Figure 1 Benno M. Forman, undated photo. (Courtesy, Winterthur Museum.)

Figure 2  Cabinet attributed to the Symonds shops, Salem, Massachusetts, 1679. Red oak, black walnut, eastern red cedar, and soft maple with white pine. H. 17 3/4", W. 17 1/4", D. 9 3/4". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. Russell Sage; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) This cabinet has a history of ownership in the Herrick family.

Figure 3  Cupboard, northern Essex County, Massachusetts, 1685–1690. Oak and maple with oak and pine. H. 58 3/4", W. 48 1/2", D. 19 3/8". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Maurice Geeraerts in memory of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Robeson.)

Figure 4  Detail of the canted panel of the cupboard illustrated in fig. 3.

Figure 5  Bedstead, probably Ware, England, 1590–1600. Oak and unidentified light and dark woods. H. 105 1/8", W. 128 3/8*", D. 133". (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum; purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund.)

Figure 6  Stephen Harrison, design for a triumphal arch, London, 1603. Engraving. (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum.)

Figure 7  Stephen Harrison, design for a triumphal arch, London, 1603. Engraving. (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum.)

Figure 8  Wendel Dietterlin, design for a chimneypiece, 1598. Etching. (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum.)

Figure 9  Hall screen, Burton Agnes Hall, Yorkshire, England, 1610. (Courtesy, Jarrold Publishing and Burton Agnes Hall.)

Figure 10  Robert Smythson, Surveyor, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, England, 1580–1588. (Courtesy, Wollaton Hall.)

Figure 11  Stone bow, probably eastern France or Germany, early seventeenth century. Fruitwood, unidentified marquetry woods, steel, silver wire inlay, mother-of-pearl, gilding. L. 33". (Courtesy, Joe Kindig Antiques; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 12  Side chair, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1740–1750. Walnut. H. 41 5/8", W. 20 3/4", D. 21". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 13  Side chair attributed to the shop of Benjamin Randolph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca. 1769. Mahogany with white cedar. H. 36 3/4", W. 21 3/4", D. 17 7/8" (seat). (Chipstone Foundation; photograph, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 14  Side chair, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1800. Maple, birch, and maple veneer. H. 35", W. 22 1/2", D. 23 1/8". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 15  Side chair, Milford, Connecticut, ca. 1820. (Courtesy, New Haven Colony Historical Society; reproduced from an illustration in Robert F. Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1840 [New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977], p. 73.)

Figure 16  Dimensional diagram of the chair illustrated in fig. 15. (Courtesy, New Haven Colony Historical Society; reproduced from an illustration in Robert F. Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1840 [New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977], p. 73.)

Figure 17  Folding table, Boston, Massachusetts, 1650–1680. Black walnut, red oak, maple, and cedrela with oak and white pine. H. 28 1/2", W. 28 3/4", D. 28 3/4" (open). (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 18  Folding table, England, 1600–1650. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Private collectoin; photo, Peter Frahm.)

Figure 19  Folding table, England, 1600–1650. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Courtesy, William H. Stokes.)

Figure 20  Detail showing the turned legs and trapezoidal upper and lower frame of the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 21  Detail showing a carved bracket, bosses, and glyphs on the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 22  Plate 120 verso in Philibert de l’Orme, Le premier tome de l’architecture, 1568. (Courtesy, Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.)

Figure 23  Detail showing the pentagonal leg stiles of the table illustrated in fig. 17. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 24  Cupboard, England, ca. 1540. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Private collection.) This remarkable early cupboard has a set-back upper section with “secret” sliding panels.

Figure 25  House front, London, ca. 1600. Oak and leaded glass. (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum.)

Figure 26  Chest, England, ca. 1680. Oak, bone, and mother-of-pearl inlay with unidentified secondary wood. H. 31", W. 67", D. 26 3/4". (Courtesy, Sotheby’s Olympia, London.)

Figure 27  Pulpit, Lincolnshire, England, 1646. Oak. (Courtesy, St. Margaret’s Church, Bucknall, and Reverend Simon Witcombe.)

Figure 28  Plate 30 in Hans Vredeman de Vries, La perspective (1604–5; reprint, Amsterdam, 1629). (Courtesy, University of Madison–Wisconsin Library, Special Collections.)

Figure 29  Jean du Brueil, La perspective pratique, London, ca. 1645. Engraving. (Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.) This treatise was initially published between 1642 and 1649.

Figure 30  Inigo Jones, design for the House of Fame, from the Masque of Queens, performed in 1609. (Courtesy, Chatsworth House.)

Figure 31  Inigo Jones, set design for the masque Albion’s Triumph, 1632. (Courtesy, Courtauld Institute of Art.)

Figure 32  Cupboard, Boston, Massachusetts, 1670–1680. Oak, maple, cedar, and walnut with oak and white pine. H. 55 5/8", W. 49 1/2", D. 21 3/4". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 33  Detail showing the underside of the upper section of the cupboard illustrated in fig. 32. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 34  Cupboard, Yorkshire, England, first half of the seventeenth century. Oak. H. 53", W. 52 1/2", D. 22". (Courtesy, Huntington Antiques, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, England.)

Figure 35  Drawing of a stage cupboard, Flemish, 1549. (Courtesy, Warburg Institute and Cadland House, Fawley, Southampton.)

Figure 36  Gravestone of Thomas Call Jr., Malden, Massachusetts, 1678. (Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society, Farber Collection.)

Figure 37  The Execution of Charles I, England, 1649. Oil on panel. (Collection of Lord Dalmeny, on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)

Figure 38  Great chair attributed to Thomas Dennis, Ipswich, Massachusetts, ca. 1670. Oak. H. 45", W. 25 3/4", D. 17 1/2". (Courtesy, Peabody Essex Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

Figure 39  Friedrich Unteutsch, design for a cartouche illustrated on pl. 50 in Neues Zieratenbuch den Schreinern Tischlern ofern Küstlern und Bildhauer sehr dienstlich, 1640–1650. (Courtesy, Victoria & Albert Museum.)

Figure 40  Entrance front gable, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, 1580–1588.

Figure 41  Great chair, probably Middletown, Connecticut, second half of the seventeenth century. Red oak. H. 44 1/4", W. 22 1/2", D. 19 1/2". (Chipstone Foundation; photo, John R. Glembin.)

Figure 42  Detail of the back of the chair illustrated in fig. 41.

Figure 43  Armchair, Shrewsbury, England, 1662. Oak. Dimensions not recorded. (Reproduced from Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition [Suffolk, Eng.: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1979], fig. 2.11.) Richard Ellis made this chair for the Shrewsbury Drapers’ Company.

Figure 44  Armchair, French, sixteenth century. Walnut. H. 55 3/8", W. 24 5/8", D. 16 1/2". (Courtesy, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.)