Furniture of the Federal period

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Since the early twentieth century American furniture of the Federal period has enjoyed widespread popularity among collectors. The defining dates of the style generally span the last decades of the eighteenth century through the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The rectilinear lines and overall symmetry associated with the Federal style are attributable to a newfound interest in classical antiquity initiated in Europe, which not long thereafter found its way across the Atlantic.

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An exhibition on view at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, between September 19 and January 9, 2005, features more than sixty pieces of furniture (including clocks and looking glasses) and a smattering of ceramics, glass, and metalwork, all loaned from a private collection. The furniture was made variously in New England, the Middle Atlantic States, and the South. The exhibition is entitled Our Young Nation: American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection.

Far from being a remote outpost, the United States had relatively quick access to new styles from London and other cities in Europe through imported goods, immigrant craftsmen who had trained abroad, and design books that were exported soon after publication. As Philip D. Zimmerman, the author of the catalogue of the Watson Collection, points out, William Bingham of Philadelphia traveled in Europe with his wife between 1784 and 1786, and while in England and France purchased paintings, sculpture, mantels, carpets, textiles, silver, and furniture, all in the latest neoclassical style, to furnish their new house. When the house was finished and furnished down to the last detail, visitors commented that it was one of the most opulent residences they had ever seen in the United States. By the 1790s the Federal style had infiltrated the far corners of the eastern seaboard from New England to the Deep South.

In the early nineteenth century France took on a more important role as a design source. Napoleon's military campaigns in Egypt and other exotic locales brought artists and scientists who were responsible for chronicling the new lands. Through their accounts, pictures, and the spoils of war that were shipped back to Paris (including many looted works of art), designers became more discerning about the differences between Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities.

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Another feature of this period was the emergence of the dining room and accompanying furniture. Chief among the new forms was the sideboard, which was intended both as a place to display one's ornamental silver to best effect and to store bottles and flatware. Women in affluent households now had more leisure time, and elegant worktables specially designed to house writing implements, needlework projects, and the accouterments of other feminine pursuits could soon be found in the best parlors throughout the country.

The catalogue of this exhibition, written by Zimmerman, may be obtained from the museum shop by telephoning 706-649-0713, extension 32.

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