The Mentor: Furniture and its Makers, Vol. 1, Num. 30, Serial No. 30

The work opens with a sweeping look at how furniture, as we know it, is a relatively recent invention. In medieval homes most rooms were furnished only with simple benches, chests and occasional stools, while tables were little more than boards on trestles. It wasn’t until the seventeenth century that chairs acquired sloping backs and cushioned seats, and pieces became lighter and movable. This early transformation sets the stage for the artistic revolutions that follow.

From there the narrative follows the Renaissance surge of decorative ambition across Italy, France, Flanders and Germany, before turning to the golden age of French court furniture. The establishment of the Gobelins manufactory under Louis XIV gathered the era’s finest designers, and master cabinetmaker Charles André Boulle elevated marquetry of tortoiseshell and brass to an art form. The book traces how the grand, massive styles of the Sun King gave way to the more intimate, curvilinear elegance of Louis XV, reflecting changing tastes and the practical needs of aristocratic life.