Excerpt from Furniture Mouldings: Full Size Sections of Moulded Details on English Furniture From 1574 to 1820 Moulding is the method adopted by the cabinetmaker to give definition to the lines of his work, and the sections of moulded detail have varied very much as one style has Succeeded another through the Oak, Walnut, Mahogany, and Satinwoo'd periods of English Furniture. Indeed, the full-size details of mould ings in the plates which follow prove that not only did the mouldings of one broad historical period differ radically from those of another, but that there were frequent and important differences between the mouldings of any given quarter of a century and those of that which immediately preceded or followed it. Mouldings are now produced in great quantities by machinery, and it is possible to make hundreds of feet of an elaborate section in a few hours. But before the introduction of such machinery the cabinetmaker wrought all his mouldings by hand, with the aid of moulding planes, and he might vary them at will, and thus produce the section which, in his opinion, was exactly suited to the work he had in hand. The working of mouldings was then so laborious that the craftsman used them with greater restraint, and obtained more pleasing effects by their use, than is frequently the case to - day when profusion often eliminates interest. Mr Warne's presentation of the mass of material which he has accumulated is very practical. He might have set down hundreds of sections, classified them according to periods, and left his readers in some doubt as to their precise application; but by the method which he has adopted not only are the full-size sections of the mouldings drawn with a clearness which is quite admirable, but thumb-nail sketches of the pieces to which they were applied -have been added. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.