This book being written with the intention of helping the reader to select old furniture of the kinds for which he has any predilection, I do not propose to go further than the time of these reproductions of, say, some forty years ago. In another work I have said more of the later period of the aesthetic movement initiated by William Morris and his school, and later still of the Arts and Crafts Society promoted by Walter Crane and other artists, which is still doing good work. The best of this modern work will some day be sought after by the collector, but to-day the purchaser of the old, must go further even if perchance he fare worse.

In conclusion, one may be allowed to suggest that it is in a great measure owing to the craze for buying what purports to be old English furniture, that we see in the houses of so many people flimsy rubbish that would hardly find a purchaser if it were not called old; the romance and sentiment which seem to be attached to the chairs and tables which our grandfathers and great-grandfathers are supposed to have used, is allowed to make excuse for the miserable workmanship and meretricious ornament which, if represented as modern work, would scarcely find a place in the room of any one able to afford better furniture.

Perhaps the notes and suggestions written in these chapters may help to foster a more critical faculty, and render the reader better able to judge for himself whether the furniture so glibly described as "antique," as Sheraton, Chippendale, or by any other alluring and attractive title, is really the soundly-constructed, well-made article that it must of necessity be, to have stood the test of time and of the wear and strain to which it must have been subject, if it had as many birthdays as are imputed to it.

There is a fascinating charm in really well-designed and soundly-made old English furniture, and some knowledge and judgement in its selection is well worth the trouble of cultivating and acquiring.