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Furniture: The Western Tradition
For the first time the whole history of the Western tradition in furniture has been put together in a single authoritative and immensely readable volume which documents the aesthetics of furniture, its social and cultural context, the sequence of styles - from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman through Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and onwards - and the individual touches of craftsmen and designers.
We see how the simple challenge of making a chair to sit on could generate a huge variety of forms, depending not just on comfort and convenience but on changing fashion in interiors, as well as motifs, ornaments and ideas from the worlds of politics, religion, architecture and the fine arts.
Works by famous designers – Boulle, Chippendale, Riesener, Mackintosh, Eames – appear clearly in the context of the stylistic ideals of their times, and more than 600 illustrations are closely integrated to the text. The result is an essential reference tool and a tour de force of scholarship.
ISBN 0500 019487
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