Peter Thornton
Viking, New York, 1993, 1984, English
Nonfiction, Interior Design
ISBN: 9780670142286

A comprehensive collection of paintings, photographs, and sketches that depict the design aesthetic of interiors around the world—from the homes of aristocrats and artists to those of the bourgeoisie—including furniture arrangement, lighting, and decoration, of rooms through six fifty-year periods.

On 3 book lists
Jeffrey Bilhuber

A “must” for anyone inspired by historic interiors. The author conveys the personality and unique relationship between owner and interior while remaining informative and poignant.

Witold Rybczynski

Architects should know history, not only the history of buildings but also the history of interiors—not at all the same thing. Thornton, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, provides a magisterial survey, examining the architectural shell as well as the loose furnishings within, and illustrating each period with contemporaneous paintings, drawings and (for the latter part of the nineteenth century) photographs.

Susan Weber

An important source for historical information on interiors by an internationally renowned expert in the decorative arts, with the added plus that a large number of the illustrations were made at the time when the decoration was more or less new.

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