EGYPTIAN FURNITURE: 1925.

The survival of many of the best

examples was helped by the dry climate
and sealed underground tombs.

ANCIENT AND REVIVALS Thanks to this,there are nearly 1,000

fragments of furniture in 73 museums
worldwide, according to Geoffrey
How do they relate to each other? Killen.A third of these are found in the
UK though the best examples from
the Hetepheres (2500 BC), Yuia &
James Goodwin Thuiu (1200 BC) and Tutankhamun
(1500 BC) collections remain in their
home country.
The enduring qualities and, as far as
oncerning Egypt itself I shall earliest artistic creations, Egyptian- In fact, interest in Egyptian objects
‘
C extend my remarks to a great
length, because there is no country
styled art continues to capture the
collector’s imagination as Forbes
was first recorded during Rome’s
Republic which was later resurrected by
we know, originality of ancient Egyptian
furniture are unparalleled. Egyptian
furniture was exported and given in
that possesses so many wonders, nor magazine pointed out six years ago in Octavian’s naval victory over Cleopatra tribute to foreign dignitaries as well as
any that has such a number of works an article ‘The revival that won’t die’. at Actium in 30 BC and enhanced by serving as the model for other ancient
which defy description’ wrote Alongside this fascination is a belief the collecting habits of Emperor cultures and furniture makers today.
Herodotus, the so-called ‘Father of that ancient Egyptian civilisation is Hadrian in AD 117-138. Added to this, In practical terms, necessitated by a
History’, in 484-425 BC. central to the development of much there was an increasing amount of shortage of domestic timber, the
Four thousand years on from their Western art and architecture. allusion to Egypt in Roman art. Egyptians invented many wood-
Moreover, since the Middle Ages working tools (4000-1500 BC), joints
there have been over five revivals and (2000-1750 BC), dowels (2700 BC), Folding stool with ducks’ heads, richly inlaid with ivory and ebony, with leather-covered
re-revivals of varying magnitude, veneer (3000 BC), inlay (2600 BC), seat. (Deir el-Medina,Tomb of Kha, Schiaparelli excavations, 1906; Museo Egizio,Turin)
length and interpretation, according to glue (2400 BC), gesso (1500 BC),
James Curl. All of which makes varnish (1500 BC) and plywood (2700
interpretation of the influence of the BC), as well as weaving and dyeing (2400 BC), types of stool and chairs Egyptian furniture or even applying its
originals that much more difficult for (1300 BC). In the design of furniture, (2700 BC), cushions (1500 BC) and ornament to modern purposes.
art historians. during the Middle Kingdom (2000 games boards (1500 BC). However, as the 19th century
So to what extent would Egyptian BC) they developed a drawing Owing to these archaeological progressed credibility became the
revival furniture be recognisable to the technique familiar to artists today based discoveries it was not until the last 150 overriding aim. According to Jean-
ancient Egyptians? on a grid system where the human years that any designs were faithfully Marcel Humbert, Curator of the
For the purpose of simplicity, figure was broken down into measured reproduced from the originals. Louvre, even the sphinxes, not found
Egyptian furniture revivals may best be parts. With these skills the following Hitherto, many designers, even those on ancient Egyptian furniture, became
divided into (a) exact copies of the types of furniture were developed: beds who were collectors of antiquities, had more like the originals. Significantly,
originals, (b) derivations and designs (3000 BC), boxes (3000 BC), tables acknowledged the difficulty of adapting those that did reproduce the originals
based on Egyptian architecture, and (c)
symbolism. In practice, the last of these
amounted to no more than the
addition of a crocodile, sphinx,
pharaonic head or winged disc added
to an article of conventional form
which could be substituted with
Greek or other motifs, according to
Patrick Conner. The aim was
exoticism with eclecticism.Thousands
of armchairs, commodes and furniture
of all kinds all over the world have
been decorated with these figures from
Louis XVI to the present.
Fundamentally, most of the furniture
discoveries date from the mid rather
than the early 19th century when
Egyptian revivals reached their peak.
Notable Egyptian furniture finds were
at Deir el Bahri from the 1860s,Saqqara
An Egyptian treasurer, Meru, sits on a seat with lions’ feet on tall truncated conical bases; from 1884, Tel al Amarna from 1887,
the seat has a low back, over which is draped a cushion.The frame ends in lotus flowers; Naqada from 1895, Nag el Deir from A more common item of domestic furniture is the stool with lattice This type of three-legged stool is especially common in representations
there are traces of black on it, indicating that the wood employed was ebony. 11th Dynasty, 1901, Deir el Medina from 1905,Valley support, with seat of plaited herringbone-style cords. (Deir el-Medina, of workshops, being highly practical as a work seat. (Schiaparelli
Abydos, Drovetti Collection. of the Kings from 1922 and Giza from Tomb of Kha, Schiaparelli excavations, 1906; Museo Egizio,Turin) excavations, 1906; Museo Egizio,Turin)

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 in his bid to promote the Gothic style, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. A The finest example of a three-legged
taught that only medieval furniture reproduction can be seen at the Royal stool was found in the tomb of
was based upon principles of sound Pavilion, Brighton. Tutankhamun, and is now housed in
construction. Christopher Dresser According to Killen, the first Egyptian the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. In this
responded in his 1873 book ‘Principles example of a three-legged stool was example, the seat is pierced and finely
of Decorative Design’, drawing the discovered much earlier at a grave in carved on both faces to represent two
conclusion that pleasing line and Tarkhan (2600 BC). By the time of the lions bound head to tail by their feet.
quality of material as well as con- New Kingdom (1500 BC) the greater Between the brace and the seat is the
struction were important. Several of affluence of craftsmen led to them sitting characteristic openwork motif repre-
Dresser’s designs are based on Egyptian on these stools rather than squatting.To senting the union of Upper and Lower
prototypes, including a mahogany sofa increase comfort, the stool seat was Egypt.
with leather seat and back, strength- dished with the front edge straight and During Hellenistic times (332-330
ened with ties to the cross rails the back fashioned into a rounded form AD), the three-legged stools evolved
between the legs and decorated with with three square mortice holes to into tables which, in rectangular form,
uraeus (snake) friezes. Dresser also accommodate the leg tenons. This type had played a religious role since the
produced cast iron armchairs decor- of construction led Nancy Goyne Archaic Period (3100-2686 BC). In
ated with papyrus.In 1878 Batley went Evans, in the 1979 edition of the 1876, E.W. Godwin developed a table
further by designing a dining-room Furniture History Society Journal, to based on the four-legged stool which
plan derived directly from the wall observe a similarity to Windsor chair was also sold in large numbers. Better
Round-legged stool, c.1540-1295 BC. (British Museum, BM Thebes stool in mahogany with velvet mohair seat, Liberty & Co, ornamentation of tombs and mastabas. design of the early 18th century. known for his Anglo-Japanese designs,
EA 2472. Photograph courtesy of Lorraine March-Killen) c.1885.This stool has been attributed to Christopher Dresser and Furniture derived from originals
was advertised by the Art Furnishers Alliance. When that formed the indispensable complement
company failed in 1883, the design was taken and patented by to the decor.
Liberty’s. (Courtesy Liberty’s) Drawing on these designs, the
Liberty Furnishing and Decorating
Studio began, in 1884, to manufacture
found their designs mass-produced. later. Moreover, he appears to have Decorated with seven inlaid lotuses patented ‘Thebes’ stools (and chairs)
In the 1870s, helped by the opening been the first designer to realise the derived from a different stool, the based upon surviving Egyptian
of the Suez Canal in 1869, the value of creative possibilities of imitating the addition of a back was the only furniture in the British Museum.
the furniture trade in Egypt was the construction of Egyptian furniture. innovation on the original. A pair of These stools with four round legs were
highest in Africa which was second Hunt had travelled to Egypt in 1854 as these chairs made by J.G. Crace of developed in Egypt during the 18th
only to Europe, according to Edward a painter and had said that ‘in London in 1856 in walnut, sycamore, Dynasty (1500 BC) and were directly
Joy.The industrially-inspired period to furnishing my new house (in Fulham) ivory, ebony and cane can be found in influenced by the simple stool with
follow was described by Christiane I was determined, as far as possible, to the Birmingham Museum and one shaped legs of the Middle Kingdom.
Ziegler of the Louvre as the democ- eschew the vulgar furniture of the day was later depicted in a Sir John Everett Whether the legs were made by
ratisation of Egyptomania. … and the designing of the chair based Millais painting. Soon other members primitive lathe or by hand carving,
Holman Hunt seems to have been on the character of an Egyptian stool of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood filing and rubbing with sandstone is
the first designer to create a chair based in the British Museum, was to serve as had Egyptianising furniture made. disputed. Fine examples of the
upon an original: the four-legged a permanent piece of beautiful Equally the style was not without its originals can also be found at the
Thebes stool sold by Liberty’s 30 years furniture.’ detractors. In the 1860s,A.W.N. Pugin, University Museum, Manchester,
Metropolitan Museum, New York and
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
According to David Beevers, they
are perhaps the most familiar ex-
pression of Victorian Egyptian taste.
They were mass-produced until 1919
in walnut, oak and mahogany with
leather or rosewood straps and are
occasionally sold today. In October
2005, the Antiques Trade Gazette
recorded the sale of a Liberty’s stool in
walnut at Winterton’s auction house,
Derbyshire for £1,500. Usually their
prices range from £400 to £2,000.
Another ‘Thebes’ stool manufactured
by Liberty’s, but with three curved legs,
was copied from an original dating from
the Middle Kingdom and now in the
Salt Collection at the British Museum. An ‘Egyptian’ design from George Smith’s book of 1808. A painted and parcel-gilt
Other original examples can be seen at armchair with lion head terminals, a Medusa mask flanked by scrolls, caned sides and lion
‘Egyptian’ designs for three open back armchairs by George Smith, 1808. University College, London and the monopodia front and back.

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his drawings also included copies of
ancient Egyptian furniture, especially
the lattice bracing on stools which was
so popular during the New Kingdom.
This bracing added to the stool’s load-
bearing capabilities. It should be noted
that Godwin was not interested in
direct reproductions, preferring ‘a
modern treatment of certain well
known and admired styles’.
Most of Godwin’s designs were
produced commercially by William Right. Armchair,
Watt and Collinson & Lock and painted black and
marketed by Art Furnishers Alliance in gold with bronzed
Bond Street. Today examples can be and gilded
found in the V&A, while ancient ornament, from the
versions can be seen at the Brooklyn ‘Egyptian’ Room at
Museum, New York, Medelhavs- Duchess Street,
illustrated in
museet, Stockholm and the Egyptian Household
museums in Turin and Cairo. Furniture.
A folding stool made in 1880 in
mahogany with ebony and ivory inlay
and illustrated in Gardner Wilkinson’s Below. Mahogany
The manners and customs of the ancient desk with carved
Egyptians in 1837 was another replica ‘Egyptian’ and
of ancient Egyptian furniture. The philosophers’ heads,
folding stool which originated during made by Thomas
Chippendale the
the Middle Kingdom was popular Younger for the
because it was light and easily stored library at Stourhead
but rigid when used. By the New in 1805, costing
Kingdom it had become a fashionable £115.
Grand Egyptian Hall from Gaetano Landi’s Architectural Decorations, 1810, illustrating many of the Egyptian ornamental motifs
popular for decorative details on furniture.

piece of furniture depicted in many of manufacture. The pure lines of the While under Napoleon it was arguably
wall reliefs. The most common originals were surprisingly consistent manipulated to support a more sinister
characteristic is that the terminals with the new aesthetic and lent revolutionary ideology.
connecting spindles and rails are themselves to the Art Deco idiom. Today, as price records for two
finished with goose heads and Amidst all this Egyptomania, it is Egyptian statues were surpassed in one
decorated with ivory inlaid isosceles worth offering a few words of wisdom auction at Christie’s New York last
triangles to imitate feathers. Three regarding their revivals, courtesy of the December, London awaits the
folding stools were found in German art historian, Wilhelm ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of
Tutankhamun’s tomb, and it was Worringer writing in the late 1920s. the Pharaohs’ exhibition in November
observed that the pharoah’s throne He argued that the highly stylised and 2007 (currently touring the USA) and
chair is very similar in design. conservative character of ancient the world anticipates the Great
In the first part of the 20th century Egyptian art satisfied deep psycho- Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 2010,
faithful replicas of recently discovered logical needs and that in periods of Egyptian furniture may again be due
Egyptian originals continued to be uncertainty people rekindled the need for a revival.The last major revival was
made, principally armchairs and for its abstract forms to counteract in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
couches. The furniture discovered in alienation. For example, in the mid- Depending on your psychological
the tomb of Yuia & Thuiu in 1905 was 19th century Egypt had been used as a stance, the next revival may be a
copied almost immediately and standard of reference: it was the land of welcome ray of sun brightening any
continued to be made even after the wisdom and justice, whose values were dark clouds ahead.
large quantities of furniture were to be infused into police stations,
found in the 1922 discovery of prisons and court houses. In James Goodwin, MA, MBA writes and
Tutankhamun’s tomb. The replication commerce, Egyptianising references lectures on ancient furniture and the art
was so extensive that it was sometimes were used to highlight the solidity, market, based at Maastricht University,The
difficult to identify the date and place permanence and quality of products. Netherlands.

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