Appendix 10: Furniture Styles (under construction)

Furniture Styles: 

The American cabinetmakers chose various features from the styles that evolved and incorporated them into their own designs. America was a melting pot of people and ideas, a rapidly growing nation with immigrants, many of them cabinetmakers, craftsmen, artisans, arriving in increasing numbers. American furniture styles evolved as cabinetmakers interpreted in their own way the styles popular in France and England. In America, England, and Europe, aristocratic and formal styles began to give way to furniture that was simpler, more democratic in design and affordable to a growing middle class.

Sironen acknowledges that she obtained of much of this material and accompanying illustrations from Mr. George F. Clingman of Chicago ,  who kept records of the changes in furniture styles during the past 50 years.

(More from Sir Gordon Russell, The Things We See: Furniture West Drayton, England: Penguin Books, 1947: Russell briefly but insightfully sketches out several centuries of the major furniture design styles, emphasizing -- to a greater extent -- the Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Modernist periods, stretching from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. His comments about the Post- WW I era are important for analyzing the sources of style, for what he claims about commercial styles slowly become featured in woodworker’s manuals.

English and Continental (Pre-colonial) Styles

G. M. Ellwood, English Furniture and Decoration 1600 to 1800 Stuttgart: Julius Hoffmann, 1909. Ellwood limits his commentary to a 6-page introduction. Includes interior shots, but mostly dedicated to head-on photos of single pieces.

Elizabethan

Jacobean  

William and Mary 

Queen Anne  

Source: Norman Vandal, Queen Anne Furniture: History, Design and Construction . Newtown, CT: Taunton Press, 1990. Reprinted 1995. (Except for not mentioning Daniel Marot's contribution to the design of the cabriole leg -- the central component of QA furniture -- the two-page bibliography in this manual is exceptional in its coverage of the sources.)  

American Colonial Styles

PREFACE "Colonial furniture" is in itself a misnomer. For there are at least three separate categories of colonial furniture, and two of these have little in common. First, there is the rudimentary, solid-wood furniture which the original settlers produced in this country during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Second, there are the ornate and sophisticated mahogany designs developed here during the post-settlement era of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These two types of "colonial" have about as much affinity to each other as a primitive peg-leg stool has to a polished Chippendale chair. Yet, they are grouped together, willy-nilly, in books and catalogs and both are called "colonial furniture." In this book we are dealing primarily with the first category. (Some try to separate this by calling it "early American." But this, too, is a misnomer. Because in common usage, "early American" also embraces furniture of the post-settlement periods.) So, to establish some distinction, text reference is modified to read "early colonial." This signifies that the basic furniture designs shown here were first made by the American settlers during the early colonial period. There is, however, a third category of colonial furniture presented in this book. We call this "contemporary colonial." It includes the attractive new designs and adaptations which are based on, and inspired by, the 'early colonial style. Colonial furniture as it is produced and popularized in America today is largely of this third category. Sometimes there is only a remote relationship between these new designs of "contemporary colonial" and the antiques which inspired their development. Nevertheless, the honest appeal of solid-wood construction and details of fine craftsmanship still prevail. The beautiful old scrolls and authentic shapes of wood turning also have been retained to distinguish today's colonial. Most modifications of the original designs have been made with -reason and good taste. For as much as we may love this traditional furniture style as it was originally made, antiques do not meet all the needs of our homes of today. Source: John Gerald Shea,  Colonial Furniture Making for Everybody, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1964 page v

American Post-Colonial Styles

NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD 1790 - 1840 

The Neoclassical Period of American furniture took its design characteristics from the classic Greek and Roman forms discovered by archaeologists in the eighteenth century, as well as Egyptian forms discovered due to Napoleon's expeditions to Egypt between 1798 and 1801. There was a new lightness and straightness of line that predominated early neoclassical furniture. Such motifs as acanthus leaves, shells, architectural pediments, classical figures, fluted or square tapered legs, festoons and swags, caryatid supports and parterre were incorporated in subtle ways. 

As time went on, a new, more three-dimensional interpretation of the classical replaced the earlier, more two-dimensional style. This became the Empire Style, described later. 

The third stage of the Neoclassical Period was the Pillar and Scroll, which developed out of the Empire style. It was marked by simple, classical but massive pillars and scrolls with little ornamentation. Throughout all stages of the Neoclassical Period, mahogany was the primary wood used. 

After the Civil War, an economic decline also meant a decline in furniture manufacture. As the country re-established its finances and industries, a demand was restored for new furniture, but for styles different than those styles popular before Emancipation Proclamation. “Having the machine to contend with”, argues Marta K. Sironen, “the furniture designer did not feel as much at liberty to use his own creativeness as did the masters of the Eighteenth century”. Because designers needed “to think of manufacture in quantity, … many intricate and beautiful designs and embellishments … did not adapt … to the machine”. 

Among the types or styles of furniture which alternately lived and died during this period with their approximate dates are: 

FEDERAL PERIOD 1790 - 1815 

Federal period furniture was a neoclassical style which developed after the American Revolution. The colonies became a federation of states, so its furniture was called Federal rather than Colonial. Furniture of this period, as exemplified by English makers Hepple white and Sheraton, was light and slender, with clean lines and delicate moldings, or none at all. Legs were straight; flat surfaces were decorated with inlay or painting, or were veneered to highlight the beauty of the wood grain. Mahogany was generally finished lighter in color. String inlay was used, as well as inlaid fans or shells. Handles were delicate; ornament was restrained, and based on classical Greek and Roman motifs.

American craftsmen added their own individuality to Federal pieces, choosing their own style characteristics from the neoclassic styles of England. 

EMPIRE PERIOD 1815 - 1840 

First developed in France from the design of magnificent and monumental surroundings for Napoleon, the Empire style was heavy and monumental. It was characterized by large mahogany surfaces, a thickening of legs and pillars, and the use of carved acanthus leaves, with spiral twist or fluted columns. Other features of this period included the use of crotch mahogany veneer, brass or bronze ormolu mounts, Greek-curved legs with knee projections, lion paws, carved pineapples, multiple sections in pillars and posts, and painted or stenciled imitations of metal ornaments. There was an increased use of marble, mirrors and Egyptian detail (sphinxes, women). The platform base was used in addition to the pillar and tripod.

American Victorian: 1865-1880 THE VICTORIAN AGE 1840 - 1900

Victoria became queen of England in 1837 and reigned until her death in 1901. The age named after her was a period when England was at the height of power and prestige. In furniture, the Victorian Age included a variety of revival styles and sub styles that typified most nineteenth century furniture. There is no one Victorian style, and despite being named the Victorian Era, French, rather than English influence was actually stronger on American and European furniture design.
 

General Appearance, Including Structural and Decorative Details: American Victorian furniture was patterned after that of England . Composed of a series of spool-like turnings -- which formed the legs of beds (the principal piece in this style) as well as the head and foot-boards -- spool furniture had one primary structural/decorative theme. Heavy, with a generous use of straight lines, it used curved lines only in the decorations. Much of this furniture was made of black walnut. Tables, washstands, dresser tops and pedestals were covered with marble. Beds had high head and foot boards. Dressers, which  often reached near the ceiling, often included long beveled-edged mirrors. “Victorian furniture in America as well as that of abroad could scarcely fit into our modern rooms” note Sironen.”In fact, one Victorian bed would very nearly fill a moderate sized living room in some of our bungalow and apartment homes”.

NEO-GOTHIC REVIVAL PERIOD 1840 - 1860 

Said to be the first truly "Victorian" style in England -- arriving around 1830.  The Neo-gothic Revival Period, as the label suggests, adapted Gothic architectural form and ornament to early 19th Century furniture forms. Neo-Gothic design -- styles popular in the medieval era --  features dark woods, pointed arches, trefoils (a shape similar to three-leaf clover) and other Gothic cathedral carvings, intentionally an echo of dedicated medieval craftsman, and said to imply moral character. (The architects,  Augustus Pugin and his father, used Gothic motifs in designing London’s Houses of Parliament.

English designers looked to the Middle Ages for inspiration, and these influences found their way to America . Gothic style was marked by the use of trefoils, quatrefoils, crockets and pinnacles, cluster columns, and pointed arches. The wood used are rosewood,  walnut and oak.

ROCOCO REVIVAL PERIOD 1840 - 1860 

Also known as "French Antique", this period was influenced by the revival of the rococo style by the French. Pieces were intricate, with asymmetrical scrolls, curves and lavish carvings of cornucopias, fruits, birds, flowers and foliage. Furniture was of a more vigorous construction, and featured the use of carved ornament as well as a process developed by John Henry Belter of laminating thin sheets of rosewood which were molded by heat into desired shapes and then lavishly carved. While rosewood was primarily used, mahogany and black walnut were sometimes employed as well. Satinwood and birds-eye maple were occasionally used as secondary woods. The use of white or variegated marble became popular for top surfaces.

The Rococo Revival Period produced parlor suites of padded, curved back chairs and matching settees, often with elaborate upholstery and carvings. The center table, frequently with a shaped marble top and elaborate base and apron, became important as a focal point of parlors.

RENAISSANCE REVIVAL PERIOD 1860 -1875 

French influence brought about the appearance of the massive forms and more rectangular construction of the Renaissance Revival Period in America . Furniture of this period typically featured straighter lines, with arched tops, broken pediments and prominent cresting. Black walnut was the favored wood. Burl walnut panels and applied machine-carved moldings and ornament were used in place of the hand carvings of the French Renaissance models.

Other important features of this period included inlaid table tops, incised lines, angular scrolls and pilasters, fancy columns, colonnettes, Pompeian style legs, roundels, portrait medallions, and bronze or porcelain mounts. 

EASTLAKE PERIOD 1875 - 1885 

The Eastlake style, which developed after English architect Charles Eastlake published his book, Hints on Household Taste, typically featured simple, rectilinear construction, with no excessive curves. Furniture was generally of walnut, with panels of slats or lath, chamfered and serrated edges, chip carving, incised lines, and sparse inlaid details. Ebonized wood was featured in some pieces. Other woods used included mahogany, cherry, oak, ash, maple, etc. Legs, supports and posts were either turned or square, and were straight and heavy. Supporting leg sections were often flat. Tile ornament, finials and wrought metal mounts were other details used in Eastlake style furniture. Small brackets, shelves and carvings became popular during this time. 

Eastlake: 1879

 

The Eastlake style, which came in about 1879, was created and named after Sir Charles Lock Eastlake of England. Eastlake was a believer in creating new forms from old ideas. His style was after the Medieval with a feeling of Gothic and many beautiful pieces were made- Like other styles created by great designers. Eastlake was made by many factories and a large number of pieces called Eastlake had no real right to the name. The furniture was made of cherry, for the most part, and was often decorated with panels ornately embellished- The lines were straight td the feet were mostly block being a continuation of the side.

 

Quotes from N C Brown (close of Brown's piece has a good chronology of events) 

1868—Eastlake's book on Hints on Household Taste influenced furniture making and trends. [need to find out how Eastlake's reputation figures into American furniture styles. –also brief account of times and impact of a and c furniture period -- find out whether Eastlake talks about home size. Match this with Linda smein's ch on housing 1870-1900, and then find sources on home size, 1900-2000.  aesthetic movement evidently influenced by Eastlake – had impact on home size, but for the affluent.

Eastlake Movement From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Eastlake Movement was a nineteenth century household design reform movement started by architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836-1906). His book Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other DetailsUnited States used the drawings and ideas in the book to create mass-produced Eastlake Style or Cottage furniture. The geometric ornaments, low relief carvings, incised lines were designed to be affordable and easy to clean. posited that furniture and decor in people's homes should be made by hand or machine workers who took personal pride in their work. Manufacturers in the

With the publication of Charles Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste in 1868, gothic subjects gained prominence in the work of artists and craftsmen, ushering in the aesthetic movement. The writings of John Ruskin and the works of the Pre-Raphaelites presaged the general interest in Anglo-Scottish heritage that flourished in America during the late nineteenth century. 

Circumstantial evidence reveals that Tiffany was familiar with another book influenced by Pugin—Charles Locke Eastlake’s Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details (London, 1868). Eastlake’s book greatly influenced American furniture reform design. The first American edition appeared in Boston in 1872 with an introduction by Charles C. Perkins. Americans published six editions by 1881, the year before Tiffany initiated his designs with Meier and Hagen. Tiffany’s brother-in-law, Donald G. Mitchell, referred to Eastlake’s concepts in essays about Tiffany’s setting and furnishings for his apartment in New York City on the top floor of the Bella Apartment House at 48 East 26th Street, written for Our Continent in 1882. If Mitchell had not previously known of Eastlake’s book and of Morris’s Hopes and Fears for Art, he learned of them from Tiffany, for Mitchell’s letter to Tiffany on November 25, 1881, reveals that Tiffany supervised his articles and recommended books as background for them.8 [8. Charles Locke Eastlake, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details (London: Longmons, Greene & Co., 1868). For an analytical biography and comment on Eastlake’s book, see Charles L. Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival, edited and with an introduction by J. Mordaunt Crook, 2d ed. (England and New York: Leicester University Press, and Humanities Press, 1978), especially pp. 19–20. For Eastlake’s influence in the United States, see Mary Jean Smith Madigan, “The Influence of Charles Locke Eastlake on American Furniture Manufacture, 1870–90,” Winterthur Portfolio 10 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia for the Winterthur Museum, 1975), pp. 1–22.

 

Concluding remarks by Madigan, p. 22 "Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture" [Source: Michael J. Ettema, Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 16, No. 2/3 (Summer - Autumn, 1981), pp. 197-223]:

Did Eastlake-influenced American furniture conform to Eastlake 's standards of honesty in construc­tion, function, and ornament? Though Eastlake admired the handcrafted furniture of the Middle Ages, he placed no direct proscriptions on modern methods of construction, including machine work, so long as the end product was a sturdy, honest piece of furniture, without sham or concealment. As trade catalog illustrations and extant pieces of furniture show, much American furniture pro­duced during the 1870s and 1880s was sturdy, ob­viously constructed, and in general accord with Eastlake 's dictates. In the matter of ornament, it seems that only the custom cabinetmakers like Herter Brothers (Fig. 8) and the limited stock pro­ducers like Kimbel and Cabus (Figs. 12, 13) hewed directly to Eastlake 's philosophy. Perusal of furni­ture factory trade catalogs and of factory-made Eastlake pieces demonstrates that applied orna­ment, so deplored by Eastlake , was an almost uni­versal characteristic of factory-made furniture. Although such extraneous ornament was usually well attached (blocked in by molding or recessed into the surface of the wood), it was incontrovertibly in opposition to Eastlake 's concept of functionalism. However, applied carved ornament used with re­straint was not usually so offensive that it negated all other tasteful qualities of the furniture it adorned.   Finally, was it economically feasible in America to mass-produce and distribute at low cost a type of furniture true to Eastlake 's tenets? The simple sturdy furniture that is pictured, described, and priced in trade catalogs of such manufacturers as the Williamsport Furniture Company gives ample evidence that it was. The notion that Eastlake fa­vored only handmade, custom-produced, and there-fore expensive, furniture is not borne out by his statements in Hints on Household Taste. There was nothing in the processes of machine produc­tion inherently incompatible with Eastlake-influ­enced styles; in fact, American scroll and circular saws, power lathes, mortising machines, and, espe­cially, incising machines were well adapted to turn­ing out the lines and decorative elements of East-lake furniture. Apart from his direct influence on American fur­niture manufacture from 1870 to 1890, Eastlake should be remembered for his role in sharpening the aesthetic discrimination of an entire genera­tion. In awakening the American public to a sense of its interior environment, Eastlake provided an important intellectual bridge between William Morris's English design reform efforts of the 1860s and later efforts of such American arts and crafts movement exponents as Gustav Stickley. Hints on Household Taste, together with the dozens of do­mestic publications it inspired, created a positive climate for an entirely new design aesthetic based on simplicity and utility rather than ostentatious ornamentation.

The indication and implication of a new design aesthetic, in the form of the arts and crafts movement is articulated in a 1904 Popular Science Monthly article by Frank T Carlton, Professor at the Toledo University School:

"…arts and crafts movement,  …  a protest against and a reaction from the minute division of labor now employed in manu­facture, and the stripping of the artistic features from industry…. aims to give dignity to the worker, and to teach that all should be workers… The arts and crafts movement needs educated producers and con­sumers. The task is a double one; the workers must be trained to produce good work, and the taste of all consumers must be educated so that they will demand good articles. Shorter hours and the right use of leisure will give an impetus to the demand for better qualities of goods; and thus variety and handicraftsmanship will to some extent replace interchangeability and machine production. … "

 

(I haven't personally examined these references: For American editions of Eastlake ’s Hints on Household Taste, see Henry-Russell Hitchcock, American Architectural Books [no preview available], 2d ed. with introduction by Adolf K. Placzek and appendix by William H. Jordy (New York: DaCapo Press, 1976), page 36; for direct references to Eastlake’s concepts and to Morris’s book, see Donald G. Mitchell, “From Lobby to Peak,” Our Continent, May 17, 1882, p. 217. Mitchell’s series “From Lobby to Peak” includes numerous allusions to Eastlake’s concepts. See February 15, 1882, p. 5; February 22, 1882, p. 21; March 1, 1882, p. 37; March 15, 1882, p. 69; March 22, 1882, p. 85; March 29, 1882, p. 101; April 12, 1882, p. 132; April 19, 1882, p. 148; and May 3, 1882, p. 185. For Tiffany’s association with Mitchell on the articles, see Mitchell-Tiffany Family Papers, Sterling Memorial Library, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.)

 

 

TURN OF THE CENTURY 1890 - 1900 

The Turn of the Century was a period that incorporated all styles. Every conceivable style, from carved figural to Art Nouveau, was available during this period. There was still a quality of construction typical of American cabinetmakers. Primary woods used were oak, mahogany, cherry, maple and walnut.

Empire Revival, with Romanesque decorations: 1892

The attempted revival of French Empire about 1892 brought forth some very excellent pieces of craftsmanship These pieces in structure resembled the French Empire, only leaned toward a Romanesque ornamentation- The mounts were gold instead of brass. The Romanesque de, sign received its renewed impetus from homes designed by the noted Boston architect, Mr. Richardson.

ARTS AND CRAFTS 1895 - 1910

The Arts & Crafts Movement emphasized form and structure rather than surface decoration. Functional forms were often joined by hand in mortise and tenon fashion. There was a simplicity, squareness and symmetry to furniture of this period. The predominant wood used was oak, but mahogany was also used. Important craftsmen of the time included Gustav Stickley, L. & J. G. Stickley, Greene & Greene, Roycroft, Limbert and many others.

Mission: 1895 [under construction]

Mission furniture -- invariably made of oak -- had no decoration. Mission furniture came from a discovery of furniture -- massive square frames and coarse rush bottom seats  -- found in southern California . Mission included tables, desks, chairs and other  pieces. "It was an unconventional style for unconventional people". 

Speculation suggests that  the Spanish priests who ventured to establish the Church in the Southwest wildernesses of North America brought no furniture with them, for they knew that they would  be forced to undergo long treks over rough terrain, endure  hardships, like locating food supplies, and  struggle to gain a livelihood.

According to legend, the "idea" about this rote for the source of mission comes through a Joseph McHugh, responding to a chair sent east from a California mission in 1894. It, according to claim, was one of many similar design found in the monasteries of the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is said to be a refinement of cruder designs that trace back to the sixteenth century.

The legs of the chairs and tables were uncompromisingly straight and the backs were formed of two of three unadorned slats. The legs were tied together with stretchers, and the feet were simply a continuation of the leg, ending abruptly. Later pieces had wooden seats- Rockers are frequently made in this style.

Ford claims that Mission is perhaps "best be described as the beginning of commercially made furniture'." Mission furniture soon gained popularity and enjoyed a longer life than any of the others. After Victorian and other similarly over-embellished styles, America had a turn toward the simple lines and consequently Mission furniture was manufactured in great quantities and was principally made of oak. In fact, Mission furniture has not yet lost its favor, and we find many factories still making suites in this style and selling them in considerable numbers.

However, the monks carried memories of the ecclesiastical and household furniture used in contemporary Spain, and they fashioned the furniture for the missions along the lines which their memories dictated. They used any woods which wore at hand and worked them with very crude tools. This early furniture was built on simple, square lines, and had a definitely utilitarian character. Any ornament used was ecelesiastical. The sixteenth century mission furniture was fall of quaint charm, and possessed the artistic merits of suitability to its use and surroundings. 

The furniture produced in the style in the East and the Middle West in the nineties followed the lines of the old work (Fig. 27 b and c). The frames were simple, square, and massive. The legs were straight and square, and terminated at the lower extremity without differentiation as to the feet. The legs were always tied together with stretchers. he backs were usually straight without rake. The earliest of the modern chairs had rush seats, but by 1900 they had been replaced by )plain wood, and soon after leather cushions were added. This furniture was devoid of all ornament. It was always made of oak, and was usually darkened either by fuming or staining.

Mission design became popular after 1894, and quickly became a "rage" . As in other fashions, the first pieces mode were all more or loss expensive, but soon it was produced in moderately priced goods.  Mission furniture was not featured in Montgomery Ward catalogs until 1905, says Ford, but four later that it was offered in any considerable variety. Fig. 2 7 a- Ancient chairs from Zuni, Mexico . From Hunter, Decorative Furniture. b- Library table, from Kimerly. c- Davenport with loose cushions, from Kimerly

Later interpretations of the style were less attractive than the earlier. "Most of the charm derived from the ancient Spanish-American work had been lost" because of over-production  At the close of WW I, in 1918, "people were tired of the Mission and considered it too heavy and clumsy for general home use. However, 1930 found it still much liked for the furnishing of country houses and for porches, and suites were being made in considerable numbers" 

Mission was the outstanding American furniture fashion for about twenty years. It was never followed in Europe. Together with the Craftsman furniture  which it helped to inspire, it pushed the last remnants of Gothic and Eastlake furniture from American homes and paved the way for the revival of Georgian styles and the Ultra Modern.

 

 

 

 

Sources: Alwyn T. Covell, "The Real Place of Mussion Furniture", Alwyn T. Covell, "The Real Place of Mission Furniture," Good Furniture, IV, vi (March] 1915), page 359-362 (accompanied with four high-quality full page photos of rooms of the period, this article also includes an account of Joseph P. McHugh's 1894 role in introducing "Mission" furniture.) Sironen; Marjorie Bacon Ford,  Style Cycles in American Furniture, 1830-1930.  Thesis, University of Chicago , 1930; John Freeman Crosby, Forgotten Rebel: Gustav Stickley and His Craftsman Mission Furniture New York: Century House, 1965. (Not available online, and published as the second Arts and Crafts movement emerged in America, Crosby's book is a retropective effort in disclosing the rise and decline of Gustav Stickley's promotion of the original American Arts and Crafts movement.) THE CRAFTSMAN MOVEMENT

L'Art Nouveau: 1903

L'Art Nouveau was a composite style embracing the English, French and Japanese methods of ornamentation and construction- It was a departure from all the then existing styles and is pure in the interpretation of artistic motifs. The designer took as his decorative themes, the growing plant, the root, the stalk and the crisp leaves. The flowers were invariably inlaid in wood mosaic, each shade and coloring being of a different natural wood- L'Art Nouveau suffered like many of the later furniture designs in the transferring of the design into inferior makes of furniture and lived a short, but when correctly executed, beautiful life.

English Arts and Crafts: 1900? – 1915?; 1960? -- continuing

Led by the British designer-theorists-philosophers, John Ruskin and  William Morris, Arts and Crafts Movement advocated a return to simplicity and functionalism in design and quality of materials and craftsmanship. English Arts and Craft furniture came into America about 1905. It was an adaptation of furniture of the same type manufactured in England . It was severely plain. somewhat resembling our Mission style, although it often carried the decorations of copper handles, hinges and other ornaments which were hand-wrought- The furniture was made of fumed oak.

American material culture scholars claim that after 1915-1920, the Arts and Craft style declined in the wake of other styles coming up on the market. I have no reason to doubt this, because of the limited amount of researchI have conducted on the matter. However, from my investigation of this scholarship and from scholarship of my own, directed toward the impact of woodworker's manuals, I am beginning to see the evidence materializing that other forces sustained an interest in Arts and Crafts styles between WW I and Post-WW II. Check out the discussion on the woodworkerer's manuals and other writing of Percy A Wells and John Cooper.

 

Golden Oak: 1900-1910  

The Golden Oak furniture was -- as the name suggests -- given a finish to make pieces look bright and "sunny". The pieces in this style are made primarily for either the dining room orbedroom. Decorative themes are not added to the heaviness; instead, for decoration, applied ornamentation (embossments, stampings, carvings) are used, but its basic style  depends the wood's color. The dining-room tables are round, supported by a single heavy pedestal, the buffets large, often with large mirror at the top, the chairs with backs with central splats, and plain or scooped-out wood seats.

Source: Jeffrey Weiss and Herbert H. Wise, Made With Oak New York: Links, 1975.

Modernist (Or Modern): 

These terms designate the clean, functional, modern look that emerged in the Bauhaus and elsewhere between World War I and World War II. To some, it is "rectilinear, with soft curves"

Art Deco: 1910-1930

-- "The last great period of French cabinetmaking and craftsmanship in which surface ornament is stressed," The style peaked a 1925 when the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs a lndustriels Modernes Paris . "Design sources are wide-ranging and include a pastiche of neoclassical elements," writes Rita Reif in a 1980 NYT article, "echoing French 18th century and Louis Phillipe styles. Other influences include Cubism for shapes shapes and Fauvism for colors."

Art Moderne: 1930-1940

A term used to designate the pared down, tradition-oriented style that sur­faced in the United States in the 1930s, merging some elements of the Art Deco style with the Bauhaus. 

Bauhaus: 1920s —

The German design school founded by Walter Gropius at Weimar, and later moved to Dessau, produced austere chromed metal and lacquered wood furniture, lighting, textiles, photography and everyday objects in which function controlled structure. These designs of Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and others are now considered the modernist style. 

Colonial Revival: see entry, Colonial Revival 

Sources:

(This list is idiosyncratic, definitely not intended to be either comprehensive, nor “authoritative”; instead, this list is driven by my notions of what interests amateur woodworkers in the types of styles, models, etc., they choose for creating furniture] J. Newton Nind and Gustav Stickley The Furniture Styles 1909  requested ILL 3-2-07; Marta K Sironen, "Annotated Bibliography of Furniture Books", "Bibliography of Furniture Books (Listed According to Subject Matter)", and list of European and American "furniture craftsmen, architects, and artisans of the twentieth century, with brief biography" Manual of the Furniture Arts and Crafts, compiled by Axel Petrus Johnson and Marta K. Sironen; edited by William J Etten Grand Rapids, MI: A. P. Johnson, 1928, pages 685-745; 745-780; 661-682; Gordon Russell The Things We See: Furniture 3 Penguin, 1947; Joseph Aronson, Encyclopedia of Furniture New York: Crown, 1938; Louise Ade Boger, The Complete Guide to Furniture Styles New York: Scribner's,1959, 1969, )