How to know French antiques
Through usage, the adjective "antique" has become a noun, and the word "antiquity" now implies an object of very remote times. The United States Custom House has fixed 1830 as the deadline, and any item (with the exception of rugs) produced prior to that date is considered an antique and may be entered into the United States without payment of duty.
Rugs and carpets, however, are dutiable, unless they were made before 1700. Many American so-called "antiques" are of later date, but since America is a relatively young country and there would be no question of importation, the definition of an antique can vary and the one-hundred-year-old piece might qualify.
With so long a history as that of France, things which were made after 1830 seem almost modern, but even there, as the fine things of the eighteenth century grow scarcer and more expensive by leaps and bounds, some young people furnishing their homes are now turning toward the nineteenth-century Louis Philippe period.
The art of France has always been so great and far-reaching in all its branches that it is most difficult to select the essential facts without wearying the lay reader with many dates and names. Without going into great detail, one cannot conscientiously cover the vast ground or do justice to France's enormous contribution to civilization and to culture. France has been in the vanguard since the Renaissance and has been the cradle and arbiter of styles and tastes since that time.
I shall here try to present a general picture of France's furniture and decorations since her ascendancy, in order that the public interested in knowing "what it is all about" can form some idea of a subject which has fascinated and enthralled succeed- ing generations of people of good taste in all countries. To have a French salon or bedroom has been the ambition of fashionable people from one end of the globe to the other. Not only in Europe, but even as far as Egypt, Turkey, and the South American countries, the glamour of French furniture of the eighteenth century is recognized as the height of elegance.
Collecting antiques is a most delightful and rewarding hobby and one which can be enjoyed at any age. It provides a cultural interest long after other entertainments have begun to pall.
A true collector is never bored. When he is not actively searching he can be reading and studying, and he will never cease to learn. Some may regard collecting as a rich man's pastime, but many people of limited means are able to find lovely things within their reach if they do not concentrate
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