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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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._