This neglected subject received a notable contribution lately from Professor Gustav Ecke in Peking. His Chinese Domestic Furniture is, I believe, the first attempt at an organized treatise (9). Existing literature was scanty. From Chinese sources there were sundry entries in encyclopædias, and chance allusions and woodcuts to be found in unexpected places. Specialized Western publications comprised only three portfolios of plates (3, 8, and 27), and several magazine articles (10, 11, 13, and 28), not counting the somewhat fanciful descriptions by eighteenth-century writers, such as Chambers, Chippendale, and the Halfpennys (4, 6, and 15). Last year a book by George N. Kates appeared, which covers much the same ground as Ecke's pioneer work, but is designed more for the general reader (22).