American furniture refers to the furniture produced in the United States from 1620 when British Puritans established colonies in North America to the modern period of the 20th century, including classical style and modern furniture.

Modern American furniture (or American furniture) is the abbreviation of modern American classical style furniture, which refers to the modeling style formed after the improvement of European classical style furniture before the United States 1880. On the basis of traditional American furniture modeling, modern production methods are adopted to produce furniture products that meet the needs of the American furniture market, including furniture produced by furniture enterprises in the United States and other countries and regions in the world. It is rooted in European culture, abandons the novelty and glitz pursued by Baroque and Rococo styles, is based on a new understanding of classicism, emphasizes concise lines and elegant decoration, and is based on the lifestyle brought by immigrants from various countries in the late European Renaissance.

Modern American furniture emphasizes comfort, fashion, practicality and multifunction. The product style is influenced by European and American historical background, culture and art, production technology and living habits, forming its unique European and American customs and tastes. Its main characteristics are retro and returning to nature, which fully shows the characteristics of wood and integrates the psychological needs of human yearning for nature and returning to nature; In particular, the damage treatment before painting and the old treatment in painting reflect a special trace honed by years, and "deliberately" emphasizes the sense of historical inheritance and inheritance.

Unique American painting is a prominent feature of modern American furniture decoration, which refers to the furniture painting technology suitable for use and popularization in Europe and America. Almost all the paints used in painting are nitrocellulose lacquer (NC) series products. American painting process requires not only strict quality control, but also strict production procedures. It is a meticulous and high-tech painting process, and the transparent coloring operation is precise and strict, which requires a clear and three-dimensional effect, especially the old treatments such as "cloth printing", "oxtail mark" and "flying point" in painting, which are not available in European furniture. The color is mainly monochrome, simple and natural, fresh and elegant, which is different from European gold lacquer and silver lacquer.

3)19th century American furniture

Although it can't be exactly named that period, a more formal American furniture style than colonial and early American furniture has developed, which is the famous "19th century American furniture". This style is also considered as American traditional furniture, which is essentially American colonial retro style. In the history of American furniture, it is defined as 1830-1880, also known as Victorian furniture.

Furniture).

The birth of colonial retro style transcended thoughts and ideals, and independence, freedom and democracy were the main ideological components of colonial period. The first colonial retro abandoned the basic skills of foreign design and absorbed a lot of this idea. The original proportion or content has been ignored or replaced by popular types. However, Zipintel and other styles have lost their British flavor and become not only American but also Victorian, with blurred boundaries and ignored differences.

As a fashion, colonial retro style shows certain colonial significance. It indiscriminately includes and idealizes all aspects of material culture in the colonial period. For the first time, natural rural furniture is more related to the ideal rural life than the hard life, and it has also been upgraded to a level that surprises the initial users. Whether they are expensive, professionally made or homemade, they are worshipped by the upper class and Victorian people.

Famous craftsmen and designers, such as john goddard and William Saville.

Savory) produces well-designed furniture, in which the styles of Britain and France are modified, and many furniture are produced in England and Philadelphia; Duncan Fife's furniture can also be regarded as19th century American furniture.

/kloc-the rest of American furniture in the 0/9th century was modified from the British and French classical styles such as Queen Anna style and Zbintel style, especially the imperial style, which was greatly modified in American production. These styles of furniture are often simplified according to the tastes of the colonies at that time, and typical designs such as "Newport Shell" (Newport

Shell) style is completely American furniture style.

4) trembling teaches American furniture

"Shakers" originally originated from1at the beginning of the 8th century. A small group of French Protestants were persecuted and left France to seek religious freedom in Britain. When they arrived in Manchester on 1847, they met and joined another small extreme British religious organization called Quakes. Then, they accepted other dissidents to join them-some Christians from the Anglican Church and Methodist Church. This new organization is called "Shakes" because they advocate physical exercise during prayer.

Quakers.

At first glance, the furniture of thriller school is country furniture that originated in the early world of18th century and19th. However, a careful look at the design and technology of furniture is by no means ordinary, which seems to reflect their moral attitude. Pure form reflects their desire for pure thought and spirit. Simple and innocent, exciting, but beyond these spirits, the visual and material aspects are more complicated, and the artistic principles can be compared with Japanese Buddhism.

Trembling furniture is widely influenced by other similar local furniture. The pattern books published in Sheraton and Hepwhite are followed by people imitating the styles of major cities; However, regional expression is a mixture of personal expression, simplified form and local materials. One explanation for the durability of Shaker furniture is that the basic design principles came from1classical architecture and design books in the late 8th century, that is, the principles of balance, hierarchy, pattern proportion and overall proportion were applied.

5) American Mission Furniture

Delegation furniture (delegation

Furniture) is a style produced by American arts and crafts movement in furniture design. Stukeley is an outstanding representative of American arts and crafts movement in furniture design.

Stickley, 1857- 1942), his style is based on the style of British arts and crafts movement, but it adopts a strong straight line, and the furniture itself is more concise and practical, which is the product of the combination of American pragmatism and British design thought.

Stukeley's mission furniture is a kind of solid and heavy furniture mainly made of oak, which is suitable for machining. Stukeley advocated "simple lifestyle" under the influence of vibration and the furniture style of vibration education, and made furniture through mass sales and mass production technology, which was successful in the market.

Stukeley's furniture is designed to be durable, well-proportioned, well-made, and the materials and tools used are as good as possible, so it is very popular in America.

6) the development of modern American furniture

American traditional furniture, which has been developing continuously since18th century, is a work that combines various great achievements, but has no specific style. Today's traditional American furniture is more magnificent than that of that year, with the original flavor of colonial and early American furniture. It combines the traditional styles of Britain and France (such as Chipintall style and the style of the first French Empire) and becomes a unique American classical style furniture (referred to as American furniture or modern American furniture).

6- 1) In terms of structure and process design technology, modern American furniture has also been greatly improved and innovated on the basis of tradition, which is very noteworthy: ① Modern American furniture is basically made of solid wood, and the modern wood drying technology and the control technology of balanced moisture content of wood during processing are adopted to control the moisture content of wood, so as to make it dimensionally stable, non-deformed and non-cracked. (2) Coating technology, modern American furniture coating technology makes the furniture surface deep and layered, or the so-called old-fashioned technology makes the furniture surface feel vicissitudes, closer to nature and closer to the consumer psychology of returning to nature. (3) The structure is improved to make it adapt to modern hardware and have good strength; It is easy to improve the quality and reduce the price by using modern new materials and prefabricated parts. ④ Modern American furniture has realized the modern production mode, especially the assembly line operation in the finishing process; And there is a trend of specialized production in factories.

6-2) From the modeling design, it is mainly based on the French Louis style (Louis X, Louis X, Louis X, namely Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassicism), the British Queen Anna style, the Pintel style and the mission style of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, which can be attributed to Rococo style, and absorbs the excellent design principles of thriller furniture, plus the modern designers'. At the same time, it is also influenced by German, Italian, Spanish and oriental furniture. This design has a modern appearance, and it is also convenient for modern machining and the application of modern materials.

6-3) From the design guiding ideology, another outstanding feature of modern American furniture is to pay attention to the function of furniture, and take this as a starting point to emphasize scientific and reasonable principles in design; Adopting a large number of new materials, new technologies and new processes, giving full play to the performance characteristics of furniture structure, giving up too much additional decoration, introducing assembly line operation in production mode, standardizing parts and interfaces, and emphasizing the principle of economy in design, in order to minimize costs, realize the social function of real art and serve the public life, is a model of combining art with technology.

Four. conclusion

Modern American furniture occupies a place in the contemporary development process of world furniture with its unique style, which is worth pondering.

1) From the perspective of historical development

Modern American furniture is essentially an excellent student of European classical style furniture, which absorbs European classical decoration and modeling elements and combines with immigrant culture to improve it. Modern American furniture has replaced the traditional European furniture concept with its new concept of paying more attention to function and practicality, and has always been in the leading position of contemporary classical style furniture.

2) From an artistic point of view

Influenced by Europe and America, historical background, social customs, culture and art, modern American furniture inherits the artistic characteristics of the Renaissance and is constantly updated, with the natural beauty of wood as the main tone, showing three characteristics: antique making old, natural harmony and returning to nature.

3) From the perspective of style and modeling.

The improvement of modern American furniture on the basis of British and French classical furniture styles conforms to the characteristics of American immigrant culture and life. American immigrant culture is constantly migrating, so they don't pay much attention to the exquisite workmanship of furniture, and there is no need to use overly exquisite furniture. Another important improvement is the volume and size of furniture. American classical style furniture has a large volume and a corresponding increase in size, which is also related to the tall and obese posture of modern Americans. On the other hand, the living space of Americans is generally large, so it is also suitable for this kind of bulky furniture.

4) From the guiding ideology.

Modern American furniture is the practice of Morris's industrial design principle, the father of modern arts and crafts movement; From the design concept, it embodies modernism represented by machines, namely functionalism and rationalism; The former is a philosophical trend of thought that has lasted for more than 200 years in Europe and appeared as early as18th century. Its basic content is to emphasize the decisive role of function in form, and the aesthetic value or practical value of a product depends on its applicability to its purpose. Rationalism, on the other hand, replaces sensibility and impulsiveness with rigorous logical rational thinking, minimizes the exposure of personality and personal consciousness in design, and replaces it with scientific and objective analysis, thus improving the efficiency and economy of products.

In essence, the design and formation of modern American furniture is the product of a pragmatic modern design idea, which is the deep root of promoting the popularity of modern American furniture.