ABSTRACT
Charles Locke Eastlake, was a journalist and author who went on to become an art administrator and to write the highly successful book Hints on Household Taste: In Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details in 1868. Its popularity meant that subsequent revised editions were published in 1869, 1872, 1878. Mr. Eastlake argues at the commencement of his book that there is no supply corresponding to the improved state of public taste but as the work proceeds, he appears to arrive at the more correct opinion that it is the public taste itself which requires improvement. The author’s heaviest invective is, on the whole, perhaps, directed against the various processes used in modern cabinet work. If the extra horizontal depth can be spared, surely it would be better to give it to the drawers, while the fact that the short upper ones must be partially covered, when wide open, by the top, hardly requires comment.
