Margaret Jourdain was a prominent writer on English furniture

English furniture

English furniture has developed largely in line with styles in the rest of northern Europe, but has been interpreted in a distinctive fashion. Regional styles are significant, for example between the North Country and the West Country....

 and decoration. She began her career ghost-writing as Francis Lenygon for the firm of Lenygon & Morant, dealers in furnishings with a royal appointment, who were also the fabricators of carefully crafted reproductions, especially of Kentian furnishings, some of which have been displayed in public collections for decades.

The finely-honed writing that distinguishes Jourdain's work must be partly credited to careful pre-editing by her lifelong friend and domestic partner, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.-Life:...

. Ivy and Margaret Jourdain lived together from 1918 until Margaret's death in 1951. Members of their circle might speculate on whether they were lovers: Ivy referred to herself and Margaret as "neutrals" http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/ivy/ivycircle.html. Margaret Jourdain's papers are archived at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

, London, but some of her unpublished translations of poems by Jose Maria de Heredia

José María de Heredia

José-Maria de Heredia was a Cuban-born French poet. He was the fifteenth member elected for seat 4 of the Académie française during 1894.-Early years:...

, Pontus de Tyard

Pontus de Tyard

Pontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève...

 and Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...

 are among Ivy Compton-Burnett's papers at King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

 http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FICB.

Margaret Jourdain teamed with Ralph Edwards, keeper of Furniture & Woodwork, the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

, to produce Georgian Cabinet-Makers (1944, 1951), a series of biographies of the major London furniture-makers from the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of Charles II to 1800, supported by archival work, which had not been a strong feature of previous connoisseurship. As revised by Edwards, it remained the essential standard in the field for several decades until superseded by work by Peter Ward-Jackson, Christopher Gilbert

Christopher Gilbert

-Life:He is the son of Floyd and Rosie Gilbert.He grew up in Lansing, Michigan.He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972, and PhD...

, Helena Hayward, and members of the Furniture History Society.

Her Regency Furniture (1931) covered new ground in extending the classic period of English furniture design forward to 1830.

Major works

Most of Margaret Jourdain's works went through several printings.

• English Interior Decoration and Furniture of the Later XVIIIth century 1760-1820 : An Account of Its Development and Characteristic Forms 1922; 1924. (B.T. Batsford)
• English Decorative Plasterwork of the Renaissance 1926; 1933 (B.T. Batsford)
• Regency Furniture, 1795–1820 1931 (1934?) etc. (Revisded and extended to 1830 by Ralph Fastnedge
• (with Ralph Edwards) Georgian Cabinet-Makers 1944; 1946; revised 1951 (3rd edition 1955)
• The Work of William Kent. Artist, Painter, Designer and Landscape Gardener 1948. (Country Life). The first modern reassessment of William Kent
  William Kent
  William Kent , born in Bridlington, Yorkshire, was an eminent English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century.He was baptised as William Cant.-Education:...
  
  , with an introduction by Christopher Hussey
  Christopher Hussey
  Christopher Edward Clive Hussey was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also included Dorothy Stroud and Sir John Summerson.- Career :...
  
  . (First edition appeared in 1950)
• English Interior Decoration, 1500 to 1830 : A Study in the Development of Design 1950 (B.T. Batsford) A brief illustrated survey.
• English Furniture 1950. (Country Life). Another brief popular illustrated survey, several times reprinted.