History of Antique Furniture

Very early humans were nomads, moving from location to location, and survived from only what nature provided. Furniture to them was no more than a log to sit on. As they learned to cultivate the soil, much of their survival hunting activities ceased and their need for community work grew. They established homes (very crude by today's standards) beside their cultivated land -- simple huts of wood and reed, perhaps daubed with clay or mud, and later of stone and baked clay bricks.

It was this "home" and community gathering (civilization) that created the need for furniture.   The earliest furniture was understandably very primitive and only practical, but gradually the furniture also began to have more importance and it became decorated. At this point, furniture became an early status symbol. Wealthy homeowners became more refined and demanded that their furnishings reflect their status and lifestyles.

By the time of ancient Greeks and Romans, furniture began to take on the shape and style of pieces we still see today: stools, footstools, easy-chairs, forms of the chaise lounge, tables with one to four legs, beds and cabinets and chests.   Before 1600, only the master and mistress of the house used chairs, while others were required to sit on stools or benches, or low chests, which doubled as seats.