The Empire Style - England - Part 3

In furniture the Gothic taste was no less exciting than it had been in the mid 18th century. Chairs sported Gothic tracery in their backs (even if they had sabre legs and were made of simulated bamboo); Gothic arches and crenellations appeared on bookcases, and all kinds of handmade furniture sprouted crockets and cusps, trefoils and quatrefoils, arches and columns. On the whole, Gothic was reserved for heavier furniture - for the hall, dining room or library - rather than elegant drawing room pieces. It was left to a later generation, the Victorians, to revive gothicism in a more conscientiously archaeological way.

While Thomas Hope left the Gothic alone until late in his life (when it became one of his enthusiasms) another designer, this one a practical cabinet-maker, included many illustrations of Gothic furniture in his books. This was George Smith whose Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration had first appeared in 1804 and 1805 but was issued in its most famous edition in 1808.
Smith 'Upholsterer and Cabinet-maker to HRH Prince of Wales', and later 'Upholsterer and Furniture Draughtsman to His Majesty, and Principal of the Drawing Academy', was much influenced by Hope, but translated his ideas into more practical terms for the furniture buying middle classes. His classicism was less disciplined but a great deal more comfortable than Hope's. His main claim to fame is said to have been his popularisation in England of the circular dining table and the ottoman, but several other items of fitted and non fitted furniture he illustrated, notably the chiffonier and the convex mirror, were to become indelibly associated with the Regency style. Smith later published A Collection of Ornamental Designs after the Antique (1812) and The Cabinet-makers' and Upholsterers' Guide (1826), but his first work provided by far the freshest and most vivid portrayal of Regency furniture.

While chinoiserie continued to flower in the exotic interiors of the Prince Regent and at the hands of ladies pursuing their 'fancy works' (never at the forefront of changes in taste) it was, generally speaking, out of fashion quite early in the 19th century. The Egyptian taste too had blown over by about 1810, much to the relief of critics like Rudolph Ackermann who wrote in his magazine The Repository of Arts, 'the barbarous Egyptian style, which a few years since prevailed, is succeeded by the classic elegance which characterised the most polished ages of Greece and Rome'.

'Classic elegance' did indeed prevail in the smartest interiors during this period, but a great deal of furniture was still made in styles deriving from the 18th century - gentle, convenient and very English.

To be continued tomorrow...