Fashions in Furniture - Victorian to WWII
At LucianLinnell Vintage we usually focus on mid 20th century furniture and decor, but we can't resist older pieces from time to time. Here are some of our favourites, identifying the styles and trends of the 19th and early 20th century.
Victorian: 1837-1901
The reign of Queen Victoria lasted over 50 years, and therefore saw great changes in society, technology and fashion. Preceded by the light elegance of the late Regency period, the early decades of Victoria's reign saw a movement towards heavier, darker and curvier designs, with the revival of earlier, more romantic styles. Rococo revival brought curving scrolls and gold leaf; Gothic revival brought pointed arches and quatrefoils.
Decoration moved away from restraint and towards opulence, with pieces becoming larger and more solid, dominating the room and communicating the wealth of their owners. The invention of the coiled steel spring enabled deep, heavily padded upholstery, and rich fabrics and jewel-like colours were popular. Luxurious materials including mahogany, rosewood and walnut were imported from the furthest corners of the British Empire, which continued to grow throughout this period.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London was a showcase of British and international invention and artistry. Bringing together exhibitors from across the Empire and the world, it featured over 100,000 objects in a glass building dubbed the 'Crystal Palace', itself a marvel of modern engineering. It opened the minds of the visiting public to the possibilities of the modern world, and ushered in a new era of invention and excitement.
As trains transformed the lives of the British during the Victorian period, with huge investment in the 1840s seeing tracks laid across the country, travel became more common. Travel boxes, such as the one pictured here which houses 3 crystal perfume bottles and jewellery, became popular to protect personal items.
Arts and Crafts: c.1880s - early 1900s
Overlapping the end of the Victorian and beginning of the Edwardian era, the Arts and Crafts movement became highly influential on the design and manufacture of everything from jewellery and ceramics to furniture and buildings. Emerging from a discomfort with industrialisation and mass production, the movement extolled the virtues of artisanal and human design, returning to an earlier time of hand-made crafts using local, natural materials to create beautiful and useful objects that were almost the antithesis of the high-tech displays at the Great Exhibition. Home-grown oak was preferred to imported, exotic woods; dyes and paints made from natural materials returned to softer colours; simplicity was valued above opulence. Repeating motifs, organic shapes and functional upholstery finishes epitomise this style, with a nostalgia for a rural way of life that had belonged to previous generations.
Art Nouveau: c.1895 - 1914
Also overlapping the turn of the century is Art Nouveau, a movement similarly inspired by nature as a response to the overly artificial and industrial designs of the Victorian era. Coming out of the French art scene, recurring motifs include entwining flowers and organic fluid lines. Art Nouveau was less concerned with functional simplicity than Arts and Crafts with a prettier, more lyrical quality, but the popularity of both signified a move away from the stuffy formalism of high-Victorian towards a modern, more relaxed style. Look for pronounced asymmetry, muted colours, and designs directly inspired by flora and fauna.
Art Deco: c.1919 - 1939
After the Great War of 1914-18, the world was ready for modernisation and rebuilding, both of society and the built environment. Art Deco emerged as the dominant style in the inter-war years with sleek materials and lines that firmly moved away from the organic shapes of the preceding decades. Geometric shapes, clean lines, smooth surfaces and futuristic figures replaced relaxed shapes inspired by nature. Exotic woods began to feature again with more decorative grain, often 'bookmatched' to produce a symmetrical design. Circles and straight lines are juxtaposed creating a dissonance that contradicted the harmony of Art Nouveau. The use of black, white, gold and silver signalled a return to opulence and industrialisation, celebrating the man-made and technologically advanced.
Wartime Utiility: 1940-1952
Wartime usually sees a stagnation of design other than in military technology; post-war we see an introduction of innovation as secret advances during the war years are put to use in the civilian population. However during the long years of the 2nd World War, shortages began to have their own influence on design; shorter, slimmer skirts replaced the generous use of fabric in pre-war fashion, and furniture too moved towards a simpler, more utilitarian design. This was not just a natural trend - governments mandated restrictions on the use of materials in war-time production. The Utility Furniture Scheme was introduced in 1942, with a catalogue of designs published in1943. These drew on the themes of the Arts and Crafts movement with their simple lines focused on function rather than decoration, and minimal use of metals and imported woods. You can see the influence flowing directly into the sleek, minimalist design of post-war Danish Mid Century Modern, and the 1950s oak designs of G Plan.
