Federal furniture refers to American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 produced in the federal style, which lasted from approximately 1789 to 1823. Notable furniture makers who worked in this style included Duncan Phyfe

Duncan Phyfe

Duncan Phyfe was one of nineteenth-century America’s leading furniture makers.Born Duncan Fife near Loch Fannich, Scotland, he emigrated to Albany, New York, at age 16 and served as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice...

 and Charles-Honoré Lannuier

Charles-Honoré Lannuier

Charles-Honoré Lannuier, French-born American cabinetmaker , lived and worked in New York City. In Lannuier's time, the style of his furniture was described as "French Antique." Today his work is classified primarily as Federal furniture, Neoclassical, or American Empire.-Early life and...

. It was influenced by the Georgian and Adam

Adam style

The Adam style is an 18th century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practiced by the three Adam brothers from Scotland; of whom Robert Adam and James Adam were the most widely known.The Adam brothers were the first to advocate an integrated style for architecture and...

 styles, and was superseded by the Empire style

American Empire (style)

American Empire is a French-inspired Neoclassical style of American furniture and decoration that takes its name and originates from the Empire style introduced during the First French Empire period under Napoleon's rule. It gained its greatest popularity in the U.S...

.

Pieces in this style are characterized by their sharply geometric forms, legs that are usually straight rather than curved, contrasting veneer

Wood veneer

In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm , that are typically glued onto core panels to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry...

s, and geometric inlay

Inlay

Inlay is a decorative technique of inserting pieces of contrasting, often coloured materials into depressions in a base object to form patterns or pictures that normally are flush with the matrix. In a wood matrix, inlays commonly use wood veneers, but other materials like shells, mother-of-pearl,...

patterns on otherwise flat surfaces. Pictorial motifs, when extant, usually reference the new federal government with symbols such as the eagle.