Antique Federal Furniture

(1780-1820)

History and Illustrations

This Neo-Classicism style was introduced in America gradually during America's Federal age. The Chippendale style persisted into the 1790s, though it began to be often seen in combination with Federal decorative motifs as well. After the Revolution, a new wave of cabinetmakers began to arrive in the infant United States from England, Ireland, Scotland, and in the early 19th century France. Bringing with them ideas from the popular European furniture pattern books, these craftsmen catered, in the East, to a rising new class of wealthy merchants who were anxious to keep abreast of fashionable trends in Europe.

New Furniture Forms

With the introduction of the Federal furniture style, the dressing table and high chest disappeared. Continuing in limited popularity, the chest-on-chest now became embellished with elaborate carving. The most important new form to develop in this period was the sideboard, a logical development from the earlier side or mixing table. One kind of sideboard had square legs and a recessed center section; another had a kidney-shaped top and rounded ends.

Sideboard

Designed specifically with the needle worker in mind, the work table also appeared at this time. It was fitted with a set of drawers containing compartments or divisions. A cloth (or, rarely, wooden) "bag" to hold sewing gear was placed below the surface of the table.

Work Tables

Card tables remained popular, and they either continued to retain the swing leg of their Chippendale predecessors orincorporated a folding top that swiveled.

Card Tables

The sectional dining table became a well-known Federal form, as did the dressing table with an attached looking-glass.

Sectional Dining Table

During the antique Federal furniture period, the fall front chest of drawers, with a column at either end, developed as a variation of the Chippendale chest. The fall front desk generally was replaced by the tambour desk. Chairs reflected the delicacy and symmetry of the Neoclassical style:shield- and heart-shaped chair backs became standard, as did rectangular and oval backs.

 Shield                  Heart             Rectangular             Oval   

Regional Federal Furniture Characteristics

Regional Federal furniture characteristics became less pronounced, although some lingered, making it possible to determine certain areas of manufacture.

Designed with great delicacy, New England furniture still remained the most conservative; only here, for example, did stretchers continue to connect chair legs. Heart- and shield-shaped backs were popular here for chairs. Salem chairs often featured a large urn as a splat, with festoons radiating from it, and rear legs that had an inward curve near the bottom. The bow front chest, with contrasting light and dark veneers, was a typical New England form, as was the dressing table (with attached looking-glass), and the breakfront.

  Dressing Chest            Bow Front Chest

In Rhode Island, cabinetmakers developed a characteristic type of chair back, a shield shape centered by a flattened Greek urn or dish called a Kylix. The Rhode Island card table was quite distinctive also, often having tapering geometric inlay on the legs, which is surmounted by a small "book" inlay.

  Eagle Shield                                    Geometric Inlay

Although mahogany generally remained the principal wood in the Federal period, Connecticut furniture continued to be made of cherry. Connecticut furniture is characterized by elaborate inlays: a pattern of wavy lines resembling a pinwheel was particularly favored, along with bellflowers with "dot" outlines, "carrot" inlays, and eagles with shields.

Belflower Inlays

In New York, antique Federal furniture is generally associated with the quarter-fan inlay, although this detail appears in furniture made in New Jersey as well. New York chair backs of this period tend to be square, with elongated urns as splats and carved Prince of Wales feathers.

New York City became extremely important after the Revolution as an arbiter of American taste. Several cabinetmakers who had emigrated from Europe settled in New York and had a considerable impact. Most prominent of all was Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854), one of the most famous names in American cabinetmaking.

Phyfe's work at the turn of the 19th century reflected the designs of Sheraton, although slightly after 1800, he came under the influence of French Directoire design (named after the Directory, the group of five leaders who ruled France in 1795-1799). He preferred the rich mahogany from Cuba and Santo Domingo and combined these with carefully cut veneered panels for dramatic effects. After 1830, though, Phyfe tended to favor the more fashionable rosewood.

Phyfe's early work comprised virtually every category of furniture, combining delicate Greco-Roman motifs in an entirely original manner. In the antique Federal furniture produced in his workshop, favorite decorative motifs include the lyre, acanthus leaf, plume, cornucopia, drapery, laurel, sheaf of wheat, thunderbolt, bow knot, trumpet, harp, and rosette. Reeding was a universal ingredient of this furniture, and brass and ormolu pulls and feet were frequently used.

Decorative Motifs

Furniture created during the early 19th century in northern New Jersey demonstrated that, in some areas, several styles were being produced simultaneously. The shop of Matthew Egerton, Sr., in New Brunswick, for example, was producing furniture in the fashionable Federal style while it was still making the much earlier Baroque kast for more conservative patrons.

In Philadelphia, the rectangular-back chair was popular, characterized by urn-and-drapery decoration or by urns in the back intersected with vertical balusters. Elegant painted chairs, as well as sideboards with rounded ends, were specialties of Philadelphia cabinetmakers.

Mirrors

In the years immediately following the Revolution, Baltimore became an important port, and a school of cabinetmaking flourished there during the antique Federal furniture period. The sophistication and grace of the Baltimore school of cabinet-making can hardly be matched by that of any other area, particularly as exemplified by the elaborate pieces of painted furniture created here. In addition to painted furniture, the Baltimore school is known for its use of églomisé, glass panels with allegorical figures. Large ovals inlaid in mitered panels are also characteristic, as is the inlay or carving of the bellflower, in which each petal is carefully delineated from the others.

In antique Federal furniture from Charleston, South Carolina, a distinct type of "rice carving" is seen, resembling the ripe grain of the rice plant that is grown in that region. Other Southern characteristics are more difficult to detect because furniture continued to be shipped to the South from England and from other parts of the United States, which explains the strong stylistic affinity between Charleston's and New York's classical furniture.

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