The eighteenth century was a period of great inventiveness and originality in French decorative arts and interior decoration.
    This book discusses in detail the creation and contents of the interiors of French aristocrats and financiers, including some that have never been photographed before. Using contemporary inventories, letters, and journals it brings to life the tastes and preoccupations of their creators - the Royal family, the aristocracy, the fashionable tourists and the nouveaux riches, as well as the dealers and craftsmen who worked for them, the artists, designers and architects. In addition, it explores the wider context of different styles of decoration, the effect upon them of changes in etiquette and social behaviour and the effect they had in turn upon the function and arrangement of rooms within the French interior.

John Whitehead is a frequent exhibitor at international art and antiques fairs, and serves on the committee of the French Porcelain Society. He is a well-known authority on eighteenth-century decorative arts and interior decoration, and has previously written, with Dr Oliver Impey, on the use of Japanese lacquer on French furniture, and with Sir Francis Watson on the porcelain collection of the Grand Dauphin