Despite the upheavals of the first decades of the nineteenth century, Paris soon recovered its position as a leading centre for furniture and design in Europe, a position that was to grow and strengthen as the century progressed. Encouraged by royal and imperial regimes, exhibited at the great international fairs, and collected by international aristocrats, bankers and newly wealthy industrialists, Paris furniture by the second half of the century had once again become synonymous with luxury and exquisite craftsmanship.0Furniture makers drew their inspiration from a vast array of historical periods and cultural sources to create new and exciting designs that both appealed to the eclectic tastes of the nineteenth-century amateur and yet suited the demands for comfort and convenience of the luxury consumer. Building on the generations of skills and techniques that had characterised French furniture during the years of the Ancien Regime, contemporary makers exploited technological advances and new materials to produce some of the most creative and inventive pieces ever made, often surpassing the quality achieved by previous generations.