The late Pierre Verlet, conservateur en chef du Departement des Objets d'Art at the Louvre, was the unquestioned expert on pre-Revolutionary French decorative arts. His definitive book French Furniture of the 18th Century (Les Meubles Francais du XVIIIe Siecle) has now been translated into English for the first time by Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, noted specialist in 18th century French furniture and former student of Verlet. The book contains a vast amount of information on the art of furniture in 18th century France. It examines the tools and techniques used in furniture making during that period; defines the various types of furniture developed; explores the organisation of the furniture industry, the working of the guilds and the relationships among makers, dealers, and clients; lists the outstanding makers and reproduces their marks; and discusses the market, restoration, forgeries, and the growth of public collections. Since the book was first published in 1955, previously unknown pieces of furniture have been discovered, and new documents and analyses have been taken into account in this augmented text.The book is enhanced by 16 pages of full colour and 174 black-and-white illustrations. The illustrations range broadly to allow for the juxtaposition of elegant and simple furniture and to include a variety of types, forms and decorations. This book is a valuable research tool for all curators, collectors, dealers, and art historians.

"Each object is described and analyzed in terms of its provenance and published history, as well as its construction, materials, and conservation. With its painstaking attention to detail, this volume is the definitive catalogue of the Getty Museum's collection of French Baroque furniture and will be of interest to scholars, conservators, and all students of French decorative arts."--BOOK JACKET.

The Art Deco movement - with its emphasis on up-to-date individuality combined with good taste, fine materials and exquisite workmanship - became all the rage in France. Other countries produced their own versions of the style, but in furniture especially, the French predominated: the world had not seen such creative design for 125 years; on the one hand, the virtuoso cabinet-making of Ruhlmann, on the other, the brilliant originality of Gray and Legrain. Alastair Duncan introduces us to the work of over eighty architects, furniture makers and interior designers. The colour and monochrome photographs - almost all of them specially commissioned for this book - form a valuable portfolio of Art Deco furniture which should be of special value to those seeking comprehensive information about a design movement which has proved of lasting appeal both to collectors and to the general public.

Francois Linke (1855-1946), born in Pankraz, Bohemia, is considered by many as the greatest Parisian cabinetmaker of his day, at a time when the worldwide influence of French fashion was at its height. His exquisitely finished, richly made furniture was produced for potentates and industrial magnates from Paris to New York, London to Buenos Aires, the Far East and the Cameroons. Astonishingly, at the age of seventy and during the depths of the Great Depression, he secured a series of commissions to furnish over one thousand pieces for the King of Egypt. The son of a subsistence gardener, Linke trained under the strict disciplines of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and as a young man, travelled penniless, on foot, via Vienna to Paris in 1876. There he married the daughter of a local innkeeper and started a business in the days before electricity and the motor car, a business that continued, despite the loss of his two sons, through two world wars and the invention of atomic power. His early work is not signed, but can be traced to the great houses such as the New York townhouse of Arabella Huntington. He then gambled all on the Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1900 and was rewarded with not only a Gold Medal but also important private commissions that brought him both fame and fortune. The ancien regime has always been the greatest source of inspiration for artistic design in France and, influenced amongst others by the de Goncourt brothers, the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles were revived to wide popular appeal. During the Second Empire these styles were so eclectic that they became debased. Linke wanted to create a fresh new style and his association with the enigmatic sculptor Leon Message resulted in a highly original series of designs, based on the rococo style fused with the latest fashion in Paris, l'art nouveau. This style, known as le style Linke, was received with critical acclaim at the 1900 exhibition and remains popular today amongst the worldwide clientele for Linke's exquisitely made furniture. The book, with 140,000 words of text and over 700 unique photographs, many previously unpublished and drawn from Linke's own archive and private collections, has ten chapters showing the development of this exacting and prolific man's life work. It traces his early life and apprenticeship and his comfortable family life in Paris, culminating with the award of the Legion d'honneur. Appendices on Metalwork and Wood add to the technical expertise of this book, giving a unique insight into the workings of any designers recorded to date. 266 colour & 48 b/w illustrations

Over 200 color and black and white photos and text to interpret French country antique furniture in fourteen separate regions of France. Explains differences in construction and decoration to enable you to identify them, and describes twenty-one different woods used. Price Guide and glossary of relevant French words and phrases also included.