Tudor to Stuart [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION These little books will probably not appeal to connoisseurs, nor will they interest advanced collectors. They are merely intended to offer suggestion and a certain amount of information to that large and increasing body of persons to whom old pieces of furniture are more interesting than new, and to show that no extraordinary income is essential to making a collection. For, as a fact, a simple eighteenth-century chair from farmhouse or modest city dwelling is historically as much an object of interest as the finest example of elaborate cabinet-making. It is, moreover, probable that the huge sums paid for fine pieces are occasionally more the outcome of a vulgar desire to possess than a genuine delight in the beautiful or a laudable interest in the historical aspects of old furniture. A person who purchases an old gate-leg table, a settle, or an oak chest for five pounds has an article of great utility and one which provides a tangible link with the past and is in itself a piece of history. A collector's object should always be to acquire antiques, not dilapidations. A piece of furniture is not good because it is old. It may be interesting for this reason, but the first quality i v b