A SUMMARY OF 19TH CENTURY BRITISH FURNITURE STYLE DEVELOPMENT
Historical Eclecticism and the Reformed Gothic
By the time that Queen Victoria came to the throne, the dominance of the informed Classical styling of
the Regency period had been replaced by a variety of meritricious ‘historical’ styles promoted by the
retailing enterprises providing furniture for the homes of the new middle classes; in addition to the
‘Naturalistic’ style Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of 1833 lists ‘Grecian’, ‘Elizabethan’, ‘Louis XIV’ (or revived
Rococo) and ‘Gothic’. A.W.N. Pugin [1812-52] adopted his Reformed Gothic style for its moral
rectitude and gave it historical authenticity, publishing Gothic Furniture in the Style of the 15th Century in
1835. In common with the Art Manufactures of Henry Coles he addressed the problem of the role of
decoration (art) in furniture design, asserting that serving and expressing function is the primary aim of
design, with suitable and authentic decoration subservient to that purpose.
Reformed Furniture
After the Great Exhibition in 1851, which apart from Pugin’s Medieval Court failed to manifest the
hoped for improvement in British design, reform minded designers developed the Gothic theme.
William Burges [1827-81] drew on Medieval painted themes for inspiration for his highly individualistic
and elaborately decorated furniture. Charles Eastlake [1836-1906] published the influential Hints on
Household Taste in 1868, illustrating oak furniture in Reformed Gothic style with revealed joined
construction and restrained carved surface decoration. Bruce Talbert [1838-81] employed more
elaborate designs in his Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture in 1868. His later designs employed seried
turnings and denser panel decoration in the Jacobean idiom of the ‘Old English’ style. Charles Bevan was
another contemporary designer of note, frequently employing lighter woods inset with repeated
naturalistic patterns.
Aesthetic or Art Furnishing
The revealed construction and seried turnings of the ‘Old English’ style evolved into the lighter forms of
‘Free Renaissance’ furniture, frequently ebonised and highlighted with gilt decoration with delicately
decorated panels. The simplicity of form suited the return to authentic materials and uncluttered
interiors of the ‘Queen Anne’ architecture of Richard Norman Shaw, and was combined, notably by
Edward Godwin [1833-86] in the 1870’s with the simple open geometry of the rediscovered Japanese
interiors. Also producing furniture with Japanese inspiration was Christopher Dresser [1834-1901]; both
he and Godwin subsequently incorporated simple Grecian and Egyptian elements in to their furniture.
R.W.Edis [1839-1927] offered a commercial version of this ‘Art Furniture’ in his Decoration and
Furniture of Town Houses in 1881. Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo [1851-1942], although part of the later
Century Guild, also produced furniture in the Aesthetic idiom.
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Inspired by John Ruskin, William Morris [1834-1896] found a model in the Medieval world for
craftsmanship of integrity giving dignity and self expression to the craftsman. In association with the
Pre-Raphaelite artists Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox Brown he founded the firm of Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1862, creating both lavishly decorated ‘state’ furniture, and ‘common’
furniture, mostly designed with simple joined forms by Philip Webb [1831-1915]. Some successful
pieces were modelled on vernacular chairs. The ideals of Morris inspired the formation of The Arts and
Crafts Exhibition Society in 1886, and ‘guild’ associations. The Century Guild was founded in 1882, and
the influential Guild of Handicrafts by Robert Ashbee in 1888, seeking to create a community of
craftsmen. The brief existence of Kenton & Co. (1890-91) featured Richard Lethaby [1857-1931] – later
of great significance in crafts’ education - and Ernest Gimson [1864-1916], who with Ernest [1863-1926]
and Sidney Barnsley [1865-1926] formed the so-called ‘Cotswold School’. The three set up workshops at
Pinbury in Gloucestershire in 1894 creating honest and elaborately worked furniture in the vernacular
tradition. The movement was continued by Peter Waals, Gimson’s foreman, and Sidney’s son Edward
Barnsley into the mid 20th century.
Other designers showing the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement at the end of the 19th century
were Charles Voysey [1857-1941] in England and Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959] and Gustav Stickley
[1858-1942] in the United States. These designers created furniture simply styled in oak, employing a
strong sense of horizontals and verticals in design. Frank Lloyd Wright particularly appreciated the
importance of furniture in articulating social space within the house.
Art Nouveau
‘New Art’ forms of furniture were more popular at the turn of the century on the Continent than in
Britain. The ‘Symbolic’ Art Nouveau forged by Victor Horta’s Tassel House and Henry van de Velde
[1863-1957] in Belgium gave rise to the sinuous naturalistic forms of French furniture. The École de
Nancy, under the guidance of Emile Gallé [1846-1904], and the participation of Louis Majorelle [18591926], employed literal representations of flowers and insects in carving and marquetry of superb
quality. In Paris, promoted by Samuel Bing’s gallery L’Art Nouveau the work of George’s de Feure,
Eugene Gaillard, Hector Guimard and Edouard Collona, amongst others showed greater used of plant
forms in furniture form for symbolic effect. In Spain Antoni Gaudi [1852-1926] produced surreal
serpentine furniture forms, whilst in Italy Carlo Bugatti [1856-1940] chose Moorish applied decoration
as the idiom for his complex pieces.
Although Charles Rennie Mackintosh [1868-1928] enjoyed little popularity in Britain, his furnishing for
the Glasgow School of Art and other commercial and private commissions at the turn of the century
employed a radical use of geometry in creating forms that were visually striking and defined space,
combined with sparing ‘Abstract’ Art Nouveau decoration of flower forms. His designs were
enthusiastically absorbed by members of the Wiener Werstatte. Also designing in the New Art manner
were M.H. Baillie Scott [1865-1945] and George Walton [1867-1933].
Both the work of British architects and designers, and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright were transmitted
to the European Continent, particularly through Hermann Muthesius [1861-1927]; Charles Rennie
Mackintosh in particular inspiring the Wiener Werstätte, and Muthesius’s Das Englische Haus (published
1904) the Deutcher Werstätte, out of which the Bauhaus and Modern Movement emerged.