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                      FRENCH AND ENGLISH FURNITURE


[Illustration: LOUIS XIII INTERIOR]




                      FRENCH AND ENGLISH FURNITURE
        DISTINCTIVE STYLES AND PERIODS DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED


[Illustration]

                                   BY

                            ESTHER SINGLETON

               AUTHOR OF THE FURNITURE OF OUR FOREFATHERS

                   ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES

                                   BY
                             H. D. NICHOLS


                                NEW YORK
                         McCLURE PHILLIPS & CO
                                 MCMIII




                             Copyright 1903
                       BY MCCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.


                      Published December, 1903. N

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                                PREFACE


[Illustration]




                                PREFACE


_The purpose of this work is to provide all who are interested in
French and English furniture since the Renaissance period with a
comprehensive and detailed view of the various periods or styles. A
chapter is devoted to each period, and the chapters naturally vary in
size, in accordance with the importance and length of the different
periods. So far as I have been able to discover in my researches,
there is no work precisely of the same aim and scope as this one in
existence. Many books have been written about furniture as a whole,
and the history of furniture,—especially the French styles; but I do
not know of one that enables the student to learn with slight
expenditure of time and energy all that is necessary to know in order
to fit up a room in any given style. Anyone who wants to furnish and
decorate a Louis XV. boudoir properly, or a Heppelwhite dining-room,
or an Empire bedroom, can find all about it in the following pages.
The collector, the student, the cabinet-maker, the upholsterer, and
even the architect will find ready at hand valuable material gathered
from many sources. The ceilings, wall-decorations and chimney-pieces
proper to each period are described from contemporary authorities and
illustrated from contemporary pictures and prints. The furniture is
described from specimens existing in many collections and museums; and
frequently in the words of the great makers and designers themselves._

_In many instances