French Furniture

French Furniture

The category of French furniture includes some of the most sophisticated furniture that has ever been produced. There are unsurprisingly different types of French furniture. There is French provincial furniture, French country furniture, French Parisian, Rococo and Baroque furniture. The provincial style of furniture was originally made by local craftsmen in the provinces such as Aquataine, Provence and Languidoc. The French country style furniture is a conservative rural style, which was very popular up until the middle of the nineteenth century. The Parisian style of French furniture reflects the cosmopolitan French culture. The Parisian style of furniture is one of the main designs that comes from this decorative part of Europe. The Parisian French furniture took some of its inspiration from Spanish, Swedish and Russian seventeenth century designs.  For people who wanted to have a career in making French furniture, there was an apprenticeship scheme that they were able to go on and fully learn the trade, the French furniture trade being only slightly disrupted by the revolution. 

There is also French Royal furniture. This as you would expect is furniture that is made in a grand style.  The favoured craftsmen who made French royal furniture were classed as eligible for premises within the galleries such as the Palais du Louvre. French royal furniture was based on the organisation of the arts that were established by Louis XVI of France. The organisation was controlled and run by the financial minister Colbert. There was a vast amount of different pieces of furniture that were designed for the royal palaces and some of these even included tapestry.  In the middle of the 18th century the chairs that belonged to Louis XV of France were made and finished with a lacquered veneer, setting a fashion for chairs of this period to be created with both style and dignity. This period of French furniture heralded the most grand and exuberant designs of decorative furniture the world has known.

The furniture trade in Paris was divided amongst the craft guilds. The Menuisiers were completely occupied with the beautifully carved furnishings, and amongst this range there were beds, dining chairs and other seating furniture. A lot of the carving work was done by boiseries, the carvers and gliders who worked directly for them.   The ebenistes were craftsmen who worked on the cabinets. They got their craft name from the ebony that a lot of them worked with. The job of the ebenistes was to carve the design onto the cabinets and incorporate the veneers. The veneers were very commonly made of tortoiseshell or ivory. 

There is also the Ancien Regime style of furniture that is very often characterised by the furniture dealers and collectors as Louis Quinze furniture.  The French furniture of the revolution was very popular until the eighteen thirties, when it started to go out of fashion due to the style being viewed as dated. By this time Gothic and Rococo furniture were beginning to emerge and take over in popularity.

There are a lot of different pieces of furniture that are classed as French furniture items and these include solid wood desks, beds, cabinets, boardroom tables, dining tables and dining rooms chairs. There is a lot of furniture that is still made in the traditional French way, and made to the same excellent standard.