Antique Furniture
 CENTENNIAL OR COLONIAL REVIVAL
by Fred Taylor
DOES IT MATTER?
It is in this style that more American furniture has been made
than in any other style. Is it Chippendale? No, that's English. Is it Queen Anne? Nope, that's English too. Arts
and Crafts? Not enough of it. OK. What is it then? It's good old Colonial Revival, that enormous body of work that
reproduces, sometimes imaginatively so, the styles of furniture when and just after this country was just a
collection of English colonies. As it turns out Colonial Revival depends not so much on the actual style that is
being reproduced as the interpretation of the style and the combination of stylistic elements that sometimes
produce brand new styles all to themselves.
But there is an element of confusion about Colonial Revival. What is the difference,
if any, between Colonial Revival furniture and Centennial furniture? Even though the two terms are often used
interchangeably there does appear to be a difference - at least to some folks.
The American Centennial was celebrated in Philadelphia in 1876 at the Centennial
Exposition. Furniture styles, fashions and technologies from around the world were on display in the City of
Brotherly Love. The publicity and preparations for the Exposition, as well as the financial difficulties of 1873,
prompted America to begin to remember the early history and events of the country and to long for some of what
appeared to be the security and comfort of those earlier times, especially when viewed from more than 100 years
away. There was a rush to suddenly acquire antiques from the Colonial period in the belief that by surrounding the
family with articles similar to those used in the daily lives of such brave patriots as George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson, some of the better qualities of life of that period could be instilled and installed in the late
Victorian culture.
However, there were a great many more Victorians who wanted authentic Colonial period
furniture than there were pieces of Colonial furniture available. Then sanity struck. In 1878 Clarence Cook, an
influential decorator of the time, published his book "House Beautiful" and suggested that if you couldn't decorate
with the real thing, good reproductions would inspire the proper cultural response.
In the very short term a number of excellent cabinetmakers of the period including
Sypher & Company of New York among others and many more in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago began to
produce very high quality, bench made reproductions of 18th century furniture. Some of this higher quality work
produced after 1876 to the end of the century is often called "Centennial" furniture by some experts because of its
close proximity to the Exposition.
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