This work includes 200 Illustrations. From the Foreword: By the practical method here adopted of illustrating and treating the furniture of each style by itself and in proper chronological order it becomes easy to distinguish the characteristics of each furniture-group, and so quickly to place, by the recognition of those qualities, any piece of furniture that one sees. These consecutive styles soon lie out in the mind like a map, upon any location in which a mental finger can unhesitatingly be set down. Transition pieces then cause no difficulty, for the characteristics of two styles in the one piece are recognized, and the article is assigned to its natural place between the two modes. To a degree that did not obtain in England, there was sometimes here the persistence of certain features of one style into the next, and this makes it all the more necessary to understand which features belong to each. Contents: The Colonial Styles: Jacobean or Stuart; William and Mary; Queen Anne-Early Georgian; Chippendale. The Federal Styles: Hepplewhite, Shearer, and Early Sheraton; American Directoire; American Empire. Decoration: Interior Architecture; Decorative Accessories. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty or faded.