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Ornate gilt and verdigris wall mirror
Baroque Furniture: History of the Style and How to Identify Authentic 17th-Century Pieces
Baroque furniture was built to overwhelm. Born in 17th-century Italy and carried across Europe to its climax at Louis XIV's Versailles, it traded the quiet order of the Renaissance for... Read more...
Victorian Gothic tracery wall bracket shelf
Gothic Revival Furniture: History of the Style and How to Identify Authentic 19th-Century Pieces
Gothic Revival furniture brought the cathedral into the parlor. In the 19th century, a romantic longing for the Middle Ages led designers to lift the pointed arches, tracery, and quatrefoils... Read more...
French Louis XVI-style barrel-back chair
Louis XVI Furniture: History of the French Neoclassical Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Louis XVI furniture is the moment France straightened the curve. After decades of the flowing, asymmetrical Rococo, the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum set off a craze for the ancient... Read more...
Restored writing desk in black walnut
Biedermeier Furniture: History of the Style and How to Identify Authentic 19th-Century Pieces
Biedermeier furniture is proof that restraint can be its own kind of luxury. While the grand courts of Europe were still gilding everything in sight, a newly confident middle class... Read more...
Antique Blanchard-Hamilton walnut bed, c. 1926, period American casework
William and Mary Furniture: History of the Style and How to Identify Authentic Early-18th-Century Pieces
William and Mary furniture is the moment English furniture stood up, grew tall, and learned to show off. After a century of heavy, dark, low-slung oak, the accession of a... Read more...
Pair of lyre-back dining chairs
Duncan Phyfe Furniture: History of America's Master Cabinetmaker and How to Identify His Style
Duncan Phyfe is the closest thing American furniture has to a household name. A Scottish immigrant who built the most celebrated cabinet workshop in the young United States, he became... Read more...
Klismos-style Grecian accent chair in dark walnut
American Empire Furniture: History of the Grecian Style and How to Identify Authentic 19th-Century Pieces
American Empire furniture is what happened when the young republic stopped whispering in classical inlay and began speaking in classical thunder. Where the earlier Federal style had been light, delicate,... Read more...
Federal-style bed frame
Federal Furniture: History of the American Federal Style and How to Identify Authentic Early-Republic Pieces
Federal furniture is the furniture of a brand-new country deciding what it wanted to look like. In the decades after independence, the young United States reached past its colonial past... Read more...
English oak side chair, carved and upholstered
Hepplewhite Furniture: History of the Hepplewhite Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Hepplewhite furniture is defined by one unforgettable shape: the graceful shield back of its chairs, curving to a point like a heraldic shield. It is the most instantly recognizable form... Read more...
Mahogany side table with turned legs
Sheraton Furniture: History of the Sheraton Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Sheraton furniture is the sound of the 18th century growing quiet and elegant. After the carved exuberance of Chippendale and the graceful curves of Queen Anne, Thomas Sheraton taught English... Read more...
Antique oak mirrored sideboard, circa 1890 to 1915
Antique vs Vintage vs Reproduction: What the Terms Really Mean and How to Tell
Walk through any market, estate sale, or online listing and you will see the words antique, vintage, and reproduction used almost interchangeably — often on the same piece. They are... Read more...
Walnut-veneered chest of drawers with turned columns
Solid Wood vs Veneer in Antique Furniture: How to Tell and Why It Matters
Few words scare a furniture buyer more than veneer. It has become shorthand for "cheap" — a thin skin hiding inferior material underneath. But that reputation is largely a modern... Read more...