Dating Antique French Furniture


For those seeking to collect antique furniture from France, it is helpful to know how to date the pieces. Dating antique French furniture tells you from which time period the piece came. Some collectors like to stick with one particular time period, while others prefer to collect pieces from several different periods. In this article you will learn more about some of the most popular periods for today's French antique furniture collectors.

The French Empire period lasted from approximately 1804 to 1815 and focused on mahogany as a building material. During this period linear forms inspired by Greece and Rome reigned supreme. Adornments for furniture pieces during this time included things like humans, swans, sphinxes, and the initials I and N which represented the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was also associated with the bee and the eagle which were also sometimes featured on pieces from this era. Directly following the Empire period was the Restauration period, which is not a misspelling and should not be confused with the word Restoration. The Restauration period lasted until 1830 and featured clean lines and dark wood such as mahogany used together with light wood such as ash.

The Louis-Phillippe period of furniture design lasted from 1830 to 1848 and featured dark woods, clean lines similar to the Restauration period and little adornment except for marble on table tops. After that came French Napoleon III which used elements of previous periods in a creative way. This period lasted from 1848 to 1870 and featured traditional dark woods paired with new materials like mother of pearl, ivory and even papier-mache. Following this period was the French Antique Revival. As its name suggests, styles from ages past were revived except instead of being meticulously handcrafted the pieces were often factory made as this was the dawning of the industrial age.

Rounding out our information about dating antique French furniture are the two final periods we will discuss -- Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Art Nouveau lasted for thirty years from 1890 to 1920. During this time, subjects for adornment included things from nature such as people, animals and flowers. This period was a decadent one that featured lots of intricate craftsmanship. The Art Deco period lasted an even shorter time, from 1920 to 1925. Even though lines were clean and simple, materials were not. They included ivory, mother of pearl, rare lacquers and veneers, wrought iron and even plastic. As you can see, there are plenty of time periods for French antique furniture collectors to enjoy.

 



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