11. Queen Anne

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18th Century ENGLAND

The Queen Anne Period1702-1714

Academic Department

INIFD Corporate

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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 ashort 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 acontinuation of the Baroque. Sir Christopher

Wren was still active, and John Vanbrugh,

one of his assistants, became a well-known

practitioner of the style.

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Blenheim Palace

The premier house of the period

was Blenheim Palace, designed

by John Vanbrugh (below right)

& Nicholas Hawkesmoor for

the Duke and Duchess ofMarlborough (John and Sarah

Churchill).

A gift from the English

Parliament to the Duke after his

victory over the French at theBattle of Blenheim, the house

was constructed between 1704

and 1724.

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Blenheim Palace

A classical entry porticofaces a courtyard and aview across lawns to alake.

The scale is massive andthe palace is regarded asthe best example of trulyBaroque architecture in

England, a monumentrather than a comfortablehouse.

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Blenheim Palace

Large formal rooms are arrangedan enfilade (an enfilade is a suiteof rooms formally aligned witheach other. This was a commonfeature in grand Europeanarchitecture from the Baroque

period onwards) or in succeedingseries around the perimeter of theground floor.

The State Dining Room isdecorated with frescoes ofclassical columns and balconieswhere images of famous figuresfrom history overlook dinner

guests.

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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). Notealignment of doors

between rooms

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Blenheim Palace

The library runs the

entire depth of one

wing of the house and

is decorated withclassical moldings,

columns, pilasters and

decorative detail.

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Blenheim Palace

Furnishings are

elaborate and

scaled to the

size of therooms.

Floors are

marble or wood

and coveredwith rich rugs

and carpets.

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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 redesignthe grounds in his pastoral style of informal or seemingly natural

landscapes of woods, lawns, and waterways.

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Queen Anne Furniture

Furniture was lighter and morerefined than William and Marytypes, and was the mostimportant contribution of the

age to the decorative arts. Human scale and comfort were

becoming more important,especially in the design ofchairs, which were shaped to fitthe body.

This chair is decorated withChinoiserie in color and goldleaf.

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The cabriole leg was introduced as a

Baroque element in English furnitureduring the reign of Queen Anne (1702-

1714) and remained until about 1760.

The full French Rococo style was

marked in England by 1750 by a moredelicate 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.

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Chairs were an

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 theslipper, trifid and club

foot.

The corner chair has

slipper feet.

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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.

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This side chair has

characteristics of the late

Queen Anne style, and is

transitional into the EarlyGeorgian period.

The feet are claw-and-ball

and the apron, the crest

rail and knees are carvedwith stylized shells.

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The wing chair was

developed from earlier

examples of sleeping and

upholstered chairs. Theexample here has club

feet, turned stretchers and

Bargello embroidery

upholstery (a geometric

pattern popular since the

Renaissance).

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This candle stand has a

slipper foot and is made

from mahogany.

Used to support acandleholder in the 18th

century, today it would be

used as a side table.

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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 oneach end.

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This Queen Anne style

console has club feet and a

marble top.

The knee of each leg isdecorated with a stylized

seashell motif, a favorite

embellishment in this style

found on furniture legs,aprons and drawer fronts.

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This Queen Anne lowboy

has club feet and is made

from tiger maple, a

popular wood in thecolonies.

The hardware is composed

of bail handles with a

back-plate called a batwing brass.

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This small chest is made

from walnut with Oyster

veneers, a pattern created

by using the wood fromthe joint of small branches

to the trunk.

The bun feet are

characteristic of the earlierpart of the period.

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The flat-topped Queen

Anne highboy was a

common piece for storage

in the 18th

century. The cabriole legs are

finished in club feet.

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Another example of a

Queen Anne highboy is,

as usual, in two parts to

make it easier to move thetall, heavy piece.

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The pediment-topped

Queen Anne highboy was

also widely made and

used. This broken pediment has

a flame-shaped finial in

the center.

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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 theCaribbean and South

America.

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Windsor chairs appearedfirst in the early 18thcentury and were used in avariety of settings where

casual furniture wasappropriate.

Painted examples wereused outdoors as lawn or

terrace furniture This is a comb-back

windsor.

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This comb and bow-back

windsor has the

characteristic splayed legs

which were turned on alathe, as were the spindles.

The seat is called a saddle

seat because of the

shaping created to fit therear of the sitter.

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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 forstorage of paper and pens.

Documents

11. Queen Anne