Chinoiserie

"Chinoiserie is one of the strongest, most consistent strains in western taste. It has affected every area of decor and design, transforming furniture and garden follies, tableware and tapestries. The style's origins lie in the tales of Marco Polo and the merchant adventurers of the seventeenth century. The fantasy of "Cathay", the mysterious East, fired the imagination of all Europe with tempting visions of an exotic land. Excitement at the luxury and splendour of eastern imports grew to a fever as Chinese goods entered the salons of the West. In the eighteenth century the French court's devotion to the chinoiserie style led to its adoption throughout Europe, from Palermo to St Petersburg, while England, equally affected by the passion for all things Chinese, bedecked its houses and gardens with chinoiseries of its own individual kind. Chinoiserie buurgeoned throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, emerging as one of Europe and America's most vigorous and veratile decorative styles. "Chinoiserie" carefully follows the development of the style from its tentative origins up to its pervasive influence today. The sumptuous illlustrations are a window onto its range and variety, its past and present use in gardens, interiors, furniture and all the applied arts, providing a comprehensive view of the way in which the exoticism of the East became incorporated into European taste."--Inside front cover.