A historical period spanning the reign of four consecutive English Kings called George (1740-1830), the English Renaissance that witnessed an increase in education, global trade and travel, and the meteoric rise of the merchant class, whose demand for homes, furniture, furnishings, * travel and education changed society for ever. Certainly the architectural influence to Georgian design was the Grand Tour, the educational rite of passage for all wealthy young men, whose experiences and ambition and streams of consciousness drove the Georgian cultural, architectural and artistic changes.
The Georgian period was heavily influenced by continental Europe, where the most elegant and unsurpassed solutions for architecture in general could be seen (being inspired by ancient Greece and Rome, the Italian Renaissance and specifically the more recent work of Andrea Palladio in the Veneto), and specifically for room and window proportions.
Textiles, porcelain and furniture were brought back from the east, celebrity furniture makers produced pattern books that spawned many other workshops; upholstery, gilding, craftsmanship in general expanded and moved into the new middle class arena. Window design, furniture and textiles were developed which tended to be lighter in design and tone than 17thC work. A period of elegance, silk embroidery became more common, featuring in beautiful end of century samplers. With an easier access to cotton came fashionable white work, found in Dresden and tambour work; the palampores crewelworks, calicoes and les Indiennes from India, silk and blue and white porcelain from China…..
* In terms of textiles and needlework the period 1811-1830 is called Regency