18th Century ENGLAND

The Queen Anne Period 1702-1714 Academic Department INIFD Corporate

The Queen Anne Style 1702-1714

The early years of the 18th century were a

transition between the austere William and Mary styles and the more relaxed and curvilinear Queen Anne. Queen Anne was only on the throne for a short time, but her name has become synonymous with an elegant and beautiful style of furniture that is still used and enjoyed today. Architecture during the period was a continuation of the Baroque. Sir Christopher Wren was still active, and John Vanbrugh, one of his assistants, became a well-known practitioner of the style.

Blenheim Palace
The premier house of the period

was Blenheim Palace, designed by John Vanbrugh (below right) & Nicholas Hawkesmoor for the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (John and Sarah Churchill). A gift from the English Parliament to the Duke after his victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim, the house was constructed between 1704 and 1724.

Blenheim Palace
A classical entry portico

faces a courtyard and a view across lawns to a lake. The scale is massive and the palace is regarded as the best example of truly Baroque architecture in England, a monument rather than a comfortable house.

Blenheim Palace
Large formal rooms are arranged

an enfilade (an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onwards) or in succeeding series around the perimeter of the ground floor. The State Dining Room is decorated with frescoes of classical columns and balconies where images of famous figures from history overlook dinner guests.

 Blenheim Palace,

Oxfordshire: an enfilade of 9 state rooms runs the length of the palace (marked "N" to "G" at the top of the figure). Note alignment of doors between rooms

Blenheim Palace
The library runs the

entire depth of one wing of the house and is decorated with classical moldings, columns, pilasters and decorative detail.

Blenheim Palace
Furnishings are

elaborate and scaled to the size of the rooms. Floors are marble or wood and covered with rich rugs and carpets.

Blenheim Palace
In the early 18th century Queen Anne's gardener, Henry Wise, designed

the grounds of the palace in the formal style of Andr Le Ntre's gardens for Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles in France. Almost nothing remains of Wise's landscaping, however. In the middle of the century, tastes changed, and Lancelot Capability Brown was asked to redesign the grounds in his pastoral style of informal or seemingly natural landscapes of woods, lawns, and waterways.

Queen Anne Furniture

Furniture was lighter and more

refined than William and Mary types, and was the most important contribution of the age to the decorative arts. Human scale and comfort were becoming more important, especially in the design of chairs, which were shaped to fit the body. This chair is decorated with Chinoiserie in color and gold leaf.

 The cabriole leg was introduced as a

Baroque element in English furniture during the reign of Queen Anne (17021714) and remained until about 1760. The full French Rococo style was marked in England by 1750 by a more delicate cabriole leg. This later evolution was named the Chippendale period. In case furniture, strong architectural forms using balanced proportions, moldings, and pediments, which had begun to develop under William and Mary, were characteristic of Queen Anne style furniture.

Queen Anne Furniture

Chairs were an
The corner chair has

important part of every home where taste and refinement were valued. Queen Anne chairs have cabriole legs, shaped splats and a variety of feet, which include the slipper, trifid and club foot.

slipper feet.

Queen Anne Furniture

This parrot back Queen

Anne chair has triffid (three-toed) feet and cabriole legs. The parrot is visible in the negative spaces on either side of the center splat.

Queen Anne Furniture

This side chair has

characteristics of the late Queen Anne style, and is transitional into the Early Georgian period. The feet are claw-and-ball and the apron, the crest rail and knees are carved with stylized shells.

Queen Anne Furniture

The wing chair was

developed from earlier examples of sleeping and upholstered chairs. The example here has club feet, turned stretchers and Bargello embroidery upholstery (a geometric pattern popular since the Renaissance).

Queen Anne Furniture

This candle stand has a

slipper foot and is made from mahogany. Used to support a candleholder in the 18th century, today it would be used as a side table.

Queen Anne Furniture

The tea table was a design

resulting from the fashion for drinking tea as a daily social occasion in the 18th century. This example has club feet and slides which pull out to hold candlesticks on each end.

Queen Anne Furniture

This Queen Anne style

console has club feet and a marble top. The knee of each leg is decorated with a stylized seashell motif, a favorite embellishment in this style found on furniture legs, aprons and drawer fronts.

Queen Anne Furniture

This Queen Anne lowboy

has club feet and is made from tiger maple, a popular wood in the colonies. The hardware is composed of bail handles with a back-plate called a bat wing brass.

Queen Anne Furniture

This small chest is made

from walnut with Oyster veneers, a pattern created by using the wood from the joint of small branches to the trunk. The bun feet are characteristic of the earlier part of the period.

Queen Anne Furniture

The flat-topped Queen

Anne highboy was a common piece for storage in the 18th century. The cabriole legs are finished in club feet.

Queen Anne Furniture

Another example of a

Queen Anne highboy is, as usual, in two parts to make it easier to move the tall, heavy piece.

Queen Anne Furniture

The pediment-topped

Queen Anne highboy was also widely made and used. This broken pediment has a flame-shaped finial in the center.

Queen Anne Furniture

This drop-front desk has

trifid (three-toed) feet and a shaped apron typical of the period. It is made from mahogany, which was imported into England and America from the Caribbean and South America.

Queen Anne Furniture

Windsor chairs appeared

first in the early 18th century and were used in a variety of settings where casual furniture was appropriate. Painted examples were used outdoors as lawn or terrace furniture This is a comb-back windsor.

Queen Anne Furniture

This comb and bow-back

windsor has the characteristic splayed legs which were turned on a lathe, as were the spindles. The seat is called a saddle seat because of the shaping created to fit the rear of the sitter.

Queen Anne Furniture

This continuous arm

windsor (top) is also a typical form found in both England and the American colonies. The windsor writing chair (bottom) was used in both taverns and parlors to write letters or accounts. The drawer under the seat is for storage of paper and pens.