Throughout his life, Calouste Gulbenkian gradually assembled a valuable and well-known collection of works of art which can be visited at the museum that bears his name. There can be no doubt that one of the most important sections of the entire collection is of 18th century French decorative arts, including the collections of silverware, furniture, bronzes, textiles and porcelain. The works included in this book are of great interest as they are from almost all periods of the 18th century, from the Regency (1715-1723), when the Duke of Orleans ruled while Louis XV was still a minor, until the French Revolution of 1789 brought the Ancien Regime to an abrupt end. It includes works of cabinet-making and menuiserie which represent all the styles that appeared in that century, in addition to showing the wide range of types and forms that furniture adopted during that period...