French and Country Furniture Canada

The history of French Furniture Canada goes right back to the early settlers. In recent years the search for authentic and original pieces of the pre-industrial period has brought high prices to the furnishing market and an evolving industry of modern reproductions of the classic French Canadian types: for example, the diamond-point armoire; the two-door, the os de mouton armchair; two-drawer buffet bas; and the three-drawer commode. This recent trend has been established as a tribute to the past and a recognition long forgotten that our heritage is an essential aspect of any inquiry into origins and aesthetic values.


Two common Canadian chair forms are the Île d' Orléans type, of tenonand mortise construction, and the more sophisticated armchair à la capucine, which has baluster, cube and ring turnings to feet, stretchers and uprights, a ladder-back of shaped horizontal cross-pieces, and a seat of rush, marsh grass usually woven in a diamond pattern. Commonly perceived to have been bloomed in the straw-bottom chair found in the both rich and poor dwellings in France as all-purpose utility seating, the Canadiancapucine is a unique piece in terms of its elaborate turnings, and the charming finials on the back posts. Simultaneously the French straw-bottom chair gave rise to a variety of simple habitant side chairs constructed with rounded stretchers inserted through the uprights and plank or open-weave leather or gut seats. The American rocking chair also influenced many folk versions of the type, among them the most famous double rocker that amusingly makes concrete the courting rituals of the cavalier et sa blonde.


In studies of antiques or material art and form history, Canadian country styles are compared with stylized or formal furniture. It’s all about perception! What one person calls country and admires perhaps for its decorative details or painted finish, another may take as crude and primitive. Mostly people conceive formal furniture to be constructed of finer and solid hardwoods (eg, walnut, cherry, and mahogany) and country furniture of soft wood (pine), a better understanding of the difference between country and formal furniture goes beyond basic construction methods and techniques, forcing taking into account other factors, including where and when the furniture was produced.


Country Furniture is probably best understood as products produced similar to the mainstream of influences or period trends (eg, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton), using local materials and influenced by the limitations of the simple utilitarian techniques such as cabinetmakers tool chest, imagination and level of workmanship. Country furniture encompasses all types included in formal furniture (eg, tables, chairs, cupboards, chests) as well as additional forms.