Regency Animal Skin Chaise Longues

Like France’s Empire style, Regency-style furniture was rooted in neoclassicism; the characteristics of its bedroom furniture, armchairs, dining room tables and other items include clean lines, angular shapes and elegant details.

Dating roughly from the 1790s to 1830s, antique Regency-style furniture gets its name from Prince George of Wales — formally King George IV — who became Prince Regent in 1811 after his father, George III, was declared unfit to rule. England’s Regency style is one of the styles represented in Georgian furniture.

George IV’s arts patronage significantly influenced the development of the Regency style, such as the architectural projects under John Nash, which included the renovation of Buckingham House into the formidable Buckingham Palace with a grand neoclassical facade. Celebrated designers of the period include Thomas Sheraton, Henry Holland and Thomas Hope. Like Nash, Hope instilled his work with classical influences, such as saber-legged chairs based on the ancient Greek klismos. He is credited with introducing the term “interior decoration” to English with the 1807 publishing of Household Furniture and Interior Decoration.

Although more subdued than previous styles like Rococo and Baroque, Regency interiors incorporated copious use of chintz fabrics and wallpaper adorned in chinoiserie-style art. Its furniture featured fine materials and luxurious embellishments. Furniture maker George Bullock, for instance, regularly used detailed wood marquetry and metal ornaments on his pieces.

Archaeological discoveries in Egypt and Greece informed Regency-era details, such as carved scrollwork, sphinxes and palmettes, as well as the shape of furniture. A Roman marble cinerary chest, for example, would be reinterpreted into a wooden cabinet. The Napoleonic Wars also inspired furniture, with martial designs like tented beds and camp-style chairs becoming popular. While the reddish-brown mahogany was prominent in this range of pieces, imported woods like zebrawood and ebony were increasingly in demand.

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

Sit back, relax and get all of the ergonomic support you could ever need by introducing an alluring antique or vintage chaise longue in your living room or by your outdoor fire pit.

The chaise longue is an upholstered piece of furniture that was made popular in France in the early 16th century. This low reclining seat — a “long chair” in English — boasts an elongated form and low back that extends about half the length of the furnishing, affording the welcome opportunity for a sitter to put their feet up and relax. A comfortable common ground between sofas and daybeds, early iterations of chaise longues were discovered in Ancient Egypt and were later frequently used in both Greece and Rome.

In the late 1700s, the first chaise longues were imported to America, and English speakers have struggled with the name ever since. (In the United States, the term is frequently spelled “chaise lounge.”) So, how do you pronounce chaise longue? It sounds like “shayz lawng,” but limiting it to shayz is perfectly acceptable in the States.

Antique Victorian chaise longues and 19th-century chaise longues bring luxury and perhaps extravagance to your living space while mid-century modern chaise longues, designed by the likes of Adrian Pearsall, Vladimir Kagan or Milo Baughman, can alter an interior with dazzling geometric contours and richly varied textures.

On 1stDibs, find many kinds of chaise longues for your home — from sculptural works by Charlotte Perriand to plush and velvety Louis XVI pieces to minimalist contemporary versions to suit your understated decor.