One can hardly imagine that quite ordinary home furnishings, such as a table or cabinet, were once indicators of the luxury and high status of their owner. Today, furniture is made out not only of premises, but also of parks, gardens, streets. It is actively used in organizing any environment of residential and public places, and is a separate branch of applied art.
The history of furniture, according to archaeological data, originates in very ancient times, when a person first begins to create convenience in his modest home. Resting places made of skins, wooden flooring, cradles for babies made of wood. Unfortunately, all this has not survived to the present time. The oldest furniture samples were found in Egypt and date back to the third millennium BC.
First stool
Egypt, as one of the oldest centers of human civilization, has managed to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the distant past. The architecture of temple and palace complexes, writing on stone and papyrus, the first knowledge in the field of mathematics, medicine and science, jewelry. This is where the story of furniture begins.
In the royal burials of the dynastic era 3400-2980. BC e. regular and folding wooden stools with elephant fang legs, as well as individual fragments of ebony caskets, were discovered. In the burials of the crowned persons of the second millennium BC, archaeologists found a semblance of modern beds and chairs. The bed was a rectangular wooden frame, covered with a gold shell, which in the form of a grid was covered with ropes or straps. Her bizarre legs expertly displayed the legs of an animal, lion or wolf. A variety of chests and caskets were decorated with patterns of geometric shapes and inlaid with green and blue malachite, turquoise and ivory. A special fashion for furniture inlay was identified in 745-718. BC e. during the reign of the XXIII dynasty.
Furniture in Ancient Egypt was made from imported trees of strong breeds, it was distinguished by its special strength, rigidity and functionality. They used cedar wood, fig trees, yew and olive wood.
Furniture of the ancient kingdoms
With the development of civilization and the emergence of new empires, new furniture elements were born. The history of furniture in Ancient Greece can be judged by the sculptures and surviving images on vases. It is also known that the Greeks made multi-use chests, which for a long time were the main piece of furniture.
The humid and hot climate of Ancient India formed a peculiar culture: people ate, sat and slept on the floor. Therefore, only the interiors of the palaces of the nobility were characterized by rollers, carpets, low chairs without a back and stools from an openwork frame with a round cushion seat. Furniture artisans in their products used everything possible that nature gave: stone, clay, shells, plant fiber, herbs and trees.
The ancient Romans were distinguished by a special delicate artistic taste, which was reflected in the decoration of their houses. They preferred a variety of chairs and lodges, without attaching importance to the tables. Their furniture was encrusted with precious stones and metals, and decorated with elaborate carvings. Roman craftsmen used colored marble as material. Then the first wicker furniture from willow twigs appears.
By the beginning of the first millennium AD, some analogues of modern furniture arose .
From simplicity to art
The history of furniture design begins with its development and is closely intertwined with architectural styles. You can trace the evolution from the simplicity and unpretentiousness of products to their splendor and sophistication.
The Gothic era (XII-XV centuries) gives birth to its own unique style. If in the Middle Ages furniture was made more and more heavy, then with the invention of the “saw mill” its voluminous structural elements were much easier. Interior items are comfortable and durable.
With an increase in living standards, representatives of the nobility began to receive requests for more luxurious home decoration. Masters try to give objects a special harmony and grace: the carpenter, carver, gilder and painter take up the matter. Furniture becomes a familiar piece of furniture. In the same period, echoing the complex compositions of architectural structures, the first "multi-storey" furniture was created.
Cabinet arrival
If you carefully monitor the history of the appearance of furniture, you will notice that it is the chest that is the ancestor of various interior elements. Due to its mobility, it was one of the most important items in every home. The abundance of things stored in the chest from time to time served as its vertical “extension”. At the end of the XV century in Holland, such a chest was placed on the end, and the first analogue of the cabinet was obtained. A little later, a second chest was attached to it, which became the prototype of a double-wing cabinet.
In France, at the beginning of the 16th century, a chest was placed on a table stand, as a result of which a “cabinet” appeared. And from that time, the era of the cabinet comes; it is constantly being improved, turning into an exquisite and sought-after element of the interior.
Architectural styles changed, furniture was improved and changed. Rococo supplanted the Baroque and brought along dressing tables, canapes and secretaries.
The appearance of upholstered furniture
Items reminiscent of upholstered furniture took place in ancient times. For example, in the culture of Persia for rest and reclining used some elevations, cleaned with carpets and pillows. The inhabitants of Egypt and Greece, creating various models of seats, also softened them with the help of pads.
By the middle of the XVII century, during the period of classicism, France, as a true trendsetter in the interior, gave birth to the first models of modern upholstered furniture. The story of creating a comfortable seat tells that at first the chairs and sofas were fitted with simple fabric. As the multi-layered clothing of the aristocrats became easier, sitting on hard seats was becoming more and more uncomfortable. Furniture covered in fabric began to be filled with sheep’s hair, horse hair, swan fluff or dry grass.
Boule style furniture
In the second half of the 17th century, an outstanding master who worked in the workshops of the Louvre under Louis XIV gives birth to a special style of artistic furniture. Andre-Charles Boule combines the well-known methods of decorating furniture in one work, without losing the clarity of the picture as a whole and the logic of the design itself. Being a professional ebenist, he gracefully combines different types of wood, using gilded copper for the first time. Having studied the technique of tortoise inlay earlier, the master decides to apply it in the decoration of furniture.
Charles Boule left a significant mark in the history of furniture. Currently, his surviving collections can be seen in the Louvre (Paris), the Getty Museum (Los Angeles) and in a number of French palaces.
French Empire style furniture
The change in the nature of furniture in France at the end of the 18th century was influenced by a passion for antiquity. Bonaparte's campaigns and the archaeological site of Pompeii greatly contributed to this trend. The style, which replaced the classicism, symbolized the greatness and power of the empire (empire) created by Napoleon.
The attraction to antiquity was reflected in the decoration of the houses, which began to be designed in the Greco-Roman manner, according to history. In production, furniture of this style was distinguished by characteristic architectural forms (columns, consoles, pilasters), which were used to divide the front of chests of drawers and cabinets. The situation was not convenient, preference was given to beauty, massive objects. The use includes bookcases with bars, open sideboards, standing mirrors. Sliding elements are invented.
History of Russian furniture
Unlike European furniture, most of whose exhibits were perfectly preserved, furniture of Russian antiquity is represented by a very modest amount. Due to the little surviving historical information, the dates of creation of some elements are not precisely defined and cause controversy. It is known that the manufacture of furniture in Russia was closely associated with the construction of a dwelling, the architecture of which developed extremely slowly and was very stable. The interior of the houses was quite simple, even the furniture of wealthy people did not differ in sophistication. The main items were benches, tables, stools and benches, chests appeared much later.
Furniture in the history of Russia begins to develop only in the 17th century, when the international relations of the state are expanding significantly. Chairs with high backs, armchairs, caskets and Venetian mirrors appeared in the royal chambers. At the Armory, workshops are being established. And in the XVIII century in Tula they began to make iron furniture of high artistic quality.
Russian furniture quickly became involved in the general stream of European development and managed to maintain its identity and national features.
Chair for everyone
In the 19th century, the Austrian craftsman Mikhail Tonet, dreaming of simple and compact furniture, set about experimenting with wooden details. Studying the possibilities of the material, he in every possible way subjected it to various deformations. He managed to invent steel molds and tires for bending wood: in the process, several segments were bent at the same time. This gave rise to mass production. Rational consumption of material has led to the cheap manufacture of chairs and armchairs.
Until the end of the 19th century, in general, about 50 million chairs were produced at a very affordable price, which they sat in America, Europe and Russia.
Furniture for children
The history of children's furniture began in Ancient Egypt, where in the graves were found small cots that differed from adults only in size. It is worth noting that until the XVIII century, for the most part, people did not worry about a separate bed for their child. Young children slept most often with their parents or with older children.
For a long time, specially separate children's furniture was not produced anywhere. The interior of the children's room resembled the parent bedroom with a large bed, carpet and paintings, but there was no play area.
The Renaissance gave the children’s furniture shelves, which are most often used for books. Changing tables along with chests of drawers appeared in the 17th century, but popularity came to them much later. This is because the purchase was made only by wealthy families to design children's rooms.
Entertaining facts
- In ancient Greece, benches, stools and chairs were mainly used by women and children. Men preferred beds and beds.
- According to legend, the armrests on the chairs appeared after one unpleasant incident at the funeral of the pharaoh. During the official ceremony, the guest fell from an uncomfortable bench.
- In 1911, the inventor Thomas Edison presented concrete furniture, which, despite its durability and beauty, remained unclaimed.
- The king of France and Navara, Louis XIV went down in the history of furniture as the owner of the largest collection of beds - 413 pieces.
- The bar counter was invented in the Wild West as a shelter for bartenders from bullets of dissatisfied customers and bandits.
- One kilometer sofa was made in Russia in 2014. It can simultaneously accommodate 2.5 thousand people.