Abstract:
It has been accepted that Charles Locke Eastlake through his book, Hints on Household
Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details influenced the manufacture of
furniture in the late nineteenth century. The immense success of the book in the United
States led to a furniture style being called “Eastlake” in the 1870s. Beginning in the
twentieth century, the name “Eastlake” was used by historians to describe almost any
manufacture of furniture between 1870 and 1890, but the Eastlake style as defined by
authors, critics and commentators at the time was very narrowly defined in the 1870s. At
that time, the Eastlake style was known and understood as synonymous with the modern
Gothic aesthetic, influenced by English Gothic architecture and furniture from the
mediaeval era.
The Eastlake style of furniture in America was but one of many different styles
that rose and fell in popularity between 1870 and 1890. The different styles were all part
of the burgeoning “art furniture” movement rooted in the teachings of English architect, A.W.N. Pugin and philosopher, John Ruskin, who, in the nineteenth century, preached
that furniture must be honestly and properly constructed in combination with a pleasing
design. Charles Eastlake promoted the cause of artistic furniture in his book. In the late
1870s, the discussion of art and artistic manufacture was taken up in the guise of the
Aesthetic Movement in England. As the 1870s neared a close, the Eastlake style declined,
but in its stead another style arose linked in some ways to the Eastlake style, but
incorporating influences from a far different aesthetic. The so-called Queen Anne revival
style arose in the mid-1870s and remained popular into the mid-1880s. Its forms and
ornament were based on a wide range of characteristics from architecture and furniture of
the Jacobean seventeenth century to the Georgian and neo-classical styles of the early
nineteenth century.
Largely forgotten in design histories in America, the American Queen
Anne revival style of furniture was very eclectic and encompassed a wide variety of
interpretations in the all-encompassing style. Its one defining characteristic was the use of
spindles and spindle balustrades in furniture. Spindles, widely associated today with
Eastlake furniture, were not found on the mediaeval inspired forms of the early to mid-
1870s in the United States. Both American styles were influenced by British architecture
and furniture through many avenues including trade journals, design publications and
international exhibitions during the nineteenth century. This study will show that the
American Eastlake style and Queen Anne revival style in furniture were distinct and
separate aesthetics in the late nineteenth century in the context of the rise of art furniture
and a multitude of other furniture styles.