FRENCH FURNITURE

by Jacqueline aux ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Two handsome books, selected from the Lys D'Or series on the history of French art, and published in France by the Presses Universitaires de France, these are scholarly studies which the interested layman will enjoy. Both are liberally and effectively illustrated with some 40- 50 photographs, many in color, and a number of line diagrams of detail decoration... The Chateaux of France traces this particular phase of the history of France from the earliest examples of fortified castles to the chateaux and smaller houses of today in an attempt to co-ordinate conclusions into a broad general survey, a comprehensive architectonic study. The text is done with a strong visual flair, so that chateaux, familiar and less familiar to the average tourist, fall into proper grooves of development, while the details to look for acquire significance. The famous chateaux are most of them here:- Langeais, Avranches, Chambois, Chinon, Loches, Chateau-Gaillard, La Roche-Guyon, the Louvre, Senlis, Carcassonne, Angers, Poitiers, Vincennes, Blois, Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise, Chenonceaux, Villandry, Chambord, Fontainebleau, Versailles, La Malamison- and many more. An excellent handbook for the would-be student-traveler... French Furniture reads more like a text book, with an established pattern throughout: period by period, technical information, manufacture, woods employed, decoration, and so on. From the scant sources of the Middle Ages, to derivative pieces drawn from all periods in our times, the development of French furniture is traced. Useful but uninspired.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Indexed Bibliographies

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION