"The hundreds of color photographs by Lois Lammerhuber set a newstandard for design and furniture photography. Linda Chase's engaging text,which includes interviews with leading experts and museum curators, is the mostcomprehensive account available of this influential and vital style." "Biedermeier furniture and interior design are recognized today as the first great flowering of haute bourgeois taste in interior decoration. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, these ideals in design were pursuedby a wide range of society, from the Habsburgs and Hohenzollern to the middleclass throughout Central Europe. The style ranges from celebrations of comfort,domestic intimacy, and practicality to highly embellished pieces designed forpublic display. Biedermeier's innate classicism, its often lyrical, yet elegantforms, have made it an influential inspiration that is truly timeless."--BOOKJACKET.