THE object of the present volume is to furnish the collector, and other persons interested in the subject of American colonial furniture, with a trustworthy handbook on the subject, having especially in mind the natural development of the various styles, and arranging them in such a way as to enable any one at a glance to determine under what general style and date a piece of furniture falls.

The sources of information from which this book has been derived are: examination of inventories and contemporary records, all available newspapers, works on the subjects of furniture, architecture, and interior wood-work by English, French, German, Italian, and American writers, general and commercial histories, books on manners and customs, ancient dictionaries, cabinet-makers' books of design, ancient and modern, and examination of specimens of furniture, both colonial and foreign.

The last of these sources is the most important, and New England is particularly rich in examples of the earliest as well as the later furniture, while the South is wofully lacking in any pieces prior to the mahogany period, although the inventories show that such pieces existed more abundantly there even than in the North.

New England possesses many fine collections, both public and private, and as these collections contain examples from both North and South, we have in many cases used them in illustrating instead of taking specimens still in the South.

In the last few years many pieces of the seventeenth-century furniture have come to light which fully carry out the idea of development insisted on in this volume, but often it has been impossible to obtain pictures of these pieces, the owners fearing the reproducer.

As to the inventories, it must be borne in mind that they are misleading. The dates will always be late for a style, as there is no way of telling how long a piece, when mentioned in the inventories, had been in the possession of the deceased before the inventory was taken, and we believe the tendency has heretofore been to date too late rather than too early. A fairly safe guide to follow is to deduct ten years from the inventory date. Then as to valuations. The inventory valuations are, of course, very low, usually about three-fifths to one-half of the true value, and if before 1710 account must be taken of the fact that the purchasing power of money was then about five times what it is at present. Thus, if a chest is valued at £1 in an inventory of 1680, its true value at that time was from £1 13s. 4d. to £2, and the sum corresponding to this at the present time would be from £8 6s. 8d. to £10.

The method followed in dating the specimens of furniture here shown has been to suggest the time when the style represented was in common use, and no attempt has been made to place the date of any specimen exactly, for only under special circumstances could that be done.

The writer wishes to express his thanks to the various collectors and persons having family pieces for their universal kindness in allowing him to examine and photograph their furniture, and for the interest they have taken in this work.

Brooklyn, November, 1901.