Victorian Gothic Revival Period Furniture
This period stretching roughly thirty years from 1830-1870 was heavily influenced by the romantic ideals from the medieval period which at the time was featured in many of the novels and poetry of the time. Thus the icons of the medieval period are very prevalent in not only the architecture of the time but also the furniture.
The furniture is more than substantial and more often than naught made of oak with details of rosettes, tracery, trefoils and quatrefoils. The reintroduction of medieval styles include the reprisal of Elizabethan chairs, chests and other ‘cottage furniture”. These pieces definitely had the air of “Hansel and Gretel’ about them.
With the recent popularity of the books and the movie “Twilight’ this style has once again been recognized as the look most associated with the vampire fashion. Because of the medieval church icons used within the style it is a natural pairing for a fad that is centered on many symbols of Christianity be they an alter or a chair with iconic Gothic turnings. This is the style you are most often seeing in the set decoration of many of the TV. shows and movies that celebrate the vampire myth.
You can often still find a great Gothic period style chair perfect for your hall or a table with the telltale Gothic turreted apron. Many small antique shops have a piece or two and they are for the most part reasonably priced, mostly because they were all made by machine and had little or no craftsman’s personal touch. Remember, the less a human hand touched it in its making the less is its commercial value.
As is true with all design, it is cyclical having taken from what was popular in the past as a path to the design of the present.
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