Antiques.(English antiques)

... English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious

Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets, 1779-1781

The United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed as a nation in 1707 with the passage in Parliament of the Act of Union linking Scotland with England and Wales. From then until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 Great Britain was involved in a series of wars with France. Nonetheless, during that long century a sense of national identity was forged, aided by the fact that Britain was an island with the sea as its defense. Its people were not only unified under a Protestant ruler but also ready to take on the mission of spreading their beliefs among the heathen.

Despite its wars, Britain prospered mightily during the eighteenth century. Between 1720 and 1770 exports doubled in value, and agricultural and industrial production increased 60 percent. Colonial markets were the secret to this success, absorbing nearly four-fifths of Britain's exports by 1800. Living standards improved not only at the top but also among artisans and tradesmen. The country became distinguished in letters, music, and philosophy, and there were constant refinements in architecture, portraiture, cabinetmaking, and silversmithing. And Britons were urged to live both virtuously and aesthetically Jonathan Richardson, the propagandist for painting, in one of his Two Discourses (1719) entitled "An Argument in Behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur," called on his fellows to make Britain a worthy heir to Greece and Rome by cherishing "the dignity of their country and their profession."

Thanks to peace with France from 1713 to 1744, French fashions set the standard for grand English furnishings, helped by large numbers of foreign artists, especially Huguenot craftsmen working in London. The fanciful asymmetry of the ...