During recnt decades collectors, more than ever before, have placed emphasis on quality,interest,rarity and beauty in the purchase of antique furniture.Despite the desire to own examples which are authentic, and whose value will increase, colleectors have given little attention tto certain essential knowledge pertaining to design.

The great schools of furniture design which arose in Europe following the Dark Ages received their stimuli not only from local talent butr from designers and craftsmen attracted from adjoining or even distant areas.Skills thus cultivated and fostered whedre by no means stationary. Craftsmen not only visitedthe large centers to improve their techniques, but they later carried their newly acquired skills to their own or other countrys.Leading craftsmen of these centers also visited or established themselves elsewhre.Consequently, designs and tectonic methods whre intermingled and widely spread. Some maintained continuity with the principles of a particular school, others merged with the designs of various areas,Thus, when the french and English Schools of design rose to preeminence during the 18. Century, and whre followed throughout Europe and America, designs or elements thereof which originated in England and France where copied elsewhere in Europe and in America, as well as in various colonies.

In studying and comparing the furniture of the countries which were themselves centers of influence, and the furniture of other areas which produced work more or less taken from, or paralleling,these centers, complete attention should be accorded to all the smallest details of design. In such a study a numberr of examples, with no particular appeal because of certain pecularities in their designs, may be passed over without due consideration. However, these will often contain valuable clues to help assign other examples to the areas where such design peculiarities were permittet, or even favored.

All too frequently foreig elements are disgarded.Yet anyone who fails to take such elements into consideration shows such a lack of understanding and discernment as to eliminate him as an authority. To possess authoritative knowledge concerning the antique furniture of any country, one must also be anequally informed about related designs produced in all other countries or areas reached by similar design influence.

The numerous pieces of furniture which today are attributed to France, England,America far exceed the possible output of the craftsmen of these countries. Records of the settlement of immigrant craftsman do not indicate enough production to account for the difference.Natively executed work is sometimes verified through the pressence of indigenous materials. However, definite structural derterminatioin, sometimes found in the secondary woods of American pieces, particulary poplar, is seldom as positive in Europe, where native species of timber were widely grown and distributed.Design, therefore, becomes a principal factor in deciding the geographic origin of furniture, with exposed structural features included as pertinent elements, often of greater importance than those concealed.Though pedigrees are also to be considered, flaws in such documentation are frequent, so that they should be weighed carefully.

Foreign furniture was seldom copied exactly,although this did occur. Instead there were adaptions, often rather free, to suit the preferences of a particular Craftsmen or shopp owner, to conform with local tastes,or to make use of such materials as were readily available. Drawings and details made by migratory workers were sometimes used, as well as those of specializing designers. Wealthy patrons, too, sent native architects to study at the principal art centers so that they would be better equipped to design appropriate interiors and furnishing for their benefactors. As commerce increased, designs might bemore accurately translated in areas seperaterd by sea, than by land, because of the greater obstacles of overland travel.

When furniture design became increasingly influenced by both French and English styles, still greater interrelationship resulted.Pieces were eventually developed with might well be described by hyphenated phrases, such as "Louis XV-Chippendale" or "Directoire-Sheraton" designs. Principal factors which resulted in the interrelation of designs may be summarized as follows:

When the work of designers or craftsmen of different areas-neighboring or distant-during any particular period contains a few basic elements in common, some generally similar patterns will be produced, no matter how divergent the majority of native designs may be.

When these common basic elements are improved or elaborated on from an outside center of influence, some parallel designs are bound to be produced, not only in the affected area and the center, but also in any other are influenced by the center.

When any area is motivated by the designs of two independent centers of influence at the same time, resulting productions may approximate those of either or both of these centers, or those or other areas influenced by the two centers.

If these rules are considered in studying the evolution of furniture designs, prior to the 16. century, during the renaissance and throughout the later decorative periods when travel and commerce increased more rapidly, it will be found that relationship progressed accordingly. Recognition of these relationships, particulary in reference to furniture following the French and English styles, is essential today because of widespread delocalization.This resulted from demands of traders and collectors during the past one hundred and twenty years, and also from deliveries to foreign shores at the time that the pieces were originally produced.

Furnitures supplied but a small part of commercial ventures during the 16. and 17. centuries. Its widespread distribution is accounted for in part by emigrations, such as that of William Penn