Question- what’s the difference between ‘George III’ and ‘Georgian style’? In the antiques trade, the short answer is, about a century and many thousands of dollars.
I say this, apropos of looking at our web placement, something critical in this age of internet marketing, and reviewing the, shall we say, interesting free-from manner in which some other dealers are describing their goods. It occurred to me that it might be worthwhile to proffer some definitions that make some sense to my small cadre of readers, making it a bit easier for them to become thereby informed, and consequently, wary buyers. Mind you, this will hardly be exhaustive, but will function as the briefest of primers, followed on in due course by additional entries on the subject as they occur to me, and I have time to pen them.
First, a piece of furniture marked ‘George III’ on the price card should have been made in Great Britain between the years 1760, George III’s accession to the throne, and 1800. Although George III was king for another 20 years, the madness for which he’s famous overtook him through the remainder of his reign, with his son the Prince of Wales ruling in his stead, made official by the prince’s appointment as George III’s regent in 1811. Consequently, most pieces produced between 1800 and 1820, with the hegemony of the Prince of Wales as Regent, are generally termed ‘Regency.’
What you’ve just read functions, in a nutshell, to describe how decorative arts are generally descriptively dated. The reigning monarch is generally given shorthand credit for the era in which he reigns- naturally enough. Whether or not he wishes to be a style maker, he perforce is- kings live in palaces, and the best of everything, including decorative arts, are produced for palaces. And anyone of substance, even if they express republican sympathies otherwise, wants to ape the style of life lived by a king.
Some heads of state do have, however, a greater impact on taste than others. For instance, the fore mentioned Prince of Wales maintained his own household for decades before his official hegemony. He considered himself a style setter and spent lavish amounts of money to so seem- witness Carlton House and the Brighton Pavilion. Consequently, though the period of the Regency lasted a fairly short period of historic time- from 1811 through 1820- the stylistic impact of the Prince of Wales over shone all of the later years of George III’s reign.
We’ll discuss more about this in later blog entries, working backward through the 18th century, into the late 17th century.
What’s crucial to remember, however, is that, in the antiques trade, ‘Georgian style’ does not mean the piece is 18th century in manufacture. In fact, it could be brand new. The 18th century in Great Britain generally saw the nation’s emergence as a world power, and far and away the wealthiest nation, with the wealthiest population, on earth. The iconic names in furniture design and manufacture- Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Gillow, to name three out of at least one hundred- achieved an influence that survives in robust health to this day. Consequently, what was original design in the 18th century has been reprised and reprised again. A Georgian style piece can still be old. There was a wave of Chippendale revivalism in Britain and America beginning in the 1880’s, with vast quantities of mahogany furniture decorating late Victorian parlors on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s the problem, however- ‘vast quantities’ of Victorian material, produced fairly cheaply with machine, as opposed to hand, labor, survive as opposed to very little 18th century material, produced to what were then new designs.
Does any of this sound familiar? It might, as some of these points were discussed in an article about Thomas Chippendale and the enduring influence of Chippendale style. Click on this link to read more.
So, if something is of George III appearance but was made in the late 19th century, what shall we call it? ‘George III style’ is what it should be called. Can it be called a period antique? If you define antique as anything over 100 years, then, sure, it can be so called. Can it be called ‘period’? If it is produced in the reign of Queen Victoria and it is labeled ‘Victorian’, then, with the definition we’ve developed using George III and the Prince of Wales as our trope, I’d say sure. But let’s achieve greater precision, and diminish the room for misunderstanding by including another term to distinguish a George III style article, or anything in an earlier period style, that was produced during Victoria’s reign. There is a term for that, too- ‘period reproduction.’