[Rarebooks] FS: Original 1918 ed. of italian Furniture Classic

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “A History of Italian Furniture from the Fourteenth to the Early
Nineteenth Centuries”

By William M. Odom.
Published in New York by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1918-1919.
Limited to 500 sets.

DISCUSSION: A large, well-illustrated classic on Italian furniture of the
Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Classical Revival and Empire
periods. Odom published his work when interest in and appreciation for the
arts and crafts of the Italian Renaissance was peaking in America and
England, and it followed several other noted English language studies of
Italian woodwork, interiors, architecture and carving.

In many Renaissance-era craft centers, but especially in Italy, the same
workers who created the beautifully-carved church and house interior
woodwork and sculptures also made the furniture, so the subjects were
inextricably linked. Odom, however, was the first English-language writer
to focus on furniture, and he drew his examples mainly from American,
Italian, and some English, collections, both public and private. Many
examples were drawn from the stock of high-end New York dealers such as
Bardini and Volpi, and others came from the N metropolitan Museum of Art
and the Victoria & Albert. The rest were in private hands; some of those
examples have since migrated to museums, others have changed location or
disappeared from public view entirely.

Indeed, the second volume which begins after the Renaissance and features
Baroque and Classical pieces, is drawn almost exclusively from private
collections, as most connoisseurs of the period, Odom included, viewed
these styles as debased and vulgar, and unworthy of museum collections.
For present-day fans of 17th and 18th century work doom's text can,
therefor, be a bit challenging, or perhaps aggravating, but it stand s as
a perfect mirror of the scholarly tastes of his period. Whether one agrees
or disagrees with some of his aesthetic judgements, Odom's work remains a
cornerstone of furniture literature, and a magnificent achievement.

DESCRIPTION: 2 volumes. Hardcover. 11"x15", xx + 364 pages & xxv + 422
pages, 865 black & white illustrations.

CONDITION NOTES: Covers a bit faded and with light soil, light wear,
slight 1-inch gouge in the outer rear hinge of Volume 2. Slight scattered
internal soil, several minor binding cracks, but tight and good.

PRICE: $1,500-

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JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

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