The Illustrations
| A modern dining-room | [Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| Italian Renaissance fireplace and overmantel, modern | [8] |
| Doorways and pilaster details, Italian Renaissance | [9] |
| Two Louis XIII chairs | [22] |
| A Gothic chair of the fifteenth century | [23] |
| A Louis XIV chair | [32] |
| Louis XIV inlaid desk-table | [33] |
| Louis XIV chair with underbracing | [33] |
| A modern French drawing-room | [40] |
| A drawing-room, old French furniture and tapestry | [41] |
| Early Louis XIV chair | [44] |
| Louis XV bergère | [44] |
| Louis XVI bench | [45] |
| Louis XVI from Fontainebleau | [50] |
| American Empire bed | [51] |
| An Apostles bed of the Tudor period | [60] |
| Adaptation of the style of William and Mary to dressing table | [61] |
| Reproduction of Charles II chair | [61] |
| Living-room with reproductions of different periods | [64] |
| Original Jacobean sofa | [65] |
| Reproductions of Charles II chairs | [65] |
| Reproductions of Queen Anne period | [72] |
| Reproduction of James II chair | [73] |
| Reproduction of William and Mary chair | [73] |
| Gothic and Ribbonback types of Chippendale chairs | [78] |
| Chippendale mantel mirror showing French influence | [79] |
| Chippendale fretwork tea-table | [79] |
| Chippendale china cupboard | [82] |
| Typical chairs of the eighteenth century | [83] |
| Chippendale and Hepplewhite sofas | [86] |
| Adam mirror, block-front chest of drawers, and Hepplewhite chair | [87] |
| Two Adam mantels | [92] |
| A group of old mirrors | [93] |
| Dining-room furnished with Hepplewhite furniture | [96] |
| Old Hepplewhite sideboard | [97] |
| Reproduction of Hepplewhite settee | [97] |
| Sheraton chest of drawers | [104] |
| Sheraton desk and sewing-table | [105] |
| Dining-room in simple country house | [112] |
| Dining-room furnished with fine old furniture | [113] |
| Dorothy Quincy's bed-room | [124] |
| Two valuable old desks | [125] |
| Pembroke inlaid table | [144] |
| Sheraton sideboard | [144] |
| Four post bed | [145] |
| Doorway detail, Compiègne | [152] |
| Reproduction of a bed owned by Marie Antoinette | [153] |
| Reproduction of Louis XVI bed | [153] |
| A Georgian hallway | [162] |
| Rare block-front chest of drawers | [163] |
| A modern living-room | [178] |
| Curtain treatment for a summer home | [179] |
| Hallway showing rugs | [188] |
| Hallway showing rugs | [189] |
| Colonial bed-room | [189] |
| Dining-room with paneled walls | [196] |
| Four post bed owned by Lafayette | [197] |
| Modern dining-room | [204] |
| Four post bed | [205] |
| Reproductions of Adam painted furniture | [222] |
| Three-chair Sheraton settee | [223] |
| Reproduction of a Sheraton wing-chair | [223] |
| Slat-backed chair | [223] |
| Group of chairs and pie-crust table | [232] |
| Groups of chairs | [233] |
| Reproduction of Jacobean buffet | [236] |
| Group of mirrors | [237] |
| Reproduction of William and Mary settee | [240] |
| Adaptation of Georgian ideas to William and Mary dressing table | [240] |
| Two Adam chairs | [241] |
| Jacobean day-bed | [241] |
| Reproductions of Chippendale table and Hepplewhite desk | [244] |
| Reproduction of Sheraton chest of drawers | [245] |
| Reproduction of William and Mary chest of drawers | [245] |
| A modern sun-room | [246] |
| Sheraton sofa | [247] |
| Hepplewhite chair and nest of tables | [247] |
| Chippendale wing-chair | [247] |
| Modern paneled living-room | [248] |
| Empire bed | [248] |
| Hancock desk, and fine old highboy | [249] |
Preface
To try to write a history of furniture in a fairly short space is almost as hard as the square peg and round hole problem. No matter how one tries, it will not fit. One has to leave out so much of importance, so much of historic and artistic interest, so much of the life of the people that helps to make the subject vivid, and has to take so much for granted, that the task seems almost impossible. In spite of this I shall try to give in the following pages a general but necessarily short review of the field, hoping that it may help those wishing to furnish their homes in some special period style. The average person cannot study all the subject thoroughly, but it certainly adds interest to the problems of one's own home to know something of how the great periods of decoration grew one from another, how the influence of art in one country made itself felt in the next, molding and changing taste and educating the people to a higher sense of beauty.
It is the lack of general knowledge which makes it possible for furniture built on amazingly bad lines to be sold masquerading under the name of some great period. The customer soon becomes bewildered, and, unless he has a decided taste of his own, is apt to get something which will prove a white elephant on his hands. One must have some standard of comparison, and the best and simplest way is to study the great work of the past. To study its rise and climax rather than the decline; to know the laws of its perfection so that one can recognize the exaggeration which leads to degeneracy. This ebb and flow is most interesting: the feeling the way at the beginning, ever growing surer and surer until the high level of perfection is reached; and then the desire to "gild the lily" leading to over-ornamentation, and so to decline. However, the germ of good taste and the sense of truth and beauty is never dead, and asserts itself slowly in a transition period, and then once more one of the great periods of decoration is born.
There are several ways to study the subject, one of the pleasantest naturally being travel, as the great museums, palaces, and private collections of Europe offer the widest field. In this country, also, the museums and many private collections are rich in treasures, and there are many proud possessors of beautiful isolated pieces of furniture. If one cannot see originals the libraries will come to the rescue with many books showing research and a thorough knowledge and appreciation of the beauty and importance of the subject in all its branches.
I have tried to give an outline, (which I hope the reader will care to enlarge for himself), not from a collector's standpoint, but from the standpoint of the modern home-maker, to help him furnish his house consistently,—to try to spread the good word that period furnishing does not necessitate great wealth, and that it is as easy and far more interesting to furnish a house after good models, as to have it banal and commonplace.