From among the world-renowned treasures at the Winterthur Museum, the author selected 400 outstanding examples of American furniture from the Queen Anne and Chippendale periods, representing the era when the cabinetmakers of New England, New York, Philadelphia, and the South were at the height of their achievement. Each illustration is accompanied by information about the pieces place of origin, date of construction, dimensions, special features and qualities, and the maker and original owner when known. A special section presents the furniture in its proper environment, including ten rooms in full color. There is technical information for the serious collector and a highly readable history for those interested in the early-American way of life.
Before his death in 1954, Joseph Downs was director of the Winterthur Museum, in Delaware, and curator of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for nearly twenty years.
