During Austen's day, in the decades that followed the American and French revolutions, a bitter enmity between England and France continued. After a series of military triumphs established his supremacy throughout Europe and Egypt, Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed himself emp eror of France in 1804. At the same time, King George III of England fell victim to madness, which necessitated the transfer of power to his son George, Prince of Wales, in 1811. Son George was no military man.

With Britain's legendary navy in force, the Napoleonic Wars had little effect on the Prince Regent's freewheeling lifestyle, which some termed dissolute. "George was a free spender, a man who couldn't make up his mind about anything," says Clinton Howell, a New York dealer in English antiques. "He fancied one style after another, and changed his rooms constantly." He despised Napoléon, yet George could not restrain himself from borrowing his Empire style of décor. The style named for his regency, therefore, resembled Napoléon's -- but without the overbearing grandeur and overt allusions to the emperor's military exploits.

A New Cosmopolitanism

As the wars continued, which they did until 1815 when Napoléon lost at Waterloo, young British aesthetes continued to travel through France when they made their grand tours, "even when it was deemed dangerous to do so," Howell says. Archaeology was all the rage, and sites such as the recently unearthed Herculaneum and Pompeii were magnets for the tourist elite. Back in Britain, avid antiquities collectors wanted to showcase their eclectic treasures in richer, more colorful domestic milieus than those to which they were accustomed.

To do so, they turned to furniture pattern books for inspiration. The Regency style evolved as a reaction to the delicate details of the Adam school's early neoclassicism, which was rendered in furnishings patterned after the furniture designs of Thomas Sheraton's  and George Hepplewhite. The period also coincided with the rise of mass production, when shops began to specialize, dividing tasks among a number of workers, rather than assigning one craftsman to each piece. As a result, classical designs began to be "debased," says Howell, adding that "aesthetes turned to new sources of inspiration for unique pieces. Napoléon's exploits in Egypt and the opening up of the Far East provided a wealth of new artistic material from which to work."

Another tastemaker, George Smith, published popularized versions of Hope's work and drew upon his examples, adding neo-Gothic and chinoiserie elements to the mix. Eventually, an enlightened cosmopolitanism prevailed, with interiors and furnishings borrowing forms and motifs from cultures that lay beyond the shores of the island kingdom.

Most Regency furniture was distinguished by clean lines and restraint. Mahogany, the wood of choice, was embellished with delicate brass inlays. Tables of every type, especially those with pedestal bases, "took off," notes Stephen Fitzpenn of Duke & Fitzpenn, Ltd., in Staunton, Virginia. "Pedestal dining tables continue to be very popular today because you can seat so many people around them without bumping into legs." Japanning also returned to favor, "especially as a way of decorating chairs," Fitzpenn says. Frequently, black paint emulating lacquer bore chinoiserie-style designs in gold.

Strictly speaking, the Regency period lasted from 1811 until 1820 when George IV assumed the throne as king. (Prior to 1820, he was still Prince Regent.) Some design historians extend the period to his death in 1830. By this time, the industrial revolution had irrevocably changed the nature of furniture manufacturing, and mass production of furniture for the sake of comfort rather than style had become the norm.