This volume is the first to survey the Metropolitan Museum's world-renowned collection of European furniture. One hundred and three examples from the Museum's vast holdings are featured. They originate in workshops in England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Russia, or Spain and date from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century. A number of them belonged to such important historical figures as Pope Urban VIII, Louise XIV, Madame de Pompadour, and Napoleon. The selection includes chairs, tables, beds, cabinets, commodes, settees and sofas, bookcases and standing shelves, desks, fire screens, atheniennes, coffers, chests, mirrors and frames, showcases and lighting equipment. The makers of some of the objects are unknown, but most of the pieces can be identified by lable, documentation, or style as the work of an European designer-craftsman, such as Andre-Charles Boulle, Thomas Chippendale, David Roentgen, or Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
Museum curators Danielle O. Kisluk-Grosheide, Wolfram Koeppe, and William Rieder discuss the history and significance of these objects, incorporating information gleaned from new research and conservation studies. The most important techniques of furniture making and decoration are also described - veneering, marquetry, joining, gliding, and inlay among others - and a glossary offers additional information on these and many additional aspects of the craft. In the introduction, Danielle O. Kisluk-Grosheide discusses the history of the Museum's collection. Her essay is accompanied by historical photographs from the Museum's files and views of several of the Museum's period rooms.

Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide and Wolfram Koeppe are Curators and William Rieder is Curator and Administrator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.