FURNITURE INDUSTRY

all the companies and activities involved in the design, manufacture, distribution, and sale of functional and decorative objects of household equipment. The modern manufacture of furniture, as distinct from its design, is a major mass-production industry in Europe, the U.S., and other advanced regions. It is very largely a 20th-century industry, its development having awaited the growth of a mass consumer market as well as the development of the mass-production technique. Earlier furniture making was a handicraft, going back to the most ancient civilizations. Additional reading Information on the furniture industry and trade may be found in W. Skinner et al., Manufacturing Policy in the Furniture Industry, 3rd ed. (1968); D.E. Bond and R.J. Wonnacott, Trade Liberalization and the Canadian Furniture Industry (1968); S.H. Slom, Profitable Furniture Retailing (1967); and J.L. Oliver, The Development and Structure of the Furniture Industry (1966). Descriptions and illustrations of types of furniture, mostly antique, are given in J.E. Gloag, A Short Dictionary of Furniture, rev. and enl. ed. (1969); and Ernest Joyce, The Technique of Furniture Making (1970). Works by C.H. Hayward include: English Period Furniture Designs (1969), a history of styles from the 16th through the mid-19th centuries; Period Furniture Designs, rev. ed. (1968), measured drawings of period pieces and their construction; and Antique or Fake? (1970), on how old furniture was made. A handbook on woodworking techniques and on the design and construction of modern furniture is J. and R. Hooper, Modern Furniture and Fittings, 2nd ed. rev. (1955). For descriptions and illustrations of craftsman-made furniture, see A.E. Bradshaw, Handmade Woodwork of the Twentieth Century (1962); and L.J. Mayes, History of Chair Making in High Wycombe (1960).