French furniture

Le Garde-meuble, ancien et moderne (Furniture repository, ancient and modern), a bimonthly periodical published in Paris, promoting French styles in furniture, fabrics, and interior decoration for a nearly a century.

The more than 400 colorful images included in this Smithsonian Institution Libraries' online document represent SIL's nearly complete set of the early issues of Le Garde-meuble, those folios published from 1841 through 1851. Depicting a wide variety of furniture types and styles, the pictures were executed in such a highly skilled and detailed manner that even today they continue to be an exceptionally rich visual resource for furniture restorers, set designers, historians, curators, historic preservationists, upholsterers, and interior decorators.