French Blue Opaline Portieux Valersthal

Removed from the fashions of the court, French Provincial style developed in the provinces of the country, such as Provence, Normandy, the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. Dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, French Provincial furniture was not as ostentatious as the designs being produced for the royal palaces, but elegant S-shape cabriole legs and ornate carvings elevated the sturdy chairs, sofas, tables and bedroom furniture intended for everyday use.

Although it varies by region, antique French Provincial furniture is unified by solid construction and an artisanal attention to design. While this furniture often followed the metropolitan trends — including the Rococo or neoclassical aesthetics of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI — since it was produced in the French countryside it was more subdued with nods to its rustic settings.

Local materials like fruitwoods, oak, beech and walnut were used to construct large French Provincial armoires for storage and comfortable armchairs with rush-woven seats. Wrought-iron elements and carvings like floral details and scallop patterns were common as ornamentation. Furniture was frequently painted white or other muted colors that coordinated with gilt and would acquire a patina of age over time. Other wood was just stained with vibrant fabric such as toile de Jouy, which sometimes depicted pastoral scenes, adding color as upholstery.

The style arrived in the United States after World War I, with soldiers returning home wanting furniture like what they had seen in the rural homes and castles of France. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, designer John Widdicomb split from his family business, the Widdicomb Furniture Company, and had been focusing on Louis XV– and French Provincial–style furnishings since the early 1900s. Other American manufacturers such as Baker, Drexel, Henredon and Thomasville also responded to demand. Today antique French Provincial pieces and reproductions continue to be popular.

Find a collection of antique French Provincial dining tables, seating, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.

Whether you’re seeking glass dinner plates, centerpieces, platters and serveware or other items to elevate the dining experience or brighten the corners of your living room, bedroom or other spaces by displaying decorative pieces, find an extraordinary range of antique, new and vintage glass on 1stDibs.

Glassmaking is more than 4,000 years old. It is believed to have originated in Northern Mesopotamia, where carved glass objects were the result of a series of experiments led by potters or metalworkers. From there, the production of glass vases, bottles and other objects proliferated in Egypt under the reign of Thutmose III. Later, new glassmaking techniques took shape during the Hellenistic era, and glassblowing was invented in contemporary Israel. Then, on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy, modern art glass as we know it came to be.

Over the years, collectors of glass decorative objects or serveware have sought out distinctive antique and vintage pieces of the mid-century modern, Art Deco and Art Nouveau eras, with artisans such as Archimede Seguso, René Lalique and Émile Gallé of particular interest for the pioneering contributions they made to the respective styles in which they worked. Today, long-standing glassworks such as Barovier&Toso carry on the Venetian glasswork tradition, while modern furniture designers and sculptors such as Christophe Côme and Jeff Zimmerman elsewhere test the limits of the radical art form that is glassmaking.

From chandeliers to Luminarc stemware, find a collection of antique, new and vintage glass on 1stDibs.