It was during this reign that mahogany began to be extensively and almost exclusively used as a cabinet wood, in place of the walnut previously employed. Where walnut was still used, as in the case of chairs, it was generally gilded or enameled. The chair and the canape or sofa stand out as among the most successful achievements of the Louis XVI designers. Simple as to structural lines, their details were worked out with scrupulous care and, from fluted tapering legs to the carved frames inclosing the beautiful tapestry backs, they represent extreme elegance and consistency of style.
Toward the end of the reign of Louis XVI the quality of furniture design degenerated. Instead of charming adaptations and interpretations of the classic spirit, mechanical imitations of Greek and Roman forms appear, and heavy bronze caryatids overweigh and distort the outlines of cabinets and tables. Dull heaviness takes the place of elegance and the play of fertile invention. The decline had begun.
The new order, built on the overthrow of monarchical society and with no sympathy for delicacy and refinement, desired a setting free from the traditions of the past. The cabinetmakers, however, had only their training of the reign of Louis XVI, and this they could not transcend. For motives they had only their knowledge, or what they considered knowledge, of the antique. On this they endeavored to build a new style by direct adoption of classic forms. In chairs and couches they attempted to reproduce the actual shape used by the Greeks and Romans. Figures of caryatids and sphinxes take the place of simpler structural supports in tables and stands.
Ormolu was no longer employed in an architectural manner in which one decorative detail is set off against another in a play of rhythm and contrast; but was applied as single figures or small ornamental motives on a plain surface of mahogany. Oftentimes this ornament has so little relation to the space decorated that it could well be omitted without loss of real effectiveness. This enthusiasm for the antique passed through Egyptian, Greek, and Roman phases. Heavy and unimaginative as most of the Empire pieces seem, it can at least be said that they are more consistent and satisfying than the inharmonious mixture that characterized the furniture of the last year of Louis XVI. Many of the Empire chairs indeed are of real dignity and beauty of proportion. In some of these ormolu, introduced for the first time in chairs, was used in combination with polished mahogany; but in most cases the woodwork was sparingly carved with rosettes and enameled in white and gold. For the coverings, silk brocade and appliqué in the prevailing colors of yellow and red took the place of tapestry.