A PICTORIAL SURVEY OF REGIONAL STYLES, MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES IN THE CAPE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

The appeal of Cape country furniture lies in the combination of design that is intuitively good with decoration that is unsophisticated.

From the beginning of the 19C Cape Town and the Boland were swamped with imported furniture. For physical and financial reasons the Cape country districts escaped this fate for almost three generations and during this period there developed the wealth of style and variety of design described in this absorbing book.

The country style was not just a continuation in attenuated form of the older Cape styles: it had a most definite character of its own, and it continued on its individual path of development.

Its character arose partly from obvious factors, such as the availability of indigenous woods, and the use of few, simple tools: an partly from simpler tastes, and austere outlook and a love of plain dignity.

Together with this was real talent for following new ideas. What one may describe as world wide styles clearly had their counterpart in Cape Country work.