Victorian and Edwardian Decor: From the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau by Cooper, Jeremy - 1987

In recent years, nineteenth-century British furniture has become the focus of an extraordinary growth of interest in the United States and throughout Europe. William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and C.R. Ashbee have become household names, and their work is more popular and influential today than it was in their own lifetimes. Other major figures, including William Burges and Christopher Dresser - who only a generation ago were regarded as eccentric outsiders- are now accepted as great designers and their work is avidly collected. This exhaustive survey of a rich and rewarding chapter in the history of the decorative arts contains an astonishing range of photographs and drawings: more than six hundred illustrations, many of them in color, offer a uniquely comprehensive look at nineteenth-century furniture from the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau. Every major designer is represented, and the choice of pictures includes a wealth of little-known furniture from private collections, much of which has never before been illustrated. Special emphasis is given to rare contemporary photographs of Victorian and Edwardian interiors, showing how the furniture formed part of complete decorative ensembles.