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The century kicks off with Arts & Crafts design which would inculde Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Morris - different aspects of the same movement!. In England the Bloomsbury Group set up the Omega Workshops for hand painted 'art' furniture which ranged from amateurish to sublime, andnot much in between!.

By the 1920's you are getting new technologies - bakelite steel and so forth - designers like Le Corbusier, Marcel Bruer and Mies Van der Rohe!. This was an international style and anything from the Bauhaus in Dessau would be appropriate!. Syrie Maugham was the society designer, famed for the all white room, and for stripping or liming antique furniture!.

By the time of the second world war furniture like everything was a precious commodity!. The utility stamp scheme marked a highpoint in economic design and featured the talents of people like Gordon Russell!.

After the war the country house look by john Fowler with chintz covered traditional designed furniture for those who could afford it!.

By the 50's you could have 'molecular' metal funiture with bobbles on all rather avant garde, the space-age was all the rade after the launch of Sputnik, or traditional style like Ercol or G Plan, and the more affluent flirted with Scanadanavian design (Norwegian Wood as John Lennon called it)!. By then it was the sixties (when we were all swinging) stuff like inflatable furniture and other experimental pieces and built in furniture came to the fore, and David Hicks ruled supreme, although mavericks like Barbara Hulaniki influenced a generation into decadent living, underscored by Turner's house in 'Performance', which featured Mick Jagger!.

The 70's were dominated by Terence Conran and the emerging habitat style, which segued rather seamlessly into a revival of interest in Swedish Design and the behemoth that is IKEA, after a brief flirtation with post modernism/post modern classicism!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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A brief history of furnitureFurniture has always existed since the age of the caveman, logs used to sit on were the basic forms of a chair or a bench and as such furniture has always been integral to the success of mankind!.

After the retreat of the last ice age, the hunter-gatherer communities of the Stone Age gradually began to acquire the skills of agriculture, and civilizations were born!. No longer constantly on the move in the search for food, families were able to build homes and acquire possessions!. Craftsmen began to develop their trades in producing articles such as jewellery, pottery and furniture!. As mankind developed so did his skills!. Although we do not know exactly when the first chair in the form that we know was made we do know that from excavating ancient sites and tombs that elaborate gold leaf chairs and other pieces of exquisite furniture were made as far back as the pharaoh kings of Egypt!.

Like civilisation, furniture has changed and developed during the ages, we have seen simple wooden forms evolve into some of the most complex pieces of craftsmanship to date!.

As furniture items have evolved it is normally to fulfill a purpose!. We have seen more and more materials used in furniture design over the years to deal with this need!. Initially furniture was made from wood but over the years as technology has moved on and we have new methods of manufacture and a great resource base, we find that iron and other strong metals are being used to create new and exciting shapes and pieces of furniture!. More recently, we can see plastics and other materials making some of the most modern designs to suit the changing needs of the human race across all of the furniture ranges available in the marketplace!.

To see some of the designs that are available in today’s market place please click on the links below!. You can read about furniture in the 17th and 18th centuries too!.

17th Century Furniture History
18th Century Furniture History
Furniture DesignWww@QuestionHome@Com

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