Empire Furniture

Empire style was an early 19th century design movement that influenced architecture, furniture and other decorative and visual arts in Europe and America until about 1830.

The style takes its name from the First French Empire created by Napoleon I. It corresponded to the Regency style in Britain, the Biedermeier style in Germany and the Federal style in the United States.

Its design aesthetic was taken from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman Empire themes and motifs and was the second phase of neoclassicism with furniture using symbols and ornamentation drawn from those ancient periods.

Furniture was made from heavy hardwoods such as ebony and mahogany imported from the colonies. The dark finishes were complemented with decorative bronze mounts using Egyptian motifs such as sphinxes as well as classical elements such as urns, griffins, laurel wreaths and eagles. The Napoleonic symbols of the eagle, the bee and the initials ‘I’ and a large ‘N’ were also used.