At the outset, it is interesting to note that Queen Anne never designed a piece of furniture herself. Unlike reigning monarchs of the era, she had little or no interest in politics, and she left the day to day task of government to her trusted subordinates. Instead, she turned her attention to the arts.
Having great wealth and command at her disposal, she enlisted or commissioned artists and artisans of the time to engage themselves in her delight and fancy. One of her interests was in furniture. As we learned in the Introduction, she like many others had grown weary of the staid practical nature of existing furniture.
Moreover, with the Age of Enlightment and the resulting emergence of complex and elegant murals and tapestries decorating the walls of her palace and the homes of other nobility, there manifested a need for furniture to blend itself in with these surroundings.
Into this need stepped an able and willing fraternity of sorts who eventually became nobility themselves. Although in competition with each other, they soon realized there was more than enough work for everyone and that ideas borrowed from each other as well as their predecessors , dashed with a touch of originality, would translate itself into a unique design satisfying the tastes of their clients. Later, with the advent of mass production techniques, copies and imitations of the great designers works were soon to be found in homes all over Europe, and eventually around the world.
