House £s? Garden 
Copyrighted iqoo, by Doubleday , Page & Co. 
Copyrighted iqoo , by Doubleday , Page G\ 
THE FURNITURE OF OUR 
F O R E F A T H E R S. 
By Esther Singleton.* 
T HE exploitation of all things Colonial in¬ 
dicates the general diffusion of an interest 
in our not very remote past without which 
the publication of such a work as “ The 
Furniture of Our 
Forefathers” would 
be an extremely 
risky undertaking. 
But the book counts 
on this interest, and 
as it is intended for 
the amateur of old 
things, it very prop¬ 
erly does not ap¬ 
proach its subject 
from a technical 
point of view. The 
author gives us 
glimpses of the 
domestic life of our 
country as illustrat¬ 
ed by the common 
objects the people 
had about them in 
their houses. She 
quotes at length 
from old invento¬ 
ries, and from them, one who is curious about 
such things, can gain a fairly correct idea of 
the kind and amount of household furniture 
owned by men in various stations in life, at 
any given date. These inventories, though 
of general interest, are beside the mark for 
one who cares about old furniture on account 
of the beauty of its design. And indeed, 
to such a person the illustrations, rather 
than the text, commend the work since the 
text is largely devoted to the social and his¬ 
torical side of the subject. Many of the 
illustrations, however, have critical notes by 
Russell Sturgis, and these notes in many cases 
give just what one wants to know. They 
show, too, how much 
a man of keen obser¬ 
vation with a general 
knowledge of a sub¬ 
ject may find to say 
about an illustration 
of it. They form 
lessons in the art of 
seeing. For exam¬ 
ple, in describing 
the kitchen in the 
Whipple House, 
Mr. Sturgis points 
out that our interest 
in the room really 
comes from “ the 
unaltered and un¬ 
ceiled floor over¬ 
head, with its heavy 
moulded timbers.” 
He calls our atten¬ 
tion to the six¬ 
legged table with its 
drop leaf and he points out a thing that 
even a careful observer might fail to see, 
when he says that “ there is no evidence of 
*“ The Furniture of Our Forefathers,” by Esther Singleton, 
with critical descriptions of the plates by Russell Sturgis. In 
eight parts. 8” x n'A". Each part about 75 pp., 3 pi., 
15 full-page ills, and inanv cuts in text. New York ; Double¬ 
day, Page & Company. Price, $2.00 per part. 
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