INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



This evolution did not take place, however, until the 

 beginning of modern times. And yet, had the customs 

 of the ancients been studied, models of chairs, prac- 

 tically identical with modern ones, would have been 

 found to have been used by certain nations at least 

 two thousand years earlier. The Egyptians, for ex- 

 ample, were accustomed to use light, portable chairs, 

 very like our simple modern ones, and the Oriental 

 nations seem to have continued using such chairs 

 throughout the ages. Among these nations the chairs 

 were carved and richly ornamented in practically the 

 same manner as in modern times. 



The period of the Renaissance marks the beginning 

 of the time of modern furniture, graceful styles and 

 rich ornamentation being gradually introduced until 

 the culminating period in the time of Louis XIV and 

 XV in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 

 elegance of furniture in these periods, the graceful 

 styles, and costly carvings are too well known to need 

 description here. These styles are still copied, coming 

 into fashion periodically, although the custom of such 

 monarchs of fashioning some of their furniture in silver 

 has never been popular even with the wealthy since 

 their time. This silver furniture in the palaces of 

 the last of the French Bourbons was eventually 

 melted to defray expenses by the descendants of those 

 monarchs. 



In recent years America has taken an important 

 place in the construction of convenient and comfort- 

 able articles of furniture. Even in Colonial times the 

 rocking-chair had become popular, but this particular 



