The earliest American-made piece of furniture is a chest made by Nicholas Disbrowe around 1660. However the different climate and different wood available to Spanish colonists led to a distinctly different style known as Mission or South western. Although recognisably different from the British inspired designs, the Dutch pieces are essentially in the same tradition. Other settlers also brought their influences with them to the colonies, most notably the Dutch and French in the North east, and the Spanish in the South west. In the harsher environment of some of the Colonies these pieces were simpler representatives of their parent styles, befitting the more straightforward and utilitarian life of the settlers. These pieces were generally sturdy and heavily carved, many with turned legs and bun feet. They brought furniture pieces typical of the Jacobean and Carolean periods in Britain with them, and then later made their own furniture in a similar style. Inverted, cup-turned legs, bun feet, and serpentine stretchers made this a very identifiable style.Īcross the water in the United States, during the early Colonial period, most furniture arrived along with the first immigrants.
Compared to the Jacobean and Carolean pieces this style of furniture was lighter and more elegant. But with the return of the monarchy under Charles II, Carolean furniture once again became more ornate, characterized by intricate carved stretchers and colourful upholstery with tasselled trim.īy the end of the period, the influence of the British William and Mary style was beginning to show. Later Jacobean furniture, during the era of Oliver Cromwell the Protector, was very stern, square, and frugal, a suitable style for a time of relative poverty. In general furniture profiles became lower and more rectangular.
In Britain table legs, for example became straighter and narrower than were typical of earlier pieces and instead spiral turned legs became typical of this period. After the Renaissance there was a gradual change to a less ornamented, quieter style of furniture.
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