increases the Elizabethan ambiance, but it might be difficult to procure. And if the movement was tardy even then, it was still slower in the previous The term Elizabethan has been used distinctively in relation to the Renaissance, rather than exactly in relation to the English styles; for it really began some years before Elizabeth was born and extended over some years after she died, only then receiving its full development. . She described a bed of tapestry-makers' work, with a set of red tapestries sprinkled with metal ornamentation and her ancestors' arms. Was this article helpful? I present this important discovery most readily to the Baconian theorists. As the middle classes prospered, they too wanted featherbeds and soft sheets.
The whole of the joinery and panelling came into the market a few years ago, and was purchased for the nation by the Science and Art Department for the comparatively small sum of one thousand pounds. To the " Elizabethan " we shall look first, making that the starting-point for our studies. The truly beautiful room of which a corner is limned on Plate IV. See pages 26, 33, 34, 54, 77 bethan"—which, as regards date, it really is ; but, so far as style is concerned, it would be far more correctly classified under the heading " Italian," pure and simple. The panelling throughout, with the exception of the inlaid detail, is of oak ; and the general structural scheme, with its graceful pilasters, surmounted by Ionic capitals, and colonnade of arches within arches, is wholly Italian in character, Italian, moreover, of the best period of the " Renaissance.
You should select pieces of furniture that suit your needs well. As for servants, they were lucky if they had a sheet over them, for there was nothing under them to keep the straw from pricking their hardened hides. The detail in every part is just such as we find in the fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian work, unaffected by the foreign influences which came into play at a later period. In a formal den, add a draw table, the equivalent of a modern coffee table. I will, therefore, recall the fact that the " Elizabethan " did not attain its full development until after James the First had ascended the throne. A tin ceiling tile equivalent -- featuring motifs in Tudor Rose -- banded scrolls or diamond-shaped lozenge patterns, simulates the look. Subtle references can be made to the Elizabethan period through contemporary styling as artist Elizabeth White testifies.
I, 2, 3, and 5, Plate III. All the rest of the carving of that section of the structure is, in conception and spirit, thoroughly Italian—the true Italian of the " Cinque-Cento. Different furniture styles have evolved over the period depending on the time and place of origin. Deason holds a Bachelor of Science from Tennessee Technological University. These replaced wooden shutters, allowing light to infiltrate the home and create a sense of airiness and space.
Stock of Antique Oak and Country Furniture, Original Antique English Furniture
Both pieces, however, may be considered as belonging to approximately the same period. The latest styles were quickly copied by native artisans and assimilated into the English medieval forms. I have explained that of furniture actually designed and made prior to the commencement of the seventeenth century, comparatively little remains, and what has been handed down to us in any state of preservation is most jealously guarded in a few private collections, and in national museums. When Henry VIII departed from the church, he invited furniture makers to make English furniture, copied the churches' characteristics. We can see at a glance that it was simply an elaboration of the ordinary, old Sixteenth-Century English Chair Composed principally of turned work {See page 29 for refer erne inlaid panelling from sizergh castle, drawn to larger scale Reference in Text. The long panels with the diamond- shaped centres have the " strap-work " feeling, but the detail is more free and less conventional in treatment than actual " strap-work " usually is.
The Next a bolster was laid at the head end before a pair of sheets were put on. Queen Elizabeth helped England move away from medieval traditions. You should always do research and find the right pieces of furniture that will complement each other in their own way. The antique four poster beds usually have beautiful head boards with beautiful and intricate antique carvings. Upon gaining the throne, Queen Elizabeth I worked towards maintaining peace and uniting her subjects. The gothic furniture style for instance finds its roots in the rich churches of the Middle Ages and closely follows the Gothic architectural styles.
These pieces called for but limited skill to produce, and could therefore be turned out cheaply, which doubtless accounts for their having been in such common use. This panelling is of a character so exceptional that I have deemed it worthy of being presented to greater advantage than is possible in complete interior form, so on Plates V. All the furniture in this room, apart from the bedstead, which has already been discussed, is of a period later than that to which the panelling belongs, and represents various phases oi a style which we must consider in the next chapter. The consideration of the supports of this old desk reminds me that a few words on the subject of turning must be said here. Queen Elizabeth I, was the last ruler of the Tudor dynasty and reigned over England from 1558-1603. Some of these, notwithstanding that they are later as regards date than the types we have been studying, retain " Elizabethan " characteristics, and, for that reason, they are not out of place here. In this last carving we have the early beginnings of that type of panel in which more or less crude leafage of a nondescript character, outlined by an interlacing " strap," or plain "fillet" or edging of wood, is arranged geometrically— generally as a quatrefoil.
In all three the "strap-work" element is pronounced, and this should be noted particularly, for it is a distinguishing feature, and one most particularly favoured by the English designers and craftsmen of this period. Designed by architect Robert Smythson, the property is upheld as a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Tester comes from the French word for head, and celure has the same roots as the word ceiling. It is under this renewed economic stability, which we owe some of the most spectacular examples of 17 th century architecture. There is a huge selection of chests that are centuries old and are rare pieces of art with beautiful antique carvings. The Elizabethan Era is known for its Elizabeth gained the throne in 1558 after the reign of her half-sister Mary I.
The turning, however, was of a very simple, even primitive, character, revealing the presence of little or no fertility of ideas on the part of the designers and craftsmen who availed Sixteenth-Century English Chairs Composed principally of turned work See above for reference themselves so generously of its aid. This style of furniture primarily portrays some dramatic expressions of the designs of those periods. Other examples of the period can be observed at Longleat House with its rich plaster relief and oak panelling and Corsham Court for its classical columns. The form of the cupboard was altered somewhat, and it was made a fixture; an ornamental canopy or top was added, and was supported at both ends by the introduction of turned, or square, columns; as a result, yet another piece of furniture, of a type not previously known, took its place in the Elizabethan home. A well-to-do but middling family might have one featherbed and feather bolster to pass on, while some of the wealthiest people could leave their descendants several beds with complete sets of expensive hangings and fine bedding.
