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The wonderful Queen Anne period 1720 – 1750
Queen Anne Antique Chair
The Queen Anne period falls nicely between the William and Mary period and the later, more refined Chippendale period with dates of around the early 1720s to about 1750. Of course with all antique chair styles and periods there are overlaps in design elements. An odd note about the period, it came to fruition about a decade after her death.
The Queen Anne antique chair has two distinctive design features. They often have curved or yoke shaped top rail and carved shells or fans. The seats themselves often are made in a slightly horseshoe shape. The backs of the chairs were often shaped like a vase, known as vasiform and often associated with the great Boston chairmakers. The backs also tended to feature a single verticle splat and was often curved to give a very comfortable experience. We often see cabriole legs (meaning curved with a decorativer foot), from the influence of the great Dutch furniture makers, a move away from the straighter leg designs of the past. These leg types were meant to resemble the natural flow of an animals legs making the whole piece seem more fluid and alive.
Walnut was the preferred wood of many a Queen Anne antique chair with cherry and maple picking up some of the slack. This was the wood of choice before mahogany began to make its rise. Marquetry which was quite popular moved aside and was replaced by carving.
Here is an image of a typical Queen Anne antique chair.
Note the distinct features previously mentioned, the shell design, cabriole legs, verticle splat, and curved top rail. As we look further at the top rail we can note an evolution. In the early period abuting the William and Mary period we can see a carved or molded cresting. This evolved into a smaller more distinctive shell carving then faded away to leave only a valley that would have looked almost like a head rest.
There were a few distinct feet styles of the Queen Anne antique chair, the simple pad and the drake with three toes.
I personally find the Queen Anne Antique Chair to be a huge leap forward in design. We are now seeing some real intelligent expression come alive. The pieces tend to be smaller in scale, much more comfortable and have a real lightness to them. No longer is an antique chair a hulking monument, it has now become properly balanced. They are easy to like.
And finally we leave you with an image of the Lady herself, Queen Anne
Discovery Terms:
queen anne chairqueen anneantique queen anne chairsold chairmaking queen anee legTopics: Queen Anne Period