Federal furniture is the sleeping beauty of the American furniture market. Fine-boned and slender, its clean, neoclassical lines and rich veneered surfaces date from one of the most seminal eras of American history (1790–1810) yet it is often passed over in favor of more "Colonial" styles, like Queen Anne and Chippendale. These pricey predecessors may be more familiar, but Federal furniture is the market sleeper, at prices starting around $1,500.
In the late 18th century, America had triumphantly separated itself from Great Britain, but its cabinetmakers were still ardently attached. London was the capital of the style world, and Americans of means demanded the same fashion-forward furniture that graced the drawing rooms of Mayfair.
By the 1770s, British style mavens had jettisoned the rococo curves of Thomas Chippendale in favor of ovals, swags, and classical forms championed by architect/designer Robert Adam (1728–1792). His influential neoclassicism was echoed in the leading design books of the period—George Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788) and Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book (1791–94). British patrons clamored for their rectilinear shapes, tapered legs, shield and lyre backs, and inlaid classical motifs. As soon as these bibles of style crossed the pond, Americans did likewise.
Cabinetmakers in Salem, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Boston; New York; Philadelphia; and Baltimore answered the call. During the Federal period (which takes its name from the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1787) these towns became the nation’s leading furniture-making centers, each with its own style, reflecting local materials, the talents of local artisans, and the interests of their clientele. All were riffs on the Hepplewhite/Sheraton design canon. Shapes were simple, geometric, and perfectly proportioned. Legs were slim and often reeded. Surfaces were mainly flat, enlivened with book-matched veneers of rich, imported mahogany and decorative inlays of lighter, contrasting woods like birch, boxwood, and bird’s-eye maple from America’s forests. To the inlaid urns, medallions, festoons, stringing, and banding mandated by Adam, Americans added their own imagery, including the proud American eagle.
A growing American population supported the production of a wide variety of new forms, including worktables, cylinder desks, and specialized dining furniture. Separate dining rooms—a new development—mandated the creation of America’s first sideboards, as well as sectional dining tables, with leaves that could be added or subtracted. All could be produced in quantity. Improved tools and production techniques allowed leading makers like Duncan Phyfe of New York (1768–1854) to run mini-factories employing dozens of workers and turning out large amounts of furniture.