Amazon.com Review
Boyce shares amusing and fascinating anecdotes illustrating the links between furniture design and the larger world. Louis XIV of France, for instance, required French aristocrats to imitate the extravagantly luxurious architecture and furnishings of Versailles in order to control their wealth. In China, chairs with names like "chair of the old man who has been drinking" or "chair like a hanging lantern shaped like a chair" enjoyed popularity throughout the Song and Ming dynasties.
In a comprehensive listing of entries from "Aalto, Hugo Alvar Henrik" to "Zui Weng Yi," Boyce illuminates readers about furniture styles, construction details, terminology, furniture designers, and design movements throughout history and throughout the world. He includes information on European-inspired classical, baroque, rococo, pop, and modernist styles, among many others. A helpful guide to buying furniture is included, and offers advice on how to settle on a budget, how to determine what you need for your space, how to ensure against fraud, and what to do if you are unhappy with a purchase. This helpful reference will surely prove handy for both furniture enthusiasts and those looking to redecorate or refresh their homes. --Robin Donovan
From Booklist
The new edition supersedes its predecessor by including everything from the earlier text and continuing the text into the present day, thereby expanding the range of coverage from the Neolithic period through the twentieth century. As excellent as the first edition was, it lacked the all-important finishing touches: an introduction, bibliography, and index, all of which play prominent roles in this update.
A lengthy introduction now presents a thorough and succinct account of the major cultural, political, social, and technological influences on the design and development of movements and individual pieces. The extensive bibliography offers an excellent selection of reading material on every facet of the field. The only minor drawback is the arrangement of the bibliography: it is alphabetical, rather than divided into subjects, so that one must search through the entire bibliography to locate those books pertaining to specific makers and movements. Two excellent new appendixes, "A Guide to Buying Furniture" and "Places to Visit," have been inserted between the end of the A-Z entries and the bibliography. The first contains useful tips on searching for the best bargains, determining fakes and reproductions from the genuine articles, and handling professional dealers. For those unsure of specific styles, the list of public collections of fine furniture in the U.S and elsewhere will help solve that problem. The detailed index denotes main entries in boldface.
All in all, the new edition of the Dictionary of Furniture is an excellent choice for most library collections. RBB
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
