Some of the books deal almost entirely with the decoration of a room, but they are worth referring to as showing how the same types of ornament would be employed upon a plaster ceiling, and upon a sideboard or a tea-caddy.

We have noticed already the Society of Upholsterers and Cabinetmakers, with its One Hundred New and Genteel Designs, as probably the first genuine furniture book of this period, and referred to W. Jones, 1739, and W. Kent, 1744. Then comes Chippendale with his first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director, being a large Collection of the Most Elegant and Useful Designs of Household Furniture in the Gothic, Chinese, and Modern Taste. This is by no means the whole of the lengthy title of the first edition of 1754. His first-known plates are dated 1753. There was another edition of the Director in 1759, and a third in 1762.

Next we have Thomas Johnson, a carver, who brought out designs for picture-frames, candelabra, ceilings, clock-cases, etc., in parts at first, but bound up in 1758. In 1761 he published One Hundred and Fifty New Designs. He was a lover of the wildest French rococo, and the fancies of Meissonier were not unknown to him. It is probable that some still existing and so-called Chippendale furniture of this description is due to Thomas Johnson, but little, if anything, can be definitely ascribed.

Somewhat anterior to him come Copeland and Lock, with designs of picture-frames and mirrors and pier-tables, but they were scarcely books, rather small sets of plates. Some by Copeland date as early as 1746, whilst he joined with Lock in various small publications between 1752 and 1769. Matthias Lock's book of 1769, A New Book of Pier Frames, Ovals, Girandoles, Tables, familiarises us beforehand with the manner of Adam and Sheraton. He was a good sketcher of designs, and one drawing of an acanthus leaf is particularly noticeable. There is a set of four mirrors at Buckingham Palace, in the light open gilt style, with a large, long-beaked bird at the top, which might well be his invention.

I may just mention the books of Halfpenny, 1750, and Edwards and Darly, 1754, which contained details for the perpetration of the Chinese style in its most advanced degree, and then pass on to Robert Man-waring who, in 1765, published The Cabinet and Chairmakers Real Friend and Companion. Man-waring seems to have had a great deal of influence upon the Society of Upholsterers, seeing that The Chairmaker's Guide, by himself and others, brought out in 1766, is very similar to the Society's book of circa 1753. His book has been condemned as utterly worthless; its merits, if any, being due to Chippendale, and its defects sufficient to outweigh its virtues. Certainly at his worst, Manwaring is a very bad designer; but he varies, as all men do, and need not be entirely condemned for the sake of exalting Chippendale. If it is said that Chippendale was a designer of merit for years before his book came out, who knows what ideas he may not have culled from contemporaries, just as he and all borrowed from France ? It would appear more just to credit Manwaring with having added at least something to the common stock, during the years in which he worked before the publication of his book, rather than to accuse him of borrowing all from Chippendale. It is true his book came out after the latter's, but it enjoyed a vogue of its own, which is perhaps evidence that it was not regarded as an abject plagiarism.