The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways
Moore, N. Hudson, 1857-1927Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.0- Word count
- 414K words
- Chapters
- 42
Tags
English Originals Crafts Historical ReappraisalEveryday LifeWestern ThoughtIllustrated GuideTraditional Aesthetics19th CenturySummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways by N. Hudson MooreAuthor: Moore, N. Hudson, 1857-1927,Language: English, Class: NK: Fine Arts: Decorative and Applied Arts, Decoration and Ornament, Release Date: Jan 8, 2015Editor's review
This book was first published in the early twentieth century, and its author, N. Hudson Moore, was an active writer on antique furniture of the time. It is not a modern market guide; it is more like an old-style collector's talk, weaving together furniture forms, woods, craftsmanship, and period life. Its value lies in recording how old furniture was viewed in that era, and reading it conveys a certain warmth—for example, it links a cabinet to details of old household life, letting you see the people behind the objects. The writing is in English, unhurried in style, and in places rambling, but it is precisely this rambling that preserves the flavor of early furniture writing. For today's readers, it offers not only knowledge but also an attitude toward living with old things. It suits slow browsing within easy reach, especially for those interested in classical furniture, decorative arts, and material culture; it can also serve as light English reading material, with furniture terms looked up along the way.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Western classical furniture and decorative arts who want to understand early collecting attitudes
- Interior designers or antique trade professionals seeking background knowledge of objects
- Readers who enjoy English essay-style writing and are willing to read slowly and look up terms
- General readers curious about the history of material culture and old ways of life
Not a good fit for
- Readers wanting to identify furniture dates and values from pictures and needing a practical illustrated guide
- Readers hoping for a systematic modern history of furniture or explanations of craft techniques
- Readers who read only Chinese and are unwilling to spend time on the English original and terminology
Reading tips
- Read through the table of contents first, prioritizing chapters on cabinets, tables, and chairs; there is no need to go in order from start to finish.
- Note English terms for furniture parts and woods as you go, then look them up together after finishing a section to avoid frequent interruption.
- Compare the object descriptions in the book with real pieces seen in museums or furniture shops, taking notes on impressions as you look.
- Read a short section each day, then close the book and restate the key points in your own words to check whether you have truly understood.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
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- 6
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- 8
- 9
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- 11
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FAQ
Is this book in English, and is it hard to read?
The original is in English, published in the early twentieth century, with fairly long sentences and an unhurried, even rambling style. Readers with intermediate English reading ability can get through it with a dictionary, but it takes some patience; speed is not the goal.Is it suitable for appraising the value of old furniture?
Not really. The book was written long ago and has no modern market prices or appraisal standards, nor does it aim to distinguish authenticity. It is better for helping you understand old furniture's forms, materials, and period background—a supplement to knowledge and eye.Can I read it without professional furniture knowledge?
Yes. The author wrote for general readers of the time, not specialists, and the explanations are narrative in nature. However, the book involves many English names for furniture parts and woods; look them up as you read, and with gradual accumulation you will keep up.What differences between the electronic and paper editions should I note?
This book comes from a free electronic edition on Project Gutenberg, a digitized version of a public-domain text; the layout may differ from the first edition, and illustrations may be limited. If layout and plates matter to you, find an illustrated edition to read alongside.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Moore, N. Hudson, 1857-1927 Author · American · 1857–1927N. Hudson Moore (1857–1927) was an American author and collector. Public information about his life is limited, and later readers have chiefly come to know him through his writings. His representative work, The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways, shows from its very title that he did not treat furniture as isolated objects but placed it against the background of everyday life and customs in earlier times. Besides furniture, he also wrote books on antiques, porcelain, and the decorative arts, which indicates that his interests ran through the whole field of decorative art. In his writing he emphasized the connection between objects and the ways of life of their periods, combining a collector's first-hand experience with readable historical and cultural narrative. Such works helped ordinary readers in the early twentieth century understand antique furniture and the decorative arts, and they remain among the early sources consulted by researchers and collectors in the field.