How to Collect Old Furniture

PREFACE, the readers to have about them some old furhture of which they can tell the origin, the country, and date of manufacture, and in many cases assist them to identify a favourite specimen as the work of an individual maker. In order that the collector may be able to compare the illustration of a particular specimen with the article itself, the half-tone blocks are, with few exceptions, produced from photographs of examples available to the public in the Victoria and Aibert Museum of South Kensington, and to the Science and Art Department, controlling that useful national collection, my grateful acknow- ledgements are tendered for the generous permission to use Museum photographs. The glossary of terms used in connection with furniture, many of which have peculiar and tech- nical meanings not to be found in the dictionary, but constantly occurring in catalogues and written descriptions of old furniture, will, it is hoped, be of service to the reader.