Furnishing the Eighteenth Century

Furnishing the Eighteenth Century provides an illuminating, interdisciplinary look into European and American furniture during the century that connoisseurs and collectors consider its golden age. Lavishly illustrated, this eclectic and lively collection of essays by historians, art historians, and literary scholars examines the many ways furniture of this period reflects the complex social and cultural issues that shaped this century in both Europe and America. In addition to furniture and portraiture, this diverse compilation considers literature, account books, and handbooks, allowing for a revealing look at how these furnishings created, contested, and subverted their cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. Ultimately, these essays make the past come alive, showing us what made this furniture meaningful in its own time, and why it is still meaningful today.

"The twelve essays that constitute this collection provide ample new, thoughtful, and frequently surprising revelations about what eighteenth-century furniture said to a broad range of makers, users, and audiences...."--Enfilade, newsletter for Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture"There have been few attempts to make the history of furniture above all a form of cultural and social history....all of these essays add to our stock of knowledge about furniture's importance."--H-France review"The book would make a really interesting addition to any design-related library, especially for a reader who appreciates in-depth essyas."--Style Court blog, "The twelve essays that constitute this collection provide ample new, thoughtful, and frequently surprising revelations about what eighteenth-century furniture said to a broad range of makers, users, and audiences." – Enfilade, newsletter for Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture"There have been few attempts to make the history of furniture above all a form of cultural and social history ... all of these essays add to our stock of knowledge about furniture's importance." – H-France review"This book contains meticulous archival scholarship in abundance, attention to detail in a series of wonderful close observations, but most of all, in individual essays and as a project as a whole, a wonderful panorama of the imaginative routes taken by recent scholarship on the decorative arts. At many points I was both inspired by the imaginative range and humbled by the work rate of cultural historians of the decorative, enough to shame us complacent historians of the two-dimensional image. The answer to the skeptic’s question, 'Can the settee speak?' is, on the basis of the work presented in this volume, a resounding yes." – Mark Ledbury, Eighteenth-Century Life"The book would make a really interesting addition to any design-related library, especially for a reader who appreciates in-depth essays." – Style Court blog: www.stylecourt.blogspot.com

Dena Goodman is Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Kathryn Norberg is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles and editor of Signs.