18th century furniture - Robert Adam

The interiors of the Scottish architect Robert Adam became so well known that the term 'Adam Style' was coined to describe his distinctive look.
Beginning his career by training as an architect in Edinburgh, under his father William, a classical architect. Robert spent five years studying in Italy, drawing the sights frequented by scholars on the Grand Tour. On his return in 1758 he established an office in London, where he was later joined by his elder brother James.
Adam's designs were primarily for interiors, rather than for whole buildings, and he designed every element of them, to create an integrated whole, from ceilings and matching carpets down to mirrors and urns. As a result, his designs included a wide variety of handmade furniture, including chairs, sofas, commodes, stools and mirrors. He also designed console tables, bookcases, and sideboards as 'wall furniture', an integral part of his decorative scheme for walls.
Adam did not make furniture himself, but instead commissioned established London cabinet-makers, including Chippendale  and Linnell, to make it. In his first decade in London, Adam developed the style of decoration that was to remain the dominant feature of his work throughout his career.

Early Influences
The Palladian style had a strong influence on Adam's early work. Armchairs and sofas that he designed for Sir Laurence Dundas - made by Chippendale - had typically Palladian, rectangular backs. However, the sphinxes on the curved seat rails showed the influence of Renaissance grotesques, and the use of anthemia harked back to Classical motifs.
By the late 1760s, Adam had begun to develop a more sophisticated style. His furniture designs became more delicate, the carving less dramatic, and he began to use straight legs. Case pieces were still rectangular but Adams began to use new shapes in other types of furniture, now only made using reproduction furniture techniques. In 1767, he designed furniture for the dining room at Osterley Park in West London and the dining chairs introduced a new shape of chair back, known as a harp or lyre back, inspired by Classical shapes.

The Later Years
By the 1770s, Adam's fame had grown and he carried out many commissions for the aristocracy. His elegant furniture designs were widely imitated. His tables and chairs had slender, tapered legs and armchairs had oval backs and slender frames. Mirrors were an important feature of his interiors and included simple designs intended to be positioned above pier tables, as well as enormous pieces with slight frames that were designed to cover an entire wall.

Colours And Decoration
Adam's designs were usually for furniture, fitted and non fitted furniture, made from lights woods, such as satinwood and harewood (sycamore that was dyed grey). Adam favoured delicate, painted designs, in soft pastel colours, such as pale green and lilac pink, and gilding.
The intricate, swirling arabesques that he used to decorate ceilings and floors were repeated in the filigree decoration used on his furniture. He also frequently used scagliola, not just on pieces of furniture but also as architectural features of an interior, such as the intricate scagliola columns at Syon House in West London.