A few weeks back, sitting around Julie’s dining room table in Brooklyn Heights, a few of us got to talking about sleuthing out the styles of furniture in our posts.
Enter Christophe Pourny, the renowned Brooklyn-based restoration expert who’s written the book on the subject: The Furniture Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Identify, Restore, and Care for Furniture, who seemed like the perfect person to teach us a thing or two.
Online antiques retailers offer a selection of early furniture and reproductions, like this heavy Jacobean Oak Refectory Table, estimated from around 1700 in England, from 1st Dibs.
A Quick Guide to Pre-Renaissance Furniture
“Most everything predating Baroque and 17th-century furniture is generally thrown in this bag: Medieval, Tudor, Gothic, etc.,” says Pourny.
Main styles:
A Hand-Carved Gothic Chair, made in the Gothic style, would be right at home in a period drama.
Iconic look:
“Think dark oak, heavy shapes and carvings, rough joinery, solid wood,” says Pourny.
A pair of 19th-Century Carolean-Inspired Hall Chairs, made in mid-1600s style, from 1st Dibs.
“Think refectory tables, benches, and stools,” says Pourny; or things that wouldn’t be out of place in a dark banquet hall.
Iconic pieces:
A rough-hewn Continental Fruitwood Marriage Chest Coffer has intricate carvings, from around 1700; found via 1st Dibs.
“It’s not really a problem not to be an expert at differentiating precisely, since most of the pieces you will find from pre-1600 are reproductions, made as late as the early twentieth century, when those styles were back in fashion for a while,” Pourny advises.
Where to find it:
Gothic style in New York’s historic High Line Hotel (a former seminary); see The Gothic Getaway, NYC Edition.
How to use it:
Pourny’s favorite way to use early furniture: “A great look is too strip the dark woods, bleach them (which works wonders with oak), and leave them with a simple wax finish or a whitewash. It’s perfect for weekend houses, or in the city to marry with modern art or furniture for a great statement and contrast.”