Virginia furniture

Virginia furniture is furniture that originates from the US state of Virginia. Furniture was first produced in Virginia during the Colonial period and continued through the Industrial Revolution. Furniture production has decreased in recent times due to imported furniture but Virginia is still home to a few large furniture companies.

In colonial Virginia, there were at least six furniture makers.Anthony Hay made furniture in Colonial Williamsburg As the colony grew, other furniture makers developed in cities such as Norfolk, Fredericksburg, Alexandria and Petersburg.In Fredericksburg alone, more than a dozen manufacturers made European style furniture in facilities owned by cabinetmakers such as Robert and Alexander Walker, James Allen and Thomas Miller. Many of these early cabinetmakers also worked at house joinery.

Across the South, furniture making flourished and Virginia was no exception. During the early part of the century, most historians thought that furniture making was centered on larger Northern cities like Philadelphia and New York. But in recent years, scholars and Virginia historians have come to understand that in early colonial and Federal years, the state had a more vibrant furniture industry than first imagined. Styles included Chippendale, Queen Anne and vernacular styles. As Virginia citizens emigrated west in the 19th century, Virginia stylists and furniture makers took their patterns and styles with them. Not all the styles mimicked the British; emigrants like the German Johannes Spitler brought their native painting and folk decorative styles to the Shenandoah Valley.

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