tic pieces which have reached public sales have
been eagerly snapped up by private collectors and museums at large
prices.

[Illustration: It is interesting to compare the generous curves of the
Chippendale sofa with the greater severity of Hepplewhite's taste..]

In America much of the furniture called Chippendale was not made by
Chippendale himself, but was made after his designs and copied from
imported pieces by clever cabinet-makers here in the, then, colonies.
The average American of the eighteenth century was a simple and not over
rich person of good breeding and refined taste who appreciated the
fact that the elaborate furniture of England and France would not be
in keeping with life in America, and so either imported the simpler
kinds, or demanded that the home cabinet-maker choose good models for
his work. This partly explains why we have so much really good Colonial
furniture, and not so much of the elaborately carved and gilded variety.

[Illustration: A valuable collection of an Adam mirror, a block-front,
knee-hole chest of drawers, and a Hepplewhite chair.]

_Robert Adam_

Robert Adam was the second of the four sons of William Adam, and was
born in 1728. The Adam family was Scotch of good social position. Robert
early showed a talent for drawing. He was ambitious, and, as old Roman
architecture interested him above all other subjects, he decided that he
could attain his ideals only by study and travel in Italy. He returned
to England in 1758 after four years of hard work with the results of his
labors, the chief treasure being his careful drawings of Diocletian's
villa. His classical taste was firmly established, and was to be one of
the important influences of the eighteenth century.

Robert and James Adam went into partnership and became the most noted
architects of their day in England. The list of their buildings is long
and interesting, and much of their architectural and decorative work is
still in existence.

To many people it will seem like putting the cart before the horse to
say that Robert Adam had in any way influenced the style we call Louis
XVI, but it is a plausible theory and certainly an interesting one. Mr.
G. Owen Wheeler in his interesting book on "Old English Furniture" makes
a strong case in favor of the Adam Brothers. Classical taste was well
established in England by 1765, before the transition from Louis XV to
Louis XVI began, and Robert Adam published his book in p