European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This volume is the first to survey the Metropolitan Museum's world-renowned collection of European furniture. One hundred and three examples from the Museum's vast holdings are featured. They originate in workshops in England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Russia, or Spain and date from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century. A number of them belonged to such important historical figures as Pope Urban VIII, Louise XIV, Madame de Pompadour, and Napoleon. The selection includes chairs, tables, beds, cabinets, commodes, settees and sofas, bookcases and standing shelves, desks, fire screens, atheniennes, coffers, chests, mirrors and frames, showcases and lighting equipment. The makers of some of the objects are unknown, but most of the pieces can be identified by lable, documentation, or style as the work of an European designer-craftsman, such as Andre-Charles Boulle, Thomas Chippendale, David Roentgen, or Karl Friedrich Schinkel.