GOODBYE, MR. CHIPPENDALE

A debunking book on the Americal illusions about period furniture, European imports in particular, by an ultra-ultra modernist in the field of decoration. , bitingly, amusingly at times, he attacks the Elsie De Wolff-French Company -- Syrie Maugham school of decorators, with some sideswipes at Emily Post and Dorothy Draper, as being responsible for the vast hoax put over on the gullible nouveau riche American public. He even goes so far as to charge them as accessories to a plot to destroy any creative urge in modern furniture design. He says the post-war housing will find modern architecture in the and no furniture fit to put into modern houses. There's plenty of anecdotal material, extremes of statement, often unfair, but often with more than a grain of truth. Unfortunately, he makes no attempt to weigh his judgment with any glimmer of recognition for the sound things that have been done. His title is a stroke of perverted genius (but he grudges even a tipping the hat to to any contribution the M Sheraton-Hepplewhite-Adams and Chippendal made to design). The market will be largely those in the know, however, and there will be plent of cognisance taken of the ote in the neighbor's eye.