Victorian furniture refers to the style of antique furniture that was made during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 – 1901). It is often revivalist in style, in that it adopts stylistic motifs from other periods, creating huge waves of revivals with nostalgic nods to the past.
What defines Victorian furniture?
Victorian furniture is characterized by ornate carvings, dark woods, and heavy luxurious fabrics. Victorian furniture is traditionally made from mahogany, rosewood, or walnut, sometimes painted or gilded. Intricate carvings of natural images such as flowers, leaves, curling vines, ribbons, and bows adorned the pieces.
How can you tell if furniture is Victorian?
Victorian furniture was usually made from Walnut for smaller pieces such as small tables and Mahogany for large pieces such as wardrobes, dining tables and bookcases. Sometimes these pieces featured Flame Mahogany veneers and used walnut and rosewood for decoration of for example, table tops.
What Colour was Victorian furniture?
dark wood
Traditional Victorian
Use dark wood finishes and curvy sofas upholstered in velvet or silk.
What was a sofa called in Victorian times?
settee
In Victorian England, “settee” would have been a common enough term for a bench or smallish sofa. One 1840 example in the OED compares a “settee” to a “double-arm’d chair.”
What are 3 characteristics of Victorian design?
Characteristics of Victorian Architecture
- Steeply pitched roofs.
- Plain or colorfully painted brick.
- Ornate gables.
- Painted iron railings.
- Churchlike rooftop finials.
- Sliding sash and canted bay windows.
- Octagonal or round towers and turrets to draw the eye upward.
- Two to three stories.
What are the elements of Victorian style?
Victorian style at a glance incorporated: Gothic Revival architecture such as spires, buttresses, pointed arch door surrounds and windows and decorative ironwork; medieval influences including fleurs de lys, heraldic motifs and quatrefoils; rich dark colours such as ruby red, forest green, and dark blue; mass produced
How do I know what era My furniture is?
Make sure to search for labels, stamps, or manufacturing tags that can tell when and where a piece was made. Furniture companies and makers often listed their names, locations, and year of production This information can be found on the inside of drawers, the backs of bureaus, and on the lower edges of pieces.
Is Victorian furniture still in style?
Victorian style is one of the most recognizable looks in all design. Its luxury, opulence, and fine detail have stuck with multiple generations of interior designers. We still see echoes of Victorian influence in design today.
Why is Victorian furniture so short?
The first coiled spring was patented during the Victorian Age, causing chair legs to become shorter and seats to become deeper to accommodate the springs beneath the seat. This also had an effect on upholstery, since it had to be stronger to stand up to the spring abuse.
What wood was used for Victorian furniture?
Dark woods such as mahogany, rosewood, and walnut were the most common types of wood used to make Victorian furniture, although oak and ash were also sometimes used. Replicas of Victorian furniture are invariably stained to resemble the rich hues of Victorian furniture.
Is Victorian furniture popular now?
Victorian Furniture remains widely popular today and has enjoyed longevity through its influences in 20th century design; Chesterfield sofas, for instance, a staple of Victorian design are arguably more popular in the 21st century than ever.
What is Victorian color?
The traditional Victorian colour palette was dark and consisted of dark, rich and deep shades of maroon, red, burgundy, chestnut, dark green, brown and blues.
What is the difference between Victorian and Edwardian furniture?
The Victorian era produced furniture that was big, bulky, dark, and intimidating; the Edwardian era, on the other hand, produced furniture that was light, airy, portable, and practical.
What did Victorians call living rooms?
What We Call Today “living room”, Was Actually Called “Death Room” in the victorian era… We all know that the living room is one of the central parts of every modern home, often used for television, relax or other family activities.
What is an old fashioned sofa called?
Antique settees are a type of couch with a bare wooden splat back that was first made in 18th-century France. It often has a shaped front and high back, standing on cabriole, and with a saber or turned legs.
What makes Victorian style unique?
A Brief History of Victorian Architecture
This style was characterized by symmetry, Renaissance revival style interiors, many small windows, and limited ornamentation.
Why is it called Victorian style?
Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. Victorian refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian were used in construction.
How do you decorate like a Victorian?
Here are great ideas to add craftsman character to your home:
- Add carved wooden pieces everywhere possible — not just in furniture, but in mirror frames, lamps, and picture frames.
- Buy high-quality furniture.
- Add a fireplace mantle.
- Salvage old architecture and repurpose it.
- Add marble.
What is modern Victorian style?
For the uninitiated, modern Victorian spaces are exactly what they sound like: homes that blend parts of the Victorian era with bits of the modern day. In a modern Victorian home, you can expect to see cement on the floors and chandeliers on the ceiling—or ornate mirrors juxtaposed with works of abstract art.
What is the Victorian style called?
But the term “Victorian architecture” actually refers to styles that emerged in the period between 1830 and 1910, during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Victorian era spawned several well-known styles, including Gothic revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, stick style, Romanesque style and shingle style.