10 JULY 1897, Page 25

Hepplewhite's Cabinetmaker's Guide. (Batsford.) — This is a facsimile reprint of the

third edition of 1794, and contains a large number of drawings of the spindle-legged furniture of the end of the last century. The designs here shown are remarkable for their poverty of invention, the designer's one resource being an urn. When this funereal emblem was not possible, its shape still dominated chair-backs and looking-glasses. The climax is reached in beds like catafalques surmounted with urns, great and small, in rows. The book is very well produced, though it is to be hoped that it will not be used by cabinetmakers. If people have ceased to be able to originate, let them copy fine models, not these tasteless elegancies.