18th century furniture - Germany

Neoclassical styles came later to the German states than other European countries. This was partly the result of German guild restrictions, which primarily sought to protect those craftsmen who were not privileged enough to work in a Court workshop. By restricting the numbers of workshops in a city in order to guarantee work for all the masters to produce fitted and non fitted furniture, the guilds made it very difficult for foreign craftsmen to settle, so their influence was, at times, found to be lacking. Also, the conservatism of the middle classes meant that new fashions were less readily accepted.

The Spindler brothers were leading cabinet-makers who made furniture for Frederick II. They were famous for their use of floral marquetry, and continued to make Rococo style commodes up until the late 1760s. At the height of their career, the two-drawer serpentine commode on long legs was very popular, a shape that had already become passe' in France.
Commodes made for use outside court circles were less formal and resembled a chest of drawers with three or four drawers, despite this simplicity, these commodes still favoured Rococo styling with curvilinear fronts and veneers in walnut, rather than mahogany.

Abraham Roentgen and his son, David, were the most famous German cabinet-makers to embrace the Neoclassical style, However, the handmade furniture Abraham Roentgen initially produced was strongly influenced by the English Queen Anne and Low Countries designs. Much of the Roentgen's early furniture was made in walnut, as mahogany became fashionable in German cabinetwork much later than in Britain and France. Both enjoyed a great following at all the German Courts of their time.

Neoclassical Furniture
It was not until the 1770s that the early Neoclassical style, or Zopfstil, became accepted. As in France, where enthusiasm following the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum had led to the emergence of the gout grec style, German designers began to seek inspiration in the ancient Greco-Roman world. The term 'Zopfstil' itself derives from Classical braided friezes. The Zopfstil continued to apply many of the decorative features seen in the marquetry of the late Rococo style - acanthus shaped mounts, bay leaves, swags, medallions, triglyphs, and lion's and ram's heads. Initially furniture, now produced using reproduction furniture techniques, was similar to that of the Louis XVI style, albeit with more exaggerated proportions. From the middle of the 1780s, however, furniture forms became lighter and more refined and had very little decoration.