Facts About Antique furniture
Furniture has been a part of the human experience just the very beginning. Some of the world's oldest furniture - cupboards, beds and shelves made of stone - has been unearthed in Scotland's Skara Brae, a Neolithic village dating from 3100 BC. Early furniture has also been discovered in an 8th-century BC site in Turkey. Pieces excavated here include tables and inlaid serving stands. Ancient Egyptian tombs have yielded gilded beds. And excavations at Pompeii have revealed sofas, beds and dining tables, perfectly preserved in the ashes of the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius.
During the 17th century, European furniture became opulent, characterized by elaborate, often gilded Baroque designs. Starting in the 1800's, furniture designs began changing rapidly, often varying wildly from one country to the next, and from Europe to Asia to America.
In the mid-20th century, furniture entered its "modern" age, with simple, minimalist models made from such materials as plastic and fiberglass. Today, new developments in furniture design frequently stress the use of environmentally friendly materials.