Furniture

I

Introduction

Furniture, the equipment in a room, such as beds, chairs, tables, and chests, that usually gives a room a particular function, such as that of bedroom, dining room, or kitchen.

II

Materials and Design

Historically, the most common material for making furniture is wood, but other materials, such as metal and stone, have also been used. Furniture designs have reflected the fashion of every era from ancient times to today. Whereas in most periods a single style dominated, a diversity of old and new styles influences present-day design. Some of the most highly prized items of furniture used in contemporary homes, however, are antiques—pieces ranging from 100 to 300 or more years old. The most successful designers today are eclectic, and furniture ranges from innovative designs to adaptations of historical models for special needs, also including well-made reproductions of antique pieces.

The basic requirements of furniture design are complex, for appearance has always been as important as function, and the general tendency has been to design furniture to complement architectural interiors. Indeed, some forms were conceived architecturally, with legs designed as columns; other forms were at least in part anthropomorphic, with legs in animal forms. Furniture design ranges from simple to elaborate, depending on the pieces' intended use rather than on the period in which they were made. The earliest records, such as ancient Mesopotamian inventories, describe richly decorated interiors with gold cloth and gilt furniture. Some surviving ancient Egyptian examples are elaborate and were originally sheathed in gold, but many very plain pieces were also made in ancient times. In surveys of historical furniture, however, it is the fine furniture, made for royalty, nobility, and the wealthy classes, that is emphasized, because in general it has been the best preserved. Fine furniture, with its elaborate designs, also reveals the most about a period because highly developed designs closely reflect changes in taste. The simplest work furniture, by contrast, made for ordinary members of society, tends to be more purely functional and therefore timeless; thus tables and chairs used by working people in 1800 bc would be surprisingly similar to the tables and chairs used in farmhouses in ad 1800. Dutch genre paintings of the 1600s and early 19th-century American paintings depict rural interiors that often look remarkably similar.

III

History of Furniture

Furniture must have existed at least since the Neolithic period (7000 to 2000 bc), although none survives. A history of furniture must therefore begin with a discussion of the oldest surviving examples, those from the 4th to the 6th Dynasty (c. 2680-2255 bc) in Egypt of the Old Kingdom.

A

Egyptian Furniture

The dry Egyptian climate and the elaborate burial practices of the ancient Egyptians both contributed to the preservation of their furniture, which includes stools, tables, chairs, and couches. Egyptian wall paintings give an insight into the design and use of furniture in aristocratic Egyptian life. In both design and construction the methods used in ancient Egypt are followed wherever furniture is made today. In large pieces, particularly seating and tables, the mortise-and-tenon construction familiar in ancient Egypt is still in use, although the tenon may be replaced by a dowel to speed up production. In ancient Egypt the more delicate boxes and chests were constructed by dovetailing, a technique that persists in contemporary work. One ancient Egyptian stool illustrated on a wooden panel (c. 2800 bc, Egyptian Museum, Cairo) from the tomb of Hesire has animal legs as the supports. It does not differ much from a chair (c. 1325 bc, Egyptian Museum) from the tomb of the New Kingdom pharaoh Tutankhamen.

A chair, table, couch, and canopy (c. 2600 bc, Egyptian Museum) from the tomb at Giza of the 4th-Dynasty Queen Hetepheres were reconstructed from remnants of their original gold sheathing. The chair has animal legs, a solid back, and arm supports of openwork panels in papyrus patterns. The bed, higher at the head, has a headrest and a footboard. The relief decoration on some of the furniture consists of symbols of gods and scenes of religious significance. The design of other surviving tables and stools is restrained, with legs that are plain but beautifully made. It is conceivable that ornament could originally have been applied in the form of stamped metal sheathing; however, wall paintings do illustrate simple, upholstered pieces.

Extant examples and illustrations from wall paintings suggest the broad scope of decoration used on Egyptian furniture. Gold sheets were applied to legs of chairs and tables; inlays of ivory and other materials were employed on panels of chests and other surfaces. The basic notion of forms with legs as anthropomorphic and of storage pieces as buildings in miniature was popular in ancient Egypt, and in succeeding cultures.