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Georgian Furniture 1714 – 1800

Georgian Furniture refers to furniture styles that evolved during the long reign of England's three Georges, I, II, and III, from 1714 to 1800

Georgian furniture is well designed and built to a high standard, using quality woods such as oak and mahogany and even the screws were made by hand.
English Georgian furniture was mainly plain and simple and followed architectural lines of buildings. Furniture was crafted by hand and solid woods were readily available along with good metalware so quality was paramount.

As the British Empire expanded more woods became available and the main change to fashions occurred in the reigns of George 1 and George 11 by the replacement of Walnut with Mahogany (Mahogany was imported mainly from Cuba and Honduras), cabinet makers liked the new close grained wood which is much harder and was not prone to worm. Mahogany was much more suitable for the grander pieces which were in high demand for the new taller buildings.

In the Early Georgian period attempts were made to improve earlier designs mainly from the Queen Ann period, pieces were given more elaborate pediments and sturdier cabriole legs. Early Georgian furniture mainly consisted of simple designed furniture like the cricket table which would have a plain solid top supported by three simple turned legs. Plain Oak hanging corner cabinets were popular along with simple designed refectory tables and Oak settles. The more elaborate pieces were constructed from walnut, like a chest on stand, sometimes with ball and claw feet and cabriole legs card tables also became popular in the same construction and style.

By Mid Georgian times some of the greatest furniture designers were around, Thomas Chippendale, who promoted more French Rocco style and Robert Adam who introduced the "Greek" neo-classicism to Britain. George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton were also two more well known cabinet makers who had a huge impact on furniture design in the 18th century. The simple straight lines were starting to change to more curved styles, motifs and ornamentation but the more classic designs still lasted throughout. The Hepplewhite and Chippendale chair sets, tea tables and dumbwaiters were now popular. Bookcases became less architectural and more delicate in design with swan neck pediments and astragal glazing. Chest on chests with rococo swan neck handles and canted corners with rococo designed carvings were all very popular and usually constructed from Mahogany.

By the late Georgian times there was much use of painting, inlay, veneer, light carving and marquetry. Mahogany was still the first wood of choice but satinwood was starting to become quite popular. Hepplewhite had the famous three feathers of the Prince of Wales crest on the backs of chairs and pier tables with beautifully painted neo classical designs. Satin wood and marquetry inlay was often used and mahogany was still the preferred wood. Bow fronted, concave fronts and cylinder shapes were becoming very fashionable and grander pieces were being made such as huge break fronted library bookcases and large pedestal desks.

You can usually date a Georgian piece by the construction and style.
Brass and ebony were increasingly used for decoration in the later Georgian times as were banding with string inlay, the most common foot was the bracket foot and the later pieces sometimes had an ogee bracket foot. The very early pieces may have been of a pegged construction using mortice-and-tenon joints held by pegs or dowels instead of glue or screws. From the early Georgian times the most common way of construction was by hand cut dovetail joints which were glued, hand cut clout nails for the backboards and sometimes hand made screws were used. The most popular style of handles were drop and swan neck handles.