But excellent reproductions of the old pieces are, nevertheless, made to-day, retaining the charm of their prototypes, so that those who are unable to purchase antique specimens may still furnish their homes in the best manner and at a moderate cost. Discrimination is necessary, and very practical helps will be found in the chapter on "Advice to Buyers and Collectors."

A fair working knowledge of the several period styles will tenfold increase our interest if we have begun to heed the call of the antique, and we may depend upon it that a discriminating acquaintance is not only a source of satisfaction in itself but is really an essential part of a truly liberal education and helps mightily toward a broad, humanising sense of appreciation which everyone should cultivate. To know fully the charm and merits of old furniture, to realise the opportunities and resources it affords us in the appointment of our houses, it is necessary that we understand at least enough about the characteristics of the sundry periods to distinguish easily one kind from another.

Some thirty years ago were sown the seeds of a taste for old furniture. The taste grew and spread rapidly. Everybody supposed to have good taste began to admire antiques, or at least pretended to. Very few, it is true, then knew much about the subject, but that made no difference. Old pieces of all descriptions and periods were rescued from the neglect that had hitherto been their portion, or dragged from the oblivion of dusty attics, where they had lain unheeded for years, and heaped with undiscriminating admiration, regardless of real deserving. Later, after the first stages of discovery and acquisition, came a general desire to know something more about these now treasured heirlooms and "finds" than merely that they were "very old pieces."

The object of the following chapters is to give practical, concrete information in this respect and point out the goodness of the several styles, supplying such characteristic details as may enable the reader to identify and distinguish types with certainty as well as convenience. By the aid of the ensuing pages a broad acquaintance with the subject is quickly obtained.

A word should be said about the conventional division into "periods." Such a division is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but cannot well be avoided, and it is not to be desired that it should. Various systems of nomenclature have been contrived to designate the procession of styles but, of them all, the one here followed seems the most logical. By calling a period after the monarch during whose reign a style flourished, or after the designer whose influence most developed it, we arrive at approximate accuracy of dates and have, also, the added advantage of a human and often exceedingly picturesque personality to attach our associations to, and such associations are undoubtedly a help to memory. When a striking personality or a stirring and dramatic incident can be seized, and made the pivot around which we arrange a congeries of facts or observations, the human mind is so constituted that it retains a far more vivid impression of the whole and the inter-relation of the separate points than if there were no picturesque background or setting to invest the details with an element of interest. In speaking of periods, therefore, we mean the well-defined styles of furniture in vogue at some particular epoch.

All the period styles - Jacobean, Queen Anne, Chippendale and so on - have certain peculiar and unmistakable characteristics, a slight acquaintance with which will enable an ordinarily observant person to classify properly any article likely to be met with.

It is the happy office of this Practical Book of Period Furniture to simplify the subject to a greater extent than ever before by emphasising the fact that the fully developed styles of each period are markedly distinct from those which went before and those which followed after; so distinct that each is unmistakable and the differences easily recognised and mastered. The transition pieces - those that partake of the characteristics of two adjoining periods - readily fall into place when the characteristics of each are known. It will be a great aid and simplification to remember this when we recall that furniture is subject to the same laws of gradual change and development that we find in everything else, one type merging almost imperceptibly into another. In almost every instance there are numerous cases of overlapping between consecutive periods.

It is by form that we most quickly recognise things, and even a novice, by giving a little study to the illustrated chronological key of this book, will find himself growing familiar with the shapes of each period so that soon the whole field will lie out simply before him as a well-marked map.

Styles that matured in periods of which they were considered typical, really oftentimes budded forth feebly towards the close of the preceding epoch. Persistence in the perpetuation of types far beyond the periods of which they were representative, by duplicating old models, is even more noticeable than cases of premature arrival. This was naturally to be expected in country districts where the local joiners, far removed from new patterns and the stimulating influence of new ideas, just went on copying the objects they had before them with little or no change. Oaken settles of Cromwellian pattern were made in the reign of Queen Anne and even in that of George I. These tendencies to overlap in both directions need not at all disturb our classification, however, as they are merely the exceptions that prove the well-established rule.

In dealing with each successive period this book demonstrates its practical simplicity for purposes of ready reference and comparison. At the beginning of each chapter are given dates, reign and such general observations as may be necessary. Following this is a condensed enumeration of the different articles of furniture found in common use at the particular time of which the chapter treats.