While it is not the purpose of this book to go extensively into the subject of antique furniture, yet period furniture enters into the present day needs so very materially, in that the old ideas are being used either in reproduction or as a foundation for furniture building, that it would be impossible to omit the subject altogether.

People of moderate means so often associate the word "period" with "high prices" that usually when a period suit is suggested as being appropriate, thoughts of extravagance enter the mind and the consumer will buy the more modern goods at possibly the same price, without even investigating the prices of the more distinctive furniture.

Period furniture is not for the millionaire only, but for the man of moderate means as well. This statement can be verified by a visit to any store with a fairly good size stock of furniture. As demand really dictates the styles, the furniture dealers have fallen in line with the demands of the time, consequently displays of Louis XIV and other famous styles may be found in such stores.

Furnishing a home is an art to which people are giving more and more attention. It has led to the study of the history of artistic furnishings, and the result is that people are becoming more generally ac-quainted with the vogues of those historic days when people lived amid artistic surroundings and when each hit of furnishings of the home, from the brass knockers to the candles and chairs, were works of beauty and significance. Those days are being revived with this change: That whereas the people of a certain period of history lived with the art of that period, the people of today are acquiring the sum of all these arts for their homes. Thus, one room of a home may he furnished in one design, and another room may represent an entirely different period of history.

Study Kindles Desire

The de-ire for period treatment on the part of the home folk is an indication of progress, influenced to a degree, at least, by association with good literature, paintings and music. Beauty, art and harmony are qualities which from the beginning the designers, artists, musicians and writers have been endeavoring to express. In every material creation we see these attributes, and a more fitting field for the featuring of usefulness, beauty, art and harmony could not be found than in a home.

We welcome this awakened manifestation of art in furniture as reproduced from the classical creations of Thomas Sheraton, Messrs. A. Hepplewhite & Co., Thomas Chippendale, Adam Bros, and others. The quest of the beautiful by present-day furniture designers has led them to recognize that its best expression is found in the products of those old artisans. The survival of the fittest is the law of progress, and that period furniture must be the fittest is demonstrated by the fact that while many styles have come and gone, period furniture is more popular today than ever. A style of furniture known as L'Art Nouveau, which was ushered in a few years ago with a great deal of enthusiasm, has almost been forgotten. The designers of this style of furniture went directly to the plant and animal life for their motif, and while there was much to commend in L'Art Nouveau furniture, it was popular for but a very short time. It is a design, however, that seems to have found a place in much of our pottery and jewelry.

Nothing retards the wide use of any commodity so much as high prices. The quantity that can be produced and distributed of a given article regulates its cost to the consumer to a very great degree. The makers of period furniture are finding such a demand for their product that they are now turning out beautiful, high-class pieces at prices within reach of all. The opportunity should not be lost just now to say that, because of the enduring quality and beauty of period furniture, the housekeeper should regard the money put into it, not as expended, but as invested. A piece of furniture that is, regardless of the passing fad, always in good taste, such as period furniture, is worth all, if not more than, its original cost at any time, so long as it is not actually worn out.

Samples shown at the great semi-annual furniture expositions for many years have demonstrated the truly remarkable progress made in the design and quality of furniture up to the present time, This does not mean that there has not always been really good furniture produced. The old high-grade manufac turers have endured, perhaps, because of the high standard they set, and they have influenced others follow.