The grammar and diction are decidedly unworthy of the style in which the book has been produced. The Preface opens : 'Prefaces, like Titles, are only meant as an Argument to the Reader, but when too long grow tedious, and are seldom read half through ; to prevent which shall be concise, and only say that the very few Publications that has been produced of this Nature, with many Intreaties of our several Friends, induced us to compile the following Designs tho' not without much controversy in our own Opinions; as Effects of this Nature are ever Suffrages of Public Criticism, especially among the Degree of those Artists which the subject tends to: But with respect to the judicious part of mankind we are certain they are ever friends to the Industrious, and their candour will at least, if not look over, excuse those Faults which can only be attributed to the early endeavours of such an Undertaking.' This first paragraph of the preface should be a sufficient example of the curiously involved literary style of Ince and Mayhew.

The descriptions of the plates, ninety-five in all, are given both in French and English in parallel columns. The first three plates contain detail ornament, one of which, a good French scroll, is called 'a systematical Order of Raffle Leaf from the Line of Beauty,' whatever that may imply. There may be some reference to Hogarth's views upon the beautiful. On Plate 4 are three very bad hall chairs, but Plates 9 and 10 contain examples of which Chippendale need not have been ashamed. Their sideboard tables (Plates 11 and 12) are also in his style. Claw tables (Plate 13), i.e. pillar and tripod tables, are rather elaborately French, whilst what they describe (Plate 15) as 'Voiders' are trays with shapes somewhat reminiscent of tambourines. There are good bureau bookcases on Plates 16-18, but some others (Plates 19-21) show clumsy-looking glazing shapes. An object in the Chinese style on Plate 21 is entitled a 'Gentleman's Repository.' This is only another name for a secretaire. Various tables and beds, not more extravagant than Chippendale's, take us up to Plate 33, which has three really pretty little bedroom tables with tray tops and pierced sides. Plate 37 is a 'Lady's Toilette,' an arrangement of a glass on a table with drapery elaborately festooned and flounced.

Plate CLI. Bureau Bookcase, Mahogany Inlaid Sheraton Late 18th Century

CLI. Bureau Bookcase, mahogany painted. Sheraton. Late eighteenth century. Vincent J. Robinson, Esq.

Plate CLII. Bureau Bookcase, Satinwood Sheraton

CLII. Bureau Bookcase, satin-wood. Sheraton. Mr. Stephen Neate.

Above the glass is a 'dish-clout' drapery supported by ropes in elegant knots looped round flying doves. The whole is impossible of execution. In contrast with this absurdity we have in the next plate two ladies' dressing-tables which are quite pretty, and fitted as to their interiors like those of Shearer. Ince and Mayhew do not excel in 'what-nots,' which they call 'ecoineurs/ These (Plate 47) are corner objects with a cupboard below, and four or five shelves above, the smallest at the top, and all made up of spindly C-curves. On Plates 55 and 56 they give what Chippendale calls a !French chair,' but Manwaring and Ince and Mayhew a 'Back stool.' If it has arms as in Plate 58, and is upholstered on seat and back, it then becomes with them also a 'French Chair.' What they call 'Burjairs,' Plate 60, which are short couches, are truly ugly; and in Plate 63, 'Un grand sofa' is a sofa in a niche, draped, Gothic, and silly. 'Illuminaries,' Plate 71, are small lights of a rococo kind. Wherever they give figures, as in 'slab' table frames (Plates 73-75) or, as we should call them, console tables, there is weakness of drawing and design.

The rest of the work consists chiefly of grates, picture-frames, and chimneypieces, and the general impression which remains with us is that a good number of these designs would have looked well enough if they were executed.