Halina Pasierbska 978 0 7478 0382 9 (Album 369) 40 pp, 49 colour and 41 b/w illustrations.

An historical overview of doll's house furniture and furnishings from the sixteenth century to the present day, set against the social and economic conditions of the period in which they were made. Rapdily changing technology combined with new materials such as plastics has resulted in the production of a large range of items for the dolls' house in the twentieth century, catering for the widely varying needs of collectors.

Halina Pasierbska is a curator at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, London. Other titles for Shire by this author are:

Dummy Boards and Chimney Boards £3.50

Clare Graham 978 0 85263 921 4 (Album 214) 32 pp, 50 ills.

 Life-sized painted wooden cut-out figures of soldiers, serving maids, children and animals stand in dark corners of some museums and country houses, often creating a disturbingly lifelike impression for the casual viewer. This book disentangles their true origins in seventeenth-century Dutch trompe l'oeil painting and discusses the range of purposes to which they were put. There is a section on the closely related subject of chimney-boards which are panels painted in trompe l'oeil to disguise fireplace openings in the summer months.

Clare Graham's work in the Department of Furniture and Interior Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, enabled her to make a close study of this underpublished subject.

Egyptian Woodworking and Furniture £4.99

Geoffrey Killen 978 0 7478 0239 6 (Shire Egyptology 21) 64 pp, 65 ills.

This book gives a comprehensive description of Egyptian woodworking from the earliest times to the Late Period. It examines the sources of wood and other materials used by Egyptian carpenters. The techniques used to embellish timber and the complex joints employed in carcase construction are also explained and woodworking tools and processes throughout the dynastic Period are described. Some of the important sources which illustrate the development of furniture styles and the use of tools come from wall paintings and reliefs in tombs. The story of furniture is traced through an examination of surviving pieces that are now preserved in museums, including First Dynasty bedframes from Tarkhan and the furniture of the Fourth Dynasty queen Hetepheres, as well as the highly developed cabinet making and turned stool legs of the Late and Graeco-Roman Periods.

Geoffrey Killen studied Design and Technology at Shoreditch College, University of London, where he specialised in researching ancient woodworking techniques and furniture. He has established a position as a leading furniture historian, the results of his research having been widely published. Mr Killen is Head of Faculty of a large college Design and Technology Department in Bedford.

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English Windsor Chairs £3.50

Ivan G. Sparkes 978 0 85263 562 9 (Album 70) 32 pp, 59 ills.

Originating at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Windsor chairs have been produced as disposable garden and verandah chairs and as finely carved royal furniture, and whether made by hand or machines, their basic, simple country lines have made them very collectable. This book attempts to introduce these to the reader and to point out some of the basic characteristics which help in the naming and dating of Windsor chairs.

Ivan G. Sparkes was Librarian of High Wycombe Central Library and Curator of the Wycombe Chair Museum 1971-1988, before retiring to Halesworth Suffolk to write and lecture. Other titles for Shire by this author are:

Portable Writing Desks £4.50

David Harris 978 0 7478 0503 8, (Album 388), 40 pages with many colour and black and white illustrations

Even today, many people still own an old portable writing desk or know someone who does. Although portable writing desks have existed in England since the sixteenth century, the majority of those found nowadays date from the Victorian period. They were made in large numbers at that time for the rapidly increasing middle classes. These small pieces of furniture have been largely ignored as antiques, perhaps because they are so numerous. This book looks at the history and significance of the portable writing desk and illustrates the main types to be found.

David Harris has been employed as a technical author for a number of years. He became interested in antique writing equipment in the mid 1990s and started to collect, restore and eventually to research the subject of portable writing desks.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851 English manufacturers showed furniture in which ceramic plaques painted at the Worcester factory were used. As tiles became more readily available, pictorial and patterned tiles were used as decoration and protection on a range of items throughout the house. The author describes and illustrates the variety of material used in conjunction with tiles, the range of prevailing styles, from Gothic to Anglo-Japanese, with which they were combined, the furniture manufacturers producing tiled pieces, and the tilemakers themselves.

Hans van Lemmen interest in tiles grew out of a study of Dutch and English architectural decoration. He is a keen collector, organises exhibitions of tiles in Britain and Holland and gives lectures on the subject. Other titles for Shire by this author are: