| Description:
Introduction to Oak furniture in the walnut wood period.
Also there is an introduction of mahogany, inlaid mahogany and
satinwood and painted furniture like chairs and sofas.
Review:
This is a wonderful prowl through extremely antique
furniture with a chatty expert, rather like going on a shop
crawl with him. It's fun to read, easy-going, but dead-on
accurate. He takes you through the history of English furniture
from the Tudors forward, and doesn't hesitate to get into
detail, like breaking down Chippendale into his many periods.
Rather uniquely, he sees where the economics and technology come
into play in the development of styles: that Chippendale
simplified his styles for early mass production, or that early
dower chests had such thick lids because they were hewn from the
log with an axe, not sawn into thinner planks. There's hundreds
of these little illuminations throughout.
I found the chapter on painted furniture rather inspirational,
more so than some modern books on painted furniture meant to
inspire. Looking at these I could see how a plainer piece of
furniture could be brought up to the slightly fantasy level I
wanted with a restrained taste. Considering that I'll probably
be painting over cheap finish over particle board, it's not like
my painting will reduce its value.
The chapters are Oak Furniture, The Walnut Wood Period, The
Introduction of Mahogany, Inlaid Mahogany and Satinwood, Painted
Furniture, and Chairs and Sofas. The "List of Books of
Reference" will give you more titles to dig for here in the
Archive. There are XCIV monotone plates.
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