The Empire style was propaganda for the Emperor Napoléon I. The Emperor was for France her Alexander the Great, her Caesar, and the analogy was no more visible than in the monumental style that harkened back to the ancients. The Rome of Augustus, the Greece of the oracles, the Pharaohs of Egypt, and the Macedonia of Alexander the Great were the only worthy models for the new French Empire.

Napoléon centralized artistic production, making it subject to control from Paris. Government exhibitions replaced the traditional guilds. The new elite imitated shamelessly its master and the result was the unprecedented success and uniformity of the Empire style.

Abroad
England: the Regency style
Italy: the neoclassical style
Spain: the Joseph Bonaparte style

Furniture
The Empire style is spare, noble, and massive. Its majesty lies in its imposing presence. Surfaces are flat and corners are sharp. Moldings are non-existent. Solemnity prevails over comfort. The small pieces of furniture for specific purposes became more rare.

Materials and Techniques
Mahogany was the wood of choice, be it blond, dark, moiré, figured, or flame. After 1810, mahogany became unavailable because of the continental blockade and furniture makers were forced to use walnut, burled elm, beech, ash, boxwood, olivewood, maple, and rarely citronnier. Complex marquetry disappeared and was replaced by discreet inlay ornament. Fillets of blond wood, copper or steel were set into dark wood. Fillets of dark wood were set into blond wood. If chairs were gilded so was their ornament. If painted, their ornament was painted or gilded as well. Bronze fittings were the only ornaments on furniture. They are placed symmetrically on flat surfaces and are delicately chased. Marble tops have sharp corners and are most often gray or black.

Ornament
Symmetry is de rigueur in all Empire ornament. The motifs on a piece's right and left ides generally correspond to one another in every detail. When they do not, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition. For example, antique heads with identical tresses fall onto each shoulder or identical swans flank either side of a lock plate.

Napoléon, like Louis XIV, had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule. These were the eagle, the bee, stars and the initials I (for Imperator) and N (for Napoleon) inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs of human origin include figures of Victory bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, and masks of Apollo and Hermes. Swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses, butterflies, claws, and sea horses are among the motifs of animal origin of the period. Compact rose wreaths, oak wreaths, climbing grape vines and "Egyptian" waterleaves are motifs of vegetal origin. Circles, squares, lozenges, octagons and ovals often frame Greco-Roman and Egyptian motifs.


Source: Chadenet, Sylvie. French Furniture from Louis XIII to Art Deco. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001.