No one is ignorant of the attention given in these days to archæology. Information about objects of antiquity is necessary to every instructed person. It ought to be studied so far as to enable us to appreciate, or at least to recognise, the examples of olden time in Architecture, Painting, &c., that present themselves to our notice. Thus it has become for the young of each sex indispensable to good education. The perusal of this book will be for such an attractive introduction to that knowledge which for too long a time was the exclusive domain of the learned. PAUL LACROIX (Bibliophile Jacob). [Illustration] TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page FURNITURE: HOUSEHOLD AND ECCLESIASTICAL 1 Simplicity of Furniture among the Gauls and Franks.--Introduction of costly taste in articles of Furniture of the Seventh Century.--Arm-chair of Dagobert.--Round Table of King Artus.--Influence of the Crusades.--Regal Banquet in the time of Charles V.--Benches.--Sideboards.--Dinner Services.--Goblets.--Brassware.--Casks.--Lighting.--Beds.--Carved-wood Furniture.--Locksmith’s Work.--Glass and Mirrors.--Room of a Feudal Seigneur.--Costliness of Furniture used for Ecclesiastical Purposes.--Altars.--Censers.--Shrines and Reliquaries.--Gratings and Iron-mountings. TAPESTRY 37 Scriptural Origin of Tapestry.--Needlework Embroidery in Ancient Greek and Roman Times.--Attalic Carpets.--Manufacture of Carpets in Cloisters.--Manufactory at Poitiers in the Twelfth Century.--Bayeux Tapestry, named “De la Reine Mathilde.”--Arras Carpets.--Inventory of the Tapestries of Charles V.; enormous Value of these Embroidered Hangings.--Manufactory at Fontainebleau, under Francis I.--The Manufacture of the Hôpital de la Trinité, at Paris.--The Tapestry Workers, Dubourg and Laurent, in the reign of Henry IV.--Factories of Savonnerie and Gobelins. CERAMIC ART 53 Pottery Workshops in the Gallo-Romano Period.--Ceramic Art disappears for several Centuries in Gaul: is again found in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.--Probable Influence of Arabian Art in Spain.--Origin of Majolica.--Luca della Robbia and his Successors.--Enamelled Tiles in France, dating from the Twelfth Century.--The Italian Manufactories of Faenza, Rimini, Pesaro, &c.--Beauvais Pottery.--Invention and Works of Bernard Palissy; his History; his _Chefs-d’œuvre_.--The _Faïence_ of Thouars, called “Henri II.” ARMS AND ARMOUR 75