by:
Boyce, Charles

Publisher:
Facts on File
Published:December 1, 2000
ISBN:081604158X
Format:Paperback
Pages:376

Description: Amazon.com
Furniture, when you really stop to think about it, has a surprisingly small number of uses: for sitting or lying on, for storing things in, and to provide flat surfaces on which to dine, write, or perform other tasks. Nonetheless, furniture designers throughout history have drawn on a seemingly endless supply of creativity to give expression to contemporary sensibilities through the design of these ubiquitous objects. This second edition of Charles Boyce's exhaustive Dictionary of Furniture chronicles artistic and cultural currents of past and present, using changing furniture as a looking glass through which to learn about the time in which it was made.

Boyce shares amusing and fascinating anecdotes illustrating the links between furniture design and the larger world. Louis XIV of France, for instance, required French aristocrats to imitate the extravagantly luxurious architecture and furnishings of Versailles in order to control their wealth. In China, chairs with names like "chair of the old man who has been drinking" or "chair like a hanging lantern shaped like a chair" enjoyed popularity throughout the Song and Ming dynasties.

In a comprehensive listing of entries from "Aalto, Hugo Alvar Henrik" to "Zui Weng Yi," Boyce illuminates readers about furniture styles, construction details, terminology, furniture designers, and design movements throughout history and throughout the world. He includes information on European-inspired classical, baroque, rococo, pop, and modernist styles, among many others. A helpful guide to buying furniture is included, and offers advice on how to settle on a budget, how to determine what you need for your space, how to ensure against fraud, and what to do if you are unhappy with a purchase. This helpful reference will surely prove handy for both furniture enthusiasts and those looking to redecorate or refresh their homes. --Robin Donovan

From Library Journal
Designed to be the comprehensive reference tool in the field, this ambitious work includes stylistic forms, construction and materials, and designers and manufacturers, throughout the world, from ancient to post-modern times. To do this in more than 2000 entries in only 331 pages precludes any in-depth treatment, but the volume is a very useful dictionary for ready reference. Each entry provides a definition or identification, dates and pertinent material, and appropriate cross-references. The care with which the work was prepared is evident in small details, e.g., Chinese entry titles are given in Pinyin transcription and then in Wade-Giles when they differ. The marginal line drawings are clear and simple. An attractive, easily handled reference book of this quality, at this price, is a rarity. Recommended for all subject collections. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
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