Furniture is an artifact so what can it tell us about culture? What social, religious, political and economic factors have shaped its form and functions? How does furniture demonstrate the transformations in private and public life across time and cultures?

In a work that spans 4,500 years, 70 experts chart across six volumes the changing cultural framework within which furniture was designed, produced, and used in Western Europe. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole and, to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.

The six volumes cover: 1 - Antiquity (2500 BCE - 500 CE); 2 - Middle Ages and Renaissance (500 - 1500); 3 - Age of Exploration (1500 - 1700); 4 - Age of Enlightenment (1700 - 1800); 5 - Age of Empire and Industry (1800 - 1900); 6 - Modern Age (1900 - present).

Themes (and chapter titles) are: Design and Motifs; Makers, Making, and Materials; Types and Uses; The Domestic Setting; The Public Setting; Exhibition and Display; Furniture and Architecture; Visual Representations; and Verbal Representations.

The total extent of the pack is approximately 1,344 pages. Each volume opens with a Series Preface, an Introduction, and Notes on Contributors and concludes with Notes, Bibliography, and an Index.

Table of contents

Volume 1: A Cultural History of Furniture in Antiquity
Edited by Dimitra Andrianou, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece

Volume 2: A Cultural History of Furniture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Edited by Erin J. Campbell, University of Victoria, Canada and Stephanie R. Miller, Coastal Carolina University, USA

Volume 3: A Cultural History of Furniture in the Age of Exploration
Edited by Christina M. Anderson, University College London, UK and Elizabeth Carroll Consavari, San Jose State University, USA

Volume 4: A Cultural History of Furniture in the Age of Enlightenment
Edited by Sylvain Cordier, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, USA, Christina M. Anderson, University College London, UK and Laura Houliston

Volume 5: A Cultural History of Furniture in the Age of Empire and Industry
Edited by Catherine Futter, Brooklyn Museum, USA and Christina M. Anderson, University College London, UK

Volume 6: A Cultural History of Furniture in the Modern Age
Edited by Claire I. R. O'Mahony, University of Oxford, UK