How styles changed
From lavish baroque and airy rococo to restrained neoclassicism, from mass-produced 19th-century chairs to the Bauhaus and minimalism: a timeline with commentary.
form as art: a guide to the history of furniture
Formicart — form as art
The chair you are sitting on right now is part of art history too. Its silhouette, its material and the way its parts are joined reflect the taste of an era, the abilities of a workshop and the habits of the people it was made for. Formicart explains how furniture changed from style to style, which crafts bring it into being, and how to learn to read an object as attentively as a painting.
Furniture is the art we use every day. That is why it is so easy to stop noticing it, and so rewarding to see it afresh.
Where to start
Who makes furniture
Cabinetmaker, carver, upholsterer, marquetry maker, designer and conservator: what the people whose hands a piece passes through actually do.
How to read a piece
A step-by-step way to look at the silhouette, legs, back, joints, upholstery and ornament, then put what you have seen together into a single picture.
Minimalism in interiors (in Russian)
Where the idea of clean surfaces and concealed hardware came from, and why this style is by no means the same as an empty room.
Guide sections
- Articles
The guide's core topics and a catalogue of standalone articles written for the English version.
- History
A timeline: Chippendale's pattern book of 1754, the Thonet workshop's chair No. 14 of 1859, the Bauhaus of 1919 and the changing styles in between.
- Makers
The roles without which furniture is neither made nor preserved, plus three names from our timeline.
- Collections
Routes through the guide: by style, by craft, and a short path for first-time visitors.
- Events
The kinds of events devoted to furniture and interiors, and how to prepare for a museum or historic house tour.
- Close looks
A step-by-step way to examine a piece of furniture, plus a table of its main elements.
- Archive
The guide's table of contents and an explanation of the three archived addresses on this domain.
How to look at an old chair in five minutes
Silhouette and proportions
Step back a couple of paces and look at the chair as a whole. A tall straight back, curved legs, a low wide seat: the silhouette is the first clue to the era a piece leans toward and the way of life it was designed for.
Material
Look closely at the wood: a bold or fine grain, a warm or cool tone, solid timber or a thin layer of veneer over another species. Metal, caning and plastic also say a great deal about when a piece was made.
Joints
Look under the seat and at the back of the backrest. Tenons, wedges, wooden dowels, screws or metal brackets show whether a joiner assembled the chair by hand or whether the parts were made in batches.
Upholstery and ornament
Notice the fabric or leather, the decorative nail heads, the carving and the mounts. Upholstery was often replaced several times, so it may be noticeably younger than the frame.
Signs of age
Worn armrests, legs shortened at the bottom, holes from old fittings and long-ago repairs make up the biography of an object. Do not rush to call them defects: they show how the piece was used.
Frequently asked questions
Are you a furniture store or a workshop?
No. Formicart is an independent cultural reference. We do not sell or make anything and we do not take orders; instead, we explain how furniture is connected with the history of art and how to look at it more closely.
What is the Bauhaus?
It is the school that Walter Gropius founded in Weimar in 1919. It combined art education with work in the workshops, and many of our familiar ideas about simple, clear form in everyday objects go back to this school.
Why is chair No. 14 so famous?
In 1859 Michael Thonet's workshop produced the bentwood chair No. 14. It was shipped disassembled, and its parts were joined with screws. Light, sturdy and easy to transport, it became a model of how well-thought-out construction can put an object within reach of a great many people.
Who was Chippendale?
Thomas Chippendale was a cabinetmaker who in 1754 published a pattern book of furniture designs, "The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director." The drawings in this book circulated among craftsmen and clients, and recognizable forms took on a life far beyond a single workshop.
About the project
This domain once hosted an entirely different site, a furniture catalogue, and later unrelated spam pages appeared here. Neither has survived, and we reproduce nothing from them. This guide has no connection with the catalogue or with the spam: all it inherited from the former site is the name, which came with the domain.
Formicart looks at furniture as the art of form. We are curious why the legs of an armchair curved in one era and straightened in another, how craft shaped the look of an object, and what can be read in the signs of age on an old chest of drawers. We do not sell furniture, publish rankings or tell you what to choose for your home; our aim is to help you see.
Read next
- Articles
The guide's core topics and a catalogue of standalone articles written for the English version.
- History
A timeline: Chippendale's pattern book of 1754, the Thonet workshop's chair No. 14 of 1859, the Bauhaus of 1919 and the changing styles in between.
- Makers
The roles without which furniture is neither made nor preserved, plus three names from our timeline.
- Close looks
A step-by-step way to examine a piece of furniture, plus a table of its main elements.
- Minimalism (in Russian)
A note at an old catalogue address: where minimalism in interiors came from and how to recognize it.
- Classic sofa (in Russian)
A note at an old catalogue address: how the bench and the daybed became the sofa, and how classic forms differ.
Sources
- Reference works on the history of furniture and the decorative arts
- Museum catalogues and guides to furniture collections
Historical information is drawn from reference literature on the history of furniture and the decorative arts. Opening hours and visiting rules at museums, historic houses and workshops change, so please confirm them with each venue.