at the time. In a review of one of his books, in
the _Art Union_ of 1839, the following sentence completes the
criticism:--"As it is a common occurrence in life to find genius mistaken
for madness, so does it sometimes happen that a madman is mistaken for a
genius. Mr. Welby Pugin has oftentimes appeared to us to be a case in
point."

[Illustration: Prie-dieu, In Carved Oak, enriched with Painting and
Gilding. Designed by Mr. Pugin, and manufactured by Mr. Crace, London.]

At this time furniture design and manufacture, as an Industrial Art in
England, seems to have attracted no attention whatever. There are but few
allusions to the design of decorative woodwork in the periodicals of the
day; and the auctioneers' advertisements--with a few notable exceptions,
like that of the Strawberry Hill Collection of Horace Walpole, gave no
descriptions; no particular interest in the subject appears to have been
manifested, save by a very limited number of the dilettanti, who, like
Walpole, collected the curios and cabinets of two or three hundred years
ago.

[Illustration: Secretaire And Bookcase, In Carved Oak, in the style of
German Gothic. (_From Drawing by Professor Heideloff, Published in the
"Art Union," 1816._)]

York House was redecorated and furnished about this time, and as it is
described as "Excelling any other dwelling of its own class in regal
magnificence and vieing with the Royal Palaces of Europe," we may take
note of an account of its re-equipment, written in 1841 for the _Art
Journal_. This notice speaks little for the taste of the period, and less
for the knowledge and grasp of the subject by the writer of an Art
critique of the day:--"The furniture generally is of no particular style,
but, on the whole, there is to be found a mingling of everything, in the
best manner of the best epochs of taste." Writing further on of the
ottoman couches, "causeuses," etc., the critic goes on to tell of an
alteration in fashion which had evidently just taken place:--"Some of
them, in place of plain or carved rosewood or mahogany, are ornamented in
white enamel, with classic subjects in bas-relief of perfect execution."

Towards the close of the period embraced by the limits of this chapter,
the eminent firm of Jackson and Graham were making headway, a French
designer named Prignot being of considerable assistance in establishing
their reputation for taste; and in the Exhibition which was soon to take
place, this firm too