In this book, the history of furniture is woven together from the earliest handmade pieces of ancient Mediterranean cultures to the technological developments of today.
Special emphasis is placed on the often overlooked but essential relationship between furniture and architecture. For example, as early as the 15th century, Italian craftsmen took classical architectural perspectives as their model. In the 18th century, Robert Adam designed complete furnishing programmes for his houses. In the 20th century, many renowned architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Gerrit Rietveld designed houses and furnishings as coordinated units.
Another underlying theme of this book is the furniture creators' enduring fascination with the past. Admiration for the furniture of the classical cultures of antiquity was reflected in imitations throughout the last millennium, especially in the 18th century, which arguably produced some of the finest examples of all time.
However, the classical ideal was often discarded in the inevitable backlash of fashion trends, such as with the short-lived Rococo wave in the second quarter of the 18th century.
Postmodernism reintroduced the classical mould and brought us back to safe, traditional motifs.
Tradition obliges: What we have here is an overall account of antiques in their development from their beginnings to the present, unparalleled in its clarity and expertise.
Sotheby's Great Guide to Antiques Furniture
-Early Furniture - Renaissance - Baroque - Rococo - Classicism - Electricism - Arts and Crafts and Design - Machine Age - Modernism
with ca 300 colour photos and illustrations
ISBN: 5572007755