What Is Period Furniture?

Here we've done our best to catalog the various periods and styles of American furniture and set them on a timeline, below.  Our timeline is broken into pre and post Industrial Revolution.  Examples are provided as well as links to pieces built by our members as presented in the SAPFM Members Gallery.

Fine furniture has been made throughout all periods in American history and in all styles. Because a piece is categorized in a post-Industrial Revolution period does not imply that it was factory made or that its construction or aesthetics is somehow inferior to earlier periods.

As an organization, SAPFM has focused much of its efforts on pre-Industrial Revolution furniture.   That is not to say that our members are not interested in contemporary styles that emerged in the 20th century.  Several pieces in the Member Gallery, articles found in our publications, and even a Cartouche Award recipient reflects this.

Periods and Styles

There is a clear distinction between periods and styles.  Periods refer to a length of time during which furniture was built.  Styles refer to a particular form or design elements used in the making of the piece.  

Periods are somewhat fluid bands of time where a particular set of characteristics or elements were popular. Styles are created by makers to highlight the characteristics in vogue and design elements incorporated in their work. Periods do not have hard start or finish dates and styles show evolution as tastes changed. Makers, if they wanted to stay in business, would cross periods and styles as their clients' tastes changed. Just because a period or a style evolved into a new one, the durable goods bought with good money were held onto further blurring the beginning and ending dates of a period or style.

One thing is certain, no style or period is strictly limited to a single country. England, France, Germany, and Italy, all influenced each other and those were all influenced by the Greeks and Romans from ages gone by.  In turn, America's influence was carried back to the “old country”. The Periods and Styles listed below cross countries just as the creators or texts from the creators crossed.

Authors do not agree on time-frames, if it is a period, a style, or a maker, even what to call the period or style. Many Periods were identified decades if not a century later by authorities and collectors looking back at the body of work created by makers in a given time period. Many period beginning dates are set by the earliest known piece identified by a specific maker or with a set of characteristics.