Antique Furniture

Wonderful eighteenth and nineteenth century antique furniture originated in such disparate locations as cosmopolitan Barcelona and rural communities of upstate New York A small museum in Antoni Gaudis Park Guell houses examples of this architects flowing Art Nouveau furniture while there are Shaker museums from New England to the American South that display this functional minimalist designs. Older styles of antique furniture from England and America include William and Mary Queene Anne Chippendale and Federal Empire furniture is associated with Napoleon Bonaparte other French antique furniture styles go by the names of several King Louises while Renaissance Baroque and Rococo are more continental furniture periods. Often architects such as the previously mentioned Antoni Gaudi or the American Frank Lloyd Wright design furniture too Decorative arts in addition to painting sculpture and architecture are influenced by broader trends For instance the discovery of Pompeii had a major impact on furniture style When Mt Vesuvius erupted in A D 79 it buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under many feet of ash freezing in time these Roman cities It was not until 1748 that theses cities were discovered The excavation of ancient Roman culture had a wideranging effect and the decorativeness of the ancient world was incorporated into furniture design Thomas Chippendale a British furniture maker was one of the many artists and designers influenced by this neoclassic style In 1754 Thomas Chippendale 17181779 published The Gentleman and CabinetMakers Director an extremely influential book about the various kinds of furniture He designed many pieces of neoclassic furniture for Harewood House an English country house built in the mideighteenth century This estate is located near Leeds England north of London and has large grounds with formal gardens and woods that are open to tours spectacular art and antiques collections in their state rooms and many examples of Chippendale furniture The Chippendale Collection a page of the Thomas Chippendale at Harewood House website features photographs and descriptions of period Chippendale decorative art You can click sections such as Chairs Stools Mirrors Lighting Beds Tables Desks and Cabinet Furniture to learn more Popularizers of antique furniture are the identical twins Leigh and Leslie Keno They become wellknown appraising antique furniture on PBS Antiques Roadshow and received the 2005 National Humanities Medal Leslie is a senior vice president for American furniture at Sothebys while Leigh is president of Leigh Keno American Antiques a gallery in New York City that he runs with Mitchell Keno their older brother They have also written an interesting book with Joan Barzilay Freund called Hidden Treasures