The Marketplace Guide to Oak Furniture Styles and Values [SOLD]

From the outside cover:

The oak era in North America can be summed up as the age of catalog fashion. Fashion had for some time come from the written word; books such as Charles Locke Eastlake's 1868 Hints on Household Taste had formed opinions and started a trend. People of average means could read more and they avidly consumed the messages written in the periodicals of the day.

In the 1880's, the department store catalog was eagerly awaited by every consuming family on the Continent. It was in this mood that oak furniture flourished and reigned supreme for almost forty years until nearly all the massive stands of oak lumber had been exhausted.