American colonial furniture arises from numerous different sources. When buying’colonial style furniture’you are able to choose genuine and reproduction traditional American designs or those originating from Europe and Asia. Whether you acquire original pieces at the high prices they currently command, or reproduction pieces manufactured by specialist companies such as for example Southwood Furniture, there is difference between these styes.
Traditional American colonial furniture tends to be plainly designed, originating as it does from the pieces hand-crafted by the first setters and pioneers. The initial American furniture was created from hand-hewn wood, which was then fashioned into rough chests, tables and benches.
Colonial Williamsburg Furniture
These gradually became less rough and better finished, and proper chairs, chests and cabinets were put into the repertoire of numerous craftsmen who had left their very own country for a new life in America. Eventually, certain centers became noted for their very own style of furniture such as the pieces created by William Hay in Williamsburg, Virginia. Colonial Williamsburg is currently recognized as a method in itself.
Early Pilgrim furniture ranged from simple constructions to intricately turned chair spindles and stretchers. Bible chests, containing the family bible and important papers, were usually heavily carved, and the Queen Anne period represents the beginnings of the era of modern furniture. Much American Colonial furniture reproduces Queen Anne and the succeeding Georgian periods when the fantastic cabinetmakers such as for example Thomas Sheraton, George Heppelwhite and Thomas Chippendale were active.
Mission Style Furniture Designs
A lot of colonial style furniture was delivered to the colonies by the seafarers and wealthy merchants of New England, and it was just natural for local craftsmen, and later craftswomen, to copy these designs. It had been an chance for the less wealthy your can purchase such wonderful pieces at a reduced price compared to the originals.
However, many also began introducing their very own designs, the simplicity of Shaker styes representing the mission designs of the day. These then because more ornate, though still simple in design, as’mission stye’furniture. Mission furniture is currently popular in the USA, and provided by most furniture manufacturers such as for example Stickley, American Craftsman and Simply Amish.
Before buying colonial style furniture it is important that you are aware of the many varieties of American colonial furniture available for you, and also what style would suit your home. Some rooms can tolerate the more ornate, highly carved and turned style of furniture, while others would be better served with a simpler style, such as for example mission or Shaker furniture.
American Colonial Furniture and Furnishings
In fact, some choose their furniture first, and then design the room décor around it. A room furnished with reproduction American colonial furniture from the Georgian period, for example, would be decorated with heavily patterned flock wallpapers and deep piled carpeting. A lighter, simpler style of decoration would be used with the mission style of furniture.
When buying colonial stye furniture, therefore, it is important that you know the effect you’re seeking, since furniture and furnishings go together. A light airy modern home wouldn’t look right with the heavy carvings and turned spindles of the Jacobean or earlier Georgian periods, but would certainly support Shaker and Amish mission furniture designs as hand-crafted by firms such as for example Simple Amish.
Reproduction American colonial furniture is generally manufactured on-site by firms such as for example Southwood Furniture, whilst the mission kind of colonial style furniture crafted by the Amish are usually made at home, or by individual communities, and marketed from a main company such as for example Simply Amish.
Furniture as Accent Pieces
If you have no wish to convert a complete room to a specific colonial design, then you can select a colonial style chair or table, for example, as a piece of occasional furniture or as an accent piece. Just one Thomas Sheraton desk, with its fine, slender lines, wouldn’t look out of place in any modern family area or study.
The originals are very expensive if you can afford them, although reproductions look almost just of the same quality – it takes an expert in furniture to inform one from the other, and even then it is often only through the relative ages of the wood used! A craftsman is just a craftsman, whether from the 18th or the 21st century canapé club
Many believe today’s furniture to be more utilitarian than in the colonial days, but that’s not the case. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the pieces we now regard as antiques were the utilitarian items of their age. The exact same will also apply to art, literature and music – the greats of today must certanly be regarded in the exact same way because the greats of yesteryear – and likely are.
American colonial furniture might appear wonderful to us, but they certainly were the everyday items of their age. There’s no reason, however, why the ones that benefit from the designs of the age shouldn’t furnish their homes with colonial style furniture.