Furniture
Furniture (probably from the French 'fournir' — to provide) is the mass noun for the movable objects ('mobile' in Latin languages) intended to support various human activities such as ating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things. Storage furniture such as a nightstand often makes u of doors, drawers, shelves and locks to contain, organize or cure smaller objects such as clothes, tools, books, and houhold goods.
Furniture can be a product of design and is considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can rve a symbolic or religious purpo. Domestic furniture works to create, in conjunction with furnishings such as clocks and lighting, comfortable and convenient interior spaces. Furniture can be made from many materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflect the local culture.
History
Furniture in fashion has been a part of the human experience since the development of non-nomadic cultures. Evidence of furniture survives from the Neolithic Period and later in antiquity in the form of paintings, such as the wall Murals discovered at Pompeii; sculpture, and examples have been excavated in Egypt and found in tombs in Ghiordes, in modern day Turkey.
Neolithic Period
Skara Brae hou Orkney Scotland evidence of home a dresr containing shelves.A range of unique stone furniture has been excavated in Skara Brae a Neolithic village, located in Orkney, Scotland. The site dates from 3100–2500BC and due to a shortage of wood in Orkney, the people of Skara Brae were forced to build with stone, a readily available material that could be worked easily and turned into items for u within the houhold. Each hou shows a high degree of sophistication and was equipped with an extensive assortment of stone furniture, ranging from cupboards, dresrs and beds to shelves, stone ats, and limpet tanks. The stone dresrs were re
garded as the most important as it symbolically faces the entrance in each hou and is therefore the first item en when entering, perhaps displaying symbolic objects, including decorative artwork such as veral Neolithic Carved Stone Balls also found at the site.
The Classical World
Early furniture has been excavated from the 8th-century B.C. Phrygian tumulus, the Midas Mound, in Gordion, Turkey. Pieces found here include tables and inlaid rving stands. There are also surviving works from the 9th-8th-century B.C. Assyrian palace of Nimrud. The earliest surviving carpet, the Pazyryk Carpet was discovered in a frozen tomb in Siberia and has been dated between the 6th and 3rd century B.C. Recovered Ancient Egyptian furniture includes 3rd millennium B.C. beds discovered at Tarkhan as place for the decead, a c.2550 B.C. gilded bed and to chairs from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres, and many examples (boxes, beds, chairs) from c. 1550 to 1200 B.C. from Thebes. Ancient Greek furniture design beginning in the 2nd millennium B.C., including b
eds and the klismos chair, is prerved not only by extant works, but by images on Greek vas. The 1738 and 1748 excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii introduced Roman furniture, prerved in the ashes of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, to the eighteenth century.
Early Modern Europe
Florentine cassone from the 15th centuryThe furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented with carved designs. Along with the other arts, the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century marked a rebirth in design, often inspired by the Greco-Roman tradition. A similar explosion of design, and renaissance of culture in general, occurred in Northern Europe, starting in the fifteenth century. The venteenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs that frequently incorporated a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament. Starting in the eighteenth century, furniture designs began to develop more rapidly. Although there were some styles that belonged primarily to one nati
on, such as Palladianism in Great Britain, others, such as the Rococo and Neoclassicism were perpetuated throughout Western Europe.
There is in Italy a geographical area named Brianza . Its economy included and includes production of furniture, furnishing from 1748. The most important towns for this economy are in zones near Cantù with Arosio, Cabiate, Inverigo, Mariano Comen and Lissone with Barlassina, Bovisio Masciago, Briosco, Cesano Maderno, Desio, Giussano, Lentate sul Seveso, Limbiate, Macherio, Seregno, Seveso, Verano Brianza; to remember also zone near Renate.
19th Century
The nineteenth century is usually defined by concurrent revival styles, including Gothic, Neoclassicism, Rococo, and the EastHaven Movement. The design reforms of the late century introduced the Aesthetic movement and the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was influenced by both of the movements.
Early North American
This design was in many ways rooted in necessity and emphasizes both form and materials. Early American chairs and tables are often constructed with turned spindles and chair backs often constructed with steaming to bend the wood. Wood choices tend to be deciduous hardwoods with a particular emphasis on the wood of edible or fruit bearing trees such as Cherry or Walnut.
