The work brought out by Ince and May hew, The Universal System of Household Furniture, undated, but circa 1770, carries extravagance in the more florid style of Chippendale to an extreme. Nevertheless, there are more sober productions which are pretty enough, besides the horrible chimneypieces in the Gothic taste, all pinnacles and crockets, or those in the Chinese, which are all of pointed leaves and pagoda tops. The fact is, that where so many books were published within a few years of each other, all following the same fashion, it was inevitable that they should be a conglomeration of better and worse. If Ince and Mayhew go mad over a big bed, they atone for it in a lady's secretaire, and can point to other people's vagaries in excuse for their own. At the same time, it must be admitted that some of their almost solid-backed, presumably hall chairs with cabriole legs and turned leg-rails are very ugly, both in general shape and arrangement of detail. Their book contained 300 designs on 95 plates.

It would have been a wonder if some of these were not inferior, and perhaps some of their trays with pierced borders are too reminiscent of tambourines.

J. Wyatt, who published Forty-two Original Coloured Drawings of Ornaments to Scale, Ceilings, Panels, etc., from 1770 to 1785, was not a furniture designer, but he was responsible for many of those beautiful plaster ceilings to be found in Harley Street and Portland Place, in which the details, such as the oval fan pattern, are in keeping with those of the cabinetmakers.

Similar books were those of P. Columbani, A New Book of Ornaments, 1775, and A Variety of Capitals, Friezes, Cornices . . . likewise Twelve Designs for Chimneypieces, 1776. These are good drawings on a large scale. He uses the Greek anthemion ornament, especially the honeysuckle variety, vases, and cassolette shapes, with the usual classical figures and acanthus leaves. In some plates the tops of four chimneypieces are piled one above the other, an arrangement which does not conduce to a good opinion of each individual design.

Another room decorator of good taste was N. Wallis. His first publication seems to have been a Book of Ornament in the Palmyrene Taste, 1771, whilst in The Complete Modern Joiner, 1772, he gives designs for chimneypieces and doorcases with their mouldings. His chimneypieces are in the light classical style which is associated with the name of the Adams. His ceiling ornaments are rather more French in feeling, with naturalistic wheat-ears and sprays of vine.

Similar designs appear in the works of Matthias Darly, who engraved the books of Chippendale and Ince and Mayhew. His chief production is A Compleat Body of Architecture, Embellished with a Great Variety of Ornaments, 1770 and 1773. His classical chimneypieces are as good as others, whilst his lighter style is similar to that of Lock or the Adams.

Thomas Crunden brought out a series of small books, such as The Joyner and Cabinetmaker's Darling in 1765, The Carpenter's Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates in 1770, and The Chimney-piece Maker's Daily Assistant, 1776.

From 1777 onwards, Michael Angelo Pergolesi published Designs for Various Ornaments, many of which are similar to those of the Adams, as was only to be expected from a man who, as their assistant, was probably as much to them as Gibbons was to Sir Christopher Wren. Pergolesi is responsible for many of those chimneypieces which were adorned with the little pictures of Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann. If I mention Pergolesi, I must not omit George Richardson, who rivalled the Adams in culture and achievements. To him, just as safely as to the Adams, we may attribute many of those chimneypieces in variously coloured marbles in classical style, which still grace houses in the vicinity of Cavendish Square. His earliest work was a Book of Ceilings in the Style of the Antique Grotesque, 1776, and his latest, Ornaments in the Antique Style, 1816.