The most interesting period of the history of English mobile furniture lies between the years 1500 and 1800. This period is sometimes roughly divided into the Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian; but writers have not as yet agreed upon a fixed nomenclature. Mr. Percy Macquoid ("A History of English Furniture") divides the whole period into four : The Age of Oak, 1500 to 1660; of Walnut, 1660 to 1720; of Mahogany, 1720 to 1770; and of Satinwood or Composite Age, 1770 to 1820. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by some authors, are divided into three periods : the Tudor (including Gothic) from 1500 to 1558; Elizabethan, 1558 to 1603; and Jacobean, 1603 to 1688. Other writers object to the term Jacobean being extended beyond the year 1649. This shortened period is sometimes called Early Stuart.

The term Cromwellian is often used to describe the period from 1649 to 1660, and Restoration, Carolean, or Late Stuart from 1660 to 1688. Some authors appear to think that the reign of William and Mary is not worthy to be considered a period because it was more noted for the importation of furniture than for its manufacture. They prefer to divide the period from 1689 to about the end of the reign of George I. (1727) into Early Queen Anne, Queen Anne, and Decorated Queen Anne, or Early Georgian. From this point Mr. Herbert Cescinsky ("English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century") makes the following division: The Lion period, 1720 to 1735; the Satyr Mask, 1730 to 1740; the Cabochon and Leaf, from 1735 to the rise of Chippendale. Then follow the periods of schools: The Chippendale, 1740 to 1770; the Adam, 1760 to 1790; the Hepplewhite, 1785 to 1795; and the Sheraton, 1790 to 1806. The Empire style followed, but it never became popular in England. It will be remembered that from about 1720 until 1750, or later if Robert Adam be included, much furniture was made from the designs of architects and was classed as "Architects' furniture" (q.v.). The vogue of lacquer lasted about a century, from 1660 to 1760.