Queen Anne Style Furniture

1702 - 1714
Queen Anne (1665 - 1714) 1702 - 1714 was the last monarch of the House of Stuarts. The Queen Anne style is a refinement of the William and Mary style with lighter, graceful, more comfortable furniture. The single most important decoration of Queen Anne furniture was the carved cockle or scallop shell. Cabinetmakers replaced the straight, turned furniturelegs with more graceful cabriole furniture legs. The furniture leg had an out-curved knee and an in curved ankle.
Walnut became the preferred wood along with cherry and maple. Imported mahogany also began to be favoured. Regardless of the wood, a small amount of Queen Anne furniture was painted white. The feet in which the furniture legs of the furniture terminated underwent alteration and improvement. Ultimately claw and ball feet made their reappearance, and makes an attractive finish to the heavier type of cabriole furniture leg that evolved after the disuse of the stretcher. Scroll feet are generally associated with the earlier Queen Anne furniture, but there were also club feet, spade feet, the drake foot which was carved with three toes and a square moulded type of foot. Card and the collapsible bridge table or gaming tables were another Queen Anne innovation. Still popular is lacquer work, the rich oriental wares and china, the use of gesso design, and the Dutch marquetry cabinets, with their bombe sides and fronts and profuse decoration.