Furniture Books

The "ABC of Budget Decorating" was a great resource to helpme buy furniture at discount prices. I purchase an AlexanderJulian/Universal dining room set fo...; the retail price wasover...

The book explained in detail how to purchase furniture andwhat to be aware of when buying from discount stores. It also gave alist of all of the reputable stores in North Carolina - HighPoint.

I highly recommend this book.

I knew from the cover---a photograph of a well-worn and weather Adirondack chair---that I was in for a treat, and the pages that followed confirmed that impression. Here is a superbly written and well photographed treatise on the ubiquitous Adirondack chair, that distinctly American style of chair that one cannot resist sitting in with a good novel and beverage. Through a combination of poetry, prose, anecdotes, and meticulous research, Daniel Mack elevates this rather pedestrian piece of furniture into a position of royalty, and does so with style and flair.
For those readers who, like myself after reading this book, are so moved to build an Adirondack chair, Mr. Mack offers plans and step-by-step instructions. The advanced woodworker will find the wide variety of chair designs contained in this book positively inspiring; novice woodworkers will find the plans and easy to follow step-by-step instructions particularly helpful. Even the casual reader will enjoy the rich historical perspective and outstanding photography.

this recently published book is a complete and thorough listing of alarm watches from their re-invention around 1949 until the present day. With many photographs and details, a novice can develop an understanding of the nuances and clever inventions of this mechanical watch feature. Compliments to the author for his detailed photos of both the movements (front and back views) and the assembled watch and dial.
Highly recommended!

This is a great book. Page after page of Girard's designs. Color and black and white photos. Few people know that, aside from textiles, Alexander Girard was responsible for some of Herman Miller's earliest modern furniture. His furniture design are also outlined in this book.

Outside, inside, upstairs, downstairs: how to make miniature houses, rooms, furniture, accessories, all to scale, with step-by-step instructions for every single piece.
Part I is all about unusual dollhouses.
Part II tells all about wood, tools, supplies; cutting patterns, working techniques.
Part III tells how to build interiors.
Part IV gives three complete dollhouses (twelve rooms) and how-tos for all the furniture in them.
Part V gives how-tos for all the accessories.

My sister-in-law has gotten me interested in antiques, something that I never thought would happen.While checking out some books in the library, I came across this one.
Although it was published in 1966 the information in it is still very true and the descriptions of American furniture are very good and should easily help you to identify different pieces.
Author Edgar Miller put over 2,000 illustrations in the book which is a super aid in identifying a piece.
This maybe an old book, but it in itself is a treasure for the antique furniture hunter. You can still purchase it on Amazon and if you are a serious antique hunter you will want this book. I recommend it.

A terrific and complete compendium of American craftsman of the period. Suitable for a scholar or field reference during a treasure hunt.

Everything I needed to know about wood in America, specifically the Bybee Collection in Dallas. I am a native Houstonian, annual contributor to local fine arts museums as well as others worthy of praise and adoration. The Dallas Museum is definately one of them. Never before have I seen such an eclectic array of the finest wood of all centuries. I have been a collector since I was a child, handed down the most beautiful of wood furniture imagined. My top marks and highest honors to Charles L. Venable and company for a job well done.

Truly, Christine Anne Bicek/ Private Contributor

I was excited from the time I opened the package. The volume has high quality photographs printed on gloss pages. The photographs represent a broad spectrum of works by superior funrniture makers. The comprehensive text explained the obvious and not so obvious distingtions in form, format, style, constrution approach, and a host of like details.

I took the volume with me to Marc Adams School of Woodworking for a Philidephia Lowboy class with Allen Breed. The pictures aided in layout and construction of the item. Class members were impressed with the quality and quanity of the photographs. This book is well worth the price.

Uncut page edges. B&W plates on quality cream stock paper with great contrast and clarity; 6.5" x 9.75" x 1.75`, xxi, 237 pp + index. With a multitude of plates in B&W - single & double-sided incl. frontis. 117 plates.

A rare book with photographs that are even more rare, all having been taken prior to the printing of this book in 1924, some of furniture from centuries ago. These homes and furnishings were already antiques at the time this book was published in 1912! A wealth of information, gloriously illustrated, by a great historian & noted expert on Early American glass. The photos are awesome & Mary Northend's knowledge of old homes & their furnishings is indispensable. You won't see these photos of early homes & their furniture anywhere else.

Since the 1876 Centennial, furniture companies, decorators, and home builders have incorporated early American designs into their products. This book recounts the history of this Colonial style, including the New York Dutch.

Mary Northend and other female domestic advisors used Colonial furniture to express their patriotic commitment. As Northend wrote in 1909, "Homes constructed by the early settlers in this country ... possessed, almost without exception, one feature of comfort and cheeriness which is sadly lacking in modern homes. ... The enormous open fireplace with its huge logs and high-backed wooden settles around which the family life of the sturdy pioneers centered." Northend connected the fireplaces and the settles (Colonial benches), which she photographed again and again, with family life and sturdiness. In her photographs, she manipulated furniture because she wanted to find a way for middle-class American families to re-create the ideal of family life that she held so dear and that she associated with the Colonial era.

Table of Contents
PREFACE
OLD HOUSES
COLONIAL DOORWAYS
DOOR KNOCKERS
OLD-TIME GARDENS
HALLS & STAIRWAYS
FIREPLACES & MANTELPIECES
WALL PAPERS
CHAIRS & SOFAS
SIDEBOARDS, BUREAUS, TABLES, ETC
FOUR-POSTERS
MIRRORS
CLOCKS
LIGHTS
CHINA
GLASS
PEWTER
SILVER

PEOPLE AND HOMES IN THE BOOK:

Gen Abbot Houses
Adams family
Albree House
J Alden
J Fiske Allen House
J Andrews House
John Appleton
English Architects
Monsieur Argond
Assembly House
Bagnall
Thomas Barnard
Cyrus Bartol
Bell House
Benson House
William Billingsly
Bridget Bishop
Robert Bloor
Bradford
Francis Briot
Brown Inn
Joseph Cabot House
Capen House
J Choate
Emporer Claudius
Cogswell House
Colonial House
Elisha~Samuel Cook
J Cony
Craigie House
R Crowell
Crowninshield House
Elia Hershey House
Elias Hasket Derby Farmhouse
Humphrey Devereux House
Timothy Dexter House
Enos Doolittle
Emanuel~George Downing
Wm & son Duesbury
Duke of Baden
Duke of Devonshhire's House
Jeremiah~Wm Dummer House
Cary Dunn
Gaspar Enderlein
Endicott House
Fabens
G Faulkner
J Fell
J Felt
Forrester House
Garden's, Oak Knoll, Cabot, Peabody, Mrs. Perry, Salem

Gardiner House
George House
Gibbon designer
Gove House
Hamilton Hall
Thomas Harland
Walter Harris
Harrod House
Heard House-Hermitage-Hey Bonnie Hall-Highfield
Hepplewhite designer
G Heussler House
Gov Higginson
Silas Hoadley
Capt Hoffman
Holmes
House of Seven Gables
Mrs G Howe
Betsey~John Hull
Ince designer
A Jackson
J Jarves
Chauncey Jerome
D Jesse
Johnson House
Michael Kean
Kimball House
Kittredge House
Knapp House, Newbury Port MA
Knox
Kunckel artist
Lafayette
Lucy Larcom
Jeremiah Lee House, Marblehead
Gaspar Lehmann
Leslie's Retreat
Leverett
Lightfoot
Lindall-Andrews House
D Little House
J Long House
Anne Sewall Longfellow
Nathaniel Lord House
Capt~Mary Macpheadris
Samuel McIntyre
Mrs N Mansfield
Manwaring designer
Maryland Manor
May House
Mayhew designer
Meyer House
Moses Middleton House, Bristol RI
Henry Mills

S Mulliken
Nichols House
Noyes House
Oliver House
Osgood House
Page House
Peabody Summer House
Pickering House
Pierce House
Pierce-Jahonnot House
Pierce-Nichols House
Planche
B Perley Poore
Poynton
Israel Putnam
J Redmond
Revere
George Ridout
Nathan Robinson House
Caleb Ropes House
Salem Club House
Saltonstall family
Saltonstall-Howe House
T Sanders House
G Schwanhard
William Sharp
Shearer designer
Sheraton designer
G Shoemaker
Silsbee House
J Simpson
Harriet Prescott Spofford
Southern House
J Sprague House
Stark House, Dunbarton NH
State House Boston
Stearns House
Robert Steelums
Baron Steigel House
Eli Terry
Seth Thomas
J Tracey
Tragees silversmith
Turgot
R Van Dyck
I Ware
J Warner House, Portsmouth NH 1718
Waters House
Wentworth House
Wheelright House, Newburyport
Whipple House
White House
Whittier House