t, but from the
standpoint of the modern home-maker, to help him furnish his house
consistently,--to try to spread the good word that period furnishing
does not necessitate great wealth, and that it is as easy and far more
interesting to furnish a house after good models, as to have it banal
and commonplace.

The first part of this little book is devoted to a short review of the
great periods, and the second part is an effort to help adapt them to
modern needs, with a few chapters added of general interest to the
home-maker.

A short bibliography is also added, both to express my thanks and
indebtedness to many learned and delightful writers on this subject of
house furnishing in all its branches, and also as a help to others who
may wish to go more deeply into its different divisions than is possible
within the covers of a book.

I wish to thank the Editors of _House and Garden_ and _The Woman's Home
Companion_ for kindly allowing me to reprint articles and portions of
articles which have appeared in their magazines.

I wish also to thank the owners of the different houses illustrated, and
Messrs. Trowbridge and Livingston, architects, for their kindness in
allowing me to use photographs.

Thanks are also due Messrs. Bergen & Orsenigo, Nahon & Company, Tiffany
Studios, Joseph Wild & Co. and the John Somma Co. for the use of
photographs to illustrate the reproduction of period furniture and rugs
of different types.

_Egypt and Greece_

The early history of art in all countries is naturally connected more
closely with architecture than with decoration, for architecture had to
be developed before the demand for decoration could come. But the two
have much in common. Noble architecture calls for noble decoration.
Decoration is one of the natural instincts of man, and from the earliest
records of his existence we find him striving to give expression to it,
we see it in the scratched pieces of bone and stone of the cave
dwellers, in the designs of savage tribes, and in Druidical and Celtic
remains, and in the great ruins of Yucatan. The meaning of these
monuments may be lost to us, but we understand the spirit of trying to
express the sense of beauty in the highest way possible, for it is the
spirit which is still moving the world, and is the foundation of all
worthy achievement.

Egypt and Assyria stand out against the almost impenetrable curtain of
pre-historic days in all the majesty of their so-calle