A survey by Nicklaus Pevsner in the 1930s estimated that some 80-90% of manufactured goods in England were shoddy and poorly designed. When it came to furniture only a handful of manufacturers would have escaped such condemnation. Prime among these was Heals of Tottenham Court Road - manufacturer, retailer, and, with its top floor Mansard Gallery, the Mecca for Home Counties cognoscenti of 'modernism'. Most furniture manufacturers advertised their wares in the press but Heal's was a rare exception in the industry in its use of posters. Heal's posters not only relay the saga of a pioneering enterprise but provide a shorthand history of what was happening in the design and retailing of furniture and furnishings in Britain in the 20th century.

Furniture Marketing, 2nd Edition, contains an overview of how furniture products are developed, marketed, and presented to targeted retailers and consumers. Bennington focuses on developing an appreciation for furniture as a functional art form. This new edition covers the entire industry, including types of furniture, design periods, product development, and manufacturing. The text also explains how to sell furniture through pricing, promotion, and distribution. Residential furniture is the main focus of Furniture Marketing, but there is a chapter on contract furniture. This book can serve as a helpful reference for students as well as beginning and experienced employees of manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers.

Emille Galle was one of the leading figures of the Art Nouveau movement in France, and founder of the famous Ecole de Nancy. A polymath and committed social activist, he was best known for his glasswork and faience. Furniture became his third discipline after experimenting with the manufacture of wooden bases on which he could mount his glass vases. Galle ardently followed the French tradition of furniture decoration known as marqueterie. His work is characterized by its meticulous decorative veneers, stained with subtle organic dyes; its panels inlaid with stunningly intricate country scenes and flowers. This book outlines all of Galle's major works of furniture, from the unique pieces that were designed for an exclusive clientele, to those displayed between 1889 and 1904 at the annual Paris Salons and two World Expositions. The recent emergence of many of his objets de luxe enables the reader to understand many of his pieces for the first time. Written by Decorative Arts specialist Alastair Duncan, the book documents the history of Galle s furniture production from his favorite motifs to the ways in which he used furniture design to express his social and political ideals. Duncan includes an encyclopedic range of models created in the Galle Workshops both during and after his lifetime. Beautifully illustrated, and containing translations of Galle s Notes to the juries of the World Expositions, this stunning publication will leave the reader captivated by this decadent expression of the new art that changed the European aesthetic forever.

Harry Bertoia, Sculptor is devoted to the life and work of a twentieth-century Italian-born American artist whose important commissions are located in twenty-five American cities from New York to Seattle and from Minneapolis to Miami. It traces the development of Bertoia's versatile career from his youth in Detroit, beginning with drawings, paintings, and monoprints, then jewelry and furniture designs, to his abstract sculptures in metals, many of architectural proportions. The book includes a biography of the man and detailed descriptions of his methods of working. Many major sculptures and some minor ones are described in detail. They are critically analyzed for their aesthetic components and the ideas they were intended to express. A large number of photographs supplements the descriptions and analyses. Two appendixes give chronologies of the artist's life and of his architectural commissions, the latter virtually a catalog of Bertoia's major works. Based on several extensive interviews with the artist, as well as on research into his earlier writings, the book includes Bertoia's thoughts on aesthetics and various phases of the art processes he uses. His work is categorized into four major aesthetic explorations that interested him most of his life.

Brings together a superb collection of over 650 detailed examples English furniture and needlework from 1600 to 1760 These volumes are dedicated to one of the finest collections of early English furniture and needlework, formed by Percival D. Griffiths (1861-1937). Together with the noted authority, Robert W. Symonds, Griffiths assembled a pioneering collection of early English decorative arts: furniture, domestic needlework and related objects all dating to the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. The book illustrates nearly 700 pieces owned by Griffiths and includes images of his interiors, and biographical data on Griffiths. Catalogue entries provide color images, exhibition histories, references, and provenance. These volumes present a wealth of new information that will aid both the amateur and connoisseur alike.

In Furniture with Soul, author David Savage explores the philosophies, careers, and pivotal moments of struggle and inspiration for today's most talented and influential woodworkers. He traveled throughout the U.S. and Britain to interview these renowned artists, including John Makepeace, John Cederquist, Jack Larimore, Judy Kensley McKie, Michael Hurwitz, Tom Hucker, Rupert Williamson, Gary Knox Bennett, and Peter Danko. With a telling eye and refreshing intimacy, he reveals their thinking, creative processes, and rise to prominence. He takes the reader into their workshops and their hearts. Savage seeks to illuminate the soul of the artists' work, and the influences and experiences that shaped them.