What are your favorite coffee-table books related to old houses (or the myriad related topics)?

It's hard to pick favorites, but I've got three on my mind at the moment:

1. "Shaker Legacy" by Christian Becksvoort (Taunton, 1998). Gorgeous photographs of details, many many pieces of cabinetry and furniture featured, and helpful text putting it in a historical context. They have some terrific diagrams, such as one showing all the different Shaker chair finial styles, so you can tell what village a chair comes from by its finials.

2. "The Forgotten Arts and Crafts: Skills from bygone days," by John Seymour (Dorling Kindersley [DK]: 2001). Short but insightful summaries of dozens of crafts, from coopering and blacksmithing to rake making and peat cutting. So many rare professions, it's such captivating reading. And it's a good one to pick up for twenty minutes and then put down, and up and down. Endlessly fascinating.

3. "Colonial Style" by Treena Crotchet (Taunton: 2005). This is my newest edition, which I was turned onto by an architect friend (Frank Shirley of Cambridge, MA) one of whose projects was featured in it (the cover photo, the gorgeous reproduction newell, etc.). Really great photos and discussions of many aspects of colonial architecture and furnishings. Some helpful contemporary treatments of traditional spaces, such as contemporary kitchens in antique houses, reproduction lighting, and so on, as well as more "period" photos, showing how things might have looked when these houses were new.

What I like about all of these is the full treatment of the subject matter, the excellent photos and drawings, and enough information to satiate my curiousity and inspire ideas, without becoming tedious. They're entertaining and informative.

What are your favorites and why?

--Jonathan