Antique furniture is either valuable or not -- some of it is worth no more than the wood it is made of. And age doesn’t necessarily mean value. While Aunt Bertha’s old rocking chair or Uncle Ben’s old, wooden desk are sentimental in value, neither one may have much financial worth.

I suppose one would expect to see more antique furniture if one considers that benches, tables, chairs and beds are some of the oldest furniture in use with much of it made in one form or another centuries before Columbus discovered America. Settlers in this country, though, had to create their own pieces as the Mayflower and other ships simply did not have room for furniture. Some of the earliest pieces were made in Virginia and Massachusetts but as the colonies grew, much was imported from England and France. Skilled cabinet makers copied some of the European styles yet these copies were not exact. Americans improved and improvised and as a result, wonderful new designs were created.

Queen Anne furniture was made from 1702-1720 in England and later in this country from around 1725-1750. Occasional pieces, such as a tea table, were found here as late as the 1850’s or 1860’s. Today’s furniture makers have reproduced 18th Century pieces and many of them are excellent in style and accuracy of design.

The ability to travel between countries, economics and even politics influenced furniture styles in America. Five different furniture styles achieved prominence in England and in America between 1700 and 1800. Furniture created in the colonies prior to 1700 was influenced by the Jacobean (1603-88) and the William and Mary (1688-1702) periods in England. In America, the William and Mary influence continued until 1725 when the Queen Anne style took over until 1750. Thomas Chippendale’s designs -- long popular in England -- appeared here around 1755. Both the Jacobean and William and Mary pieces were very heavy, consisting mostly of oak although walnut became popular later on.

They were simple in design, using straight lines and squat proportions. Most pieces were hand carved with intricate designs, replacing inlay and veneer for decoration. Beds were monstrous, tables were long, stools were more popular than chairs. Solid back and banister-back chairs had wide vertical slats with some more richly carved than others. Most were uncomfortable. The first upholstered, comfortable chair appeared before the 1700’s -- a wing chair -- and during that era, this chair accomplished what those huge beds accomplished: cutting off drafts! As chairs became more common than stools, certain characteristics easily identified the most popular designs. These characteristics included the shape of the front and back legs and whether stretchers were included (these disappeared during the Chippendale era), and the inclusion of vertical or horizontal splats.

George Hepplewhite (1780-1800) and Thomas Sheraton (1790-1810) also exhibited strong influences in American furniture making. The Adams brothers created delicate, graceful designs, returning furniture to the classic motifs of Greece and Italy. Although Sheraton and Hepplewhite worked with mahogany, both designers used satinwood and rosewood. Inlays and veneers were heavily utilized, so much so by Hepplewhite that it was not unusual to find furniture in the 1800’s with little or no veneer missing. Hepplewhite also preferred tall, skinny legs and the oval, often found on the backs of his chairs, became a Hepplewhite trademark. Sheraton, however, carved mahogany, replacing any use of inlay. Both designers continued to make all kinds of tables, including a huge number of card tables and a variety of other small tables. Beginning in the early 1800’s a variety of distinctly different sewing tables appeared. Some were oval, others were rectangular or even octagonal.

Another new and unusual type of desk was called the fall-front bureau desk which, when closed, resembled a chest of drawers. Behind the deepest, top drawer was a hinged front which moved downward to become a writing surface. Small drawers and pigeonholes were located behind this area. Although Sheraton also created tambours (a flexible sliding shutter made of narrow strips of wood which have been glued to a coarse fabric or canvas backing), he was well known as the sole designer of a chest of drawers with an attached mirror.

By the 1790’s, Americans used furniture that was distinctly their own design, something now referred to as "Federal." From that date to around 1820, furniture here came from both Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Whatever the period was called, furniture created then was both classic and traditional. Darker woods appeared with brass trim. This country’s eagle began to appear, carved, painted or inlaid. Sheraton’s straight lines dominated to around 1815 and until 1840, Federal pieces took on the heavier aspect of the French empire.