The Victorian Period, 1840 to 1890
Solely by being possessed of good genes and a solid constitution does Queen Victoria gain the distinction of having her name attached to one of the more interesting periods of history and furniture design. As an individual she lent little to the design field and with the exception of Gothic Revival at the beginning of the period and Eastlake at the end, Great Britain itself contributed little. France was the style leader during this time frame.
In reality, it was the significant jolt of the Industrial Revolution that was the underlying cause for the vast variety of design and excesses to be found in the Victorian period. There is a saying “Time Marches On” which is taken to mean that time/history moves along in a slow but orderly pace, year after year, generation after generation with scarcely a notice by those living through the periods.
Every so often such orderly progression is jolted by a monumental occurrence and the change is noticeable by all. One might imagine such a jolt with the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel and of course our current Technological Revolution. But it is the Industrial Revolution that began in Great Britain in the early 19th century and spread to America in the mid century that changed much of the world. Almost overnight huge areas of the country went from rural agricultural to city/industrial. The change was neither smooth nor orderly, it was rapid and quite chaotic.
Prior to the mid-19th century the majority of the U.S. population lived a simple rural life with basic needs. Now many found themselves thrust into close proximity of each other in city environments with the factory job having replaced work on the farm.
In every aspect of life there was rapid upheaval with changes in furniture styles being no different. Where previously one could comfortably track the transition of style within and through the Pilgrim, Colonial, Federal and Georgian periods of American furniture, the changes experienced during the Victorian period came fast, furious and with excesses seldom seen in prior history.
In 1840 the population of the United States was 17 million living in 26 states. By 1870 that number had exploded to 40 million and by the time the Victorian period came to a close in 1900 there were 76 million people living in 45 states. Much of this growth was fueled by immigrants who gravitated to the various cities mushrooming throughout the country.
To be sure factory work was equally and many times more demanding than rural life, but there was more structure to it and people began to have a stable income stream. A large working/middle-class was emerging with cash to buy more than just the basics. Atop the mass of consumers were the newly rich. With every invention and refinement emanating from the Industrial Revolution came new fortunes that demanded to be shown off.
With people living in much closer proximity to each other, social interaction became a daily experience. What better place and method to display one’s supposed taste and wealth than the home. No longer did one tactfully hide one’s worldly possessions, it was a time of display. More was good and it showed in every aspect of furniture style during the period.
In the homes of the wealthy, a single style of furniture was not sufficient.. The parlor was outfitted in French Rococo Revival with its elaborately carved leaves, vines and grape clusters. The den or library was decorated in the more austere English Gothic with its angular arches to show one was serious about such things as books. In the dining room French Renaissance Revival furniture with its massive elaborately adorned breakfronts and fancy chairs was the style of choice. In the bedroom, choice ran either to Rococo or Renaissance. No longer were the gracious and subtle local woods such as cherry, birch, walnut and maple desired. Now it was the expensive imported mahogany and rosewood that was required for these massive pieces of furniture.
Though the wealthy set the trend as they have throughout history, it was the new middle class that really fueled the vast variety of furniture designs within each style of the period. Both the Crystal Palace Exposition in London, 1851 and the New York Exhibition of 1853 opened up a vast awareness of knowledge, style and experiences to all who visited and to those who simply read about the events. The public was energized, they had the disposable income and they wanted the goods.
In previous periods of history such demand for goods could never have been met in a satisfactory time or method as furniture was produced by hand under the artful skills of the craftsman. With the Industrial Revolution, furniture could easily be manufactured in quantity at affordable prices. Styles, with just a “tweak” of the machinery, could be altered to offer many variations of the basic design. The Victorian period produced more variety of design and more gadgets than any previous period in history.
Yet with every rapid and radical jolt to history there is always a “push back” to days gone bye. Such was the case towards the end of the Victorian period. Some time the ” push back” is societal, sometime economic. In 1873 the overheated U.S. economy experienced a depression. It was time for the country to catch it’s collective breath. Furniture styles began to return to more simplified lines with less adornment. Though much of this less exuberant styled furniture had begun to appear as early as the 1840′s in England as the result of the very early days of the Arts and Crafts movement, it was Charles Eastlake’s decorating handbook of 1868 Hints on Household Taste that really caught the attention of the English. The first American edition appeared in 1872. The American public was ready for something more modest than the Rococo, Gothic or Renaissance styles. Of course if one compares Eastlake to Sheraton or Hepplewhite one would be hard pressed to call it restrained, but up against the other styles of the Victorian period, it was quite understated.
With the over the top excesses of the mid-19th century under some control with Eastlake and similar designs becoming widely popular with the middle-class, it was natural for the move toward the next step in furniture styles and a new period. Again, it was the yearning for a return to the era of the craftsman and the quieter life before the rise of the factory, that led to the Arts and Crafts period. The movement began almost with the beginning of the Industrial revolution but did not gain its strength until after the passing of Queen Victoria and the end of the Victorian period in 1900.
Reference note by p4A.com Contributing Editor Charles Wibel.