Colonial Furniture free essay sample

Early Amer. styles (Chippendale, Queen Anne, blockfront), materials, consumer needs, British influence, paint, carvings. Most colonial furniture was the product of the settlers practical need for the basics of existence. On their arrival the first colonists had to cope with the problems of survival and the difficulties of the voyage had allowed them to bring very few of their possessions along. At first they were unable to concern themselves with any but the most basic uses of time and precious human resources and furniture makers skills were needed elsewhere. But they did carry with them their deeply embedded habits, customs and tastes and the old forms and the tools needed to make them were reproduced virtually unchanged and persisted long after they had been abandoned back home and were to be the basis of new, specifically American versions of European furniture styles. Within the broad field of colonial furniture styles it is possible to select a few topics that