With almost 5000 entries and more than 1000 illustrations, this dictionary provides a concise guide to the decorative arts of the West from the middle ages to the present day. Though mainly concerned with the furniture and furnishings of the European and North American private house, it also includes accounts of Chinese and Japanese pottery and porcelain, Peruvian pottery, Islamic metalwork and pottery, Turkish, Persian and other oriental carpets and many other objects which have influenced the development of the decorative arts in the West.