The Queen Anne Style

During this time the furniture of the Dutch people had been finding its way into England and influencing English design. But it was not until the reign of Queen Anne that the Dutch and English designs were completely assimilated. For this reason the perfected style was known by the name of the sovereign reigning at that period. The Queen Anne furniture was of great simplicity and grace. The earliest chairs and tables had cabriole legs and plain Dutch feet, and the chairs had the solid splat and spoon-shaped back with rounded ends to the top. In the later Queen Anne chairs a modified Spanish foot was sometimes used. A small amount of carving was sometimes used in decoration, but it was always subordinated greatly to the graceful lines of the furniture.

The Chippendale Style

The Chippendale brothers of England, in their earliest work, copied to a great extent the Queen Anne models with cabriole legs and modified Dutch feet. Very soon, however, they developed their own originality and used the ball and claw foot, and pierced and carved the splat in the chair back. Later, the straight-legged Chippendale chair came into favor, and the Chinese art influenced the carving, making it more delicate and fantastic. The later chairs also showed French and Gothic tendencies, and were not nearly as successful as the early models. The chief characteristic of the Chippendale chair is usually a pierced splat richly, and often fantastically, carved, surmounted by a bow-shaped top-piece turning down in the middle and up at the ends. The one exception is what is called the ladder-back chair, but in this, too, the bow-shaped feature is distinct.

A Handsome Chippendale Secretary, Chair, and Table.

A Sheraton Secretary AND A Reed bottomed Chair of Early Colonial Days.

The Influence Of Environment Upon Materials And Designs

The Chippendale brothers worked entirely in mahogany, that wood having been imported for the first time just before their day. If they had had to work in either oak or walnut, it is doubtful if the results would have been so beautiful. Each style is greatly influenced by its own environment, and it is amusing to know that the reason Chippendale and other furniture makers of the eighteenth century constructed their chairs with broadly spreading arms, made them without arms entirely, and also invented the settee, was because the women of that day wore immense hoop skirts!

The Hepplewhite Style

Scarcely less beautiful than the Chippendale style is the Hepplewhite. Hepple-white's work is more delicate and dainty. He used inlay very effectively, straight, tapering legs and spade feet. His shield-shaped chairs have brought him the greatest renown, perhaps, with the exception of his serpentine sideboards, which are strikingly graceful. He worked with a man named Shearer, whose eye for proportion was indisputable. It is unfortunate that Hepplewhite's construction was often faulty.

The work of Hepplewhite was greatly influenced by two architects of the middle part of the eighteenth century.