Jacobean-Style Furniture ( 1558-1702 )

The original Style

General characteristics:

Solid and heavy; dark woods, highly carved square, rectangular shapes; teardrop brasses, cane seats. Furniture Forms: Chests and Chests of drawers; arm and side chairs; tables, beds, desks; all sorts of “moderns” forms including cabinets, low tables, Victrolas, etc. Ornaments: Geometrics panels and designs; bold turnings; trumpets shapes; ball and bun feet; spindles, scrolls, and spirals.

The American reproduction

In the hands of the American furniture designers approximately two centuries later. Jacobean furniture took on a whole new look. Granted the square, boxy lines and decorative motifs were retained, but suddenly oversized furniture took on a lighter air. It had to. American homes were not open, drafty, monumental-in-scale English or Scottish stone castles. These were homes with divided rooms- livingrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, and eventually music rooms and sun porches ( the forerunners of family rooms and dens ). New pieces that the denizens of the 16 th. and 17 th. centuries had never heard of appeared in the furniture stores labeled “Jacobean”. Cabinets with glass doors, something the Elizabethan courtier never saw, and slant-front writing desks ( another form unknown in 1600 ) having drawers decorated with spindle turning and teardrop pulls were made. All in all, many more adaptations of Jacobean Furniture were produced than “faithful” reproductions for the simple reason that the original style was too oversized for the modern American homes. Unfortunaly, for the most part many of these Jacobean adaptations were among the worst-designed and cheapest-constructed pieces made by American furniture companies.

Extracted from Los Angeles Furniture Magazine