J. Paul Getty had a passion for
the exquisitely made furniture and decorative
objects of eighteenth-century France, which he began collecting in the
1930s. Gillian Wilson, curator of decorative arts since 1971, has broadened and
strengthened the collection, adding Boulle furniture, mounted oriental
porcelain, tapestries, clocks, ceramics, and more. In the 1980s and 1990s the
Museum continued to enlarge its decorative arts holdings, creating a European
sculpture department in 1984 and adding glass, maiolica, goldsmiths’ work, pietre dure, and furniture from Italy
and Northern Europe.

This book is a revised and
expanded edition of Decorative Arts: An
Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum
(1993). In addition to more than forty recent acquisitions—among these four wall
sconces from Versailles that once belonged to Marie Antoinette and an elaborate
upholstered bed from the collection of Karl Lagerfeld—it includes the results
of years of research. Designed for scholars, students, and devotees of the
decorative arts, this volume provides a comprehensive look at the Getty's fine
collection.