Excerpt from French Furniture in the Middle Ages and Under Louis XIII A consecutive and complete history of French furniture - complete in that it should not leave out the furniture used by the lower middle classes, the artisans and the peasants - remains still to be written; and the four little books of this series are far from claiming to fill such a gap. And yet they will perhaps usefully fill their modest place by giving some hints and ideas, as accurate as possible even though very elementary and simple, to those who appreciate the excellent work wrought by old-time joiners out of walnut trees and cherry trees and oaks. The present passion for those plain pieces of furniture that six or eight generations of the folk of Lorraine, of Provence, of Gascony or Normandy have polished by use and filled with their humble treasures, has more legitimate foundations than the mere craze for running after a fashion and the astute advertising of dealers: they are practical, their solid strength is proof against the lapse of years - if we dared, we might say their soul is dovetailed to their frames - their material the "bon bois vif, sec loyal et marchand," spoken of in every article of the Statuts et ordonnances des maistres huchiers-menuisiers, is often most admirable. 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.