The authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum have willingly extended their assistance in regard to photographs, and by the special permission of the Board of Education the frontispiece and other representative examples in the national collection appear as illustrations to this volume.
I have to acknowledge generous assistance and courteous permission from owners of fine specimens in allowing me facilities for reproducing illustrations of them in this volume.
I am especially indebted to the Right Honourable Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, G.C.B., I.S.O., and to the Rev. Canon Haig Brown, Master of the Charterhouse, for the inclusion of illustrations of furniture of exceptional interest.
The proprietors of the Connoisseur have generously furnished me with lists of prices obtained at auction from their useful monthly publication, Auction Sale Prices, and have allowed the reproduction of illustrations which have appeared in the pages of the Connoisseur.
My thanks are due to Messrs. Hampton, of Pall Mall, for their kind permission to include as illustrations several fine pieces from their collection of antique furniture. I am under a similar obligation to Messrs. Waring, who have kindly allowed me to select some of their typical examples.
To my other friends, without whose kind advice and valuable aid this volume could never have appeared, I tender a grateful and appreciative acknowledgment of my indebtedness.
ARTHUR HAYDEN.
Italian Chair about 1620.