The product of five British and American design writers led by Royal College of Art design historian Sparke, this eye-catching book is a checklist of some of the best objects created in the last 150 years in Europe and America. Some are functional and some purely decorative; look here for everything from William Morris wallpaper to Michele de Lucchi's 1984 vacuum cleaners. Each chapter covers a particular era or art movement, starting with the Arts and Crafts Movement (1850-1900) and finishing with the computer age. Each is a time capsule of events and a visual inventory of architecture, costume, everyday household objects, and technological equipment. This is not a comprehensive study, but it offers a decent overview of typical design motifs for each time period.