The Amazing Artistry & Ingenuity of the Furniture Enjoyed by 18th Century Aristocrats

Open Culture: Whatever did people do with themselves all day before social media and streaming video? Before TV, film, and radio? If you were most people in Europe, before various revolutions, you worked from dawn to dusk and collapsed in bed, with rare holidays to break up the monotony.

But if you were an aristocrat, you not only had the pleasures of juicy gossip, lively correspondence, and bawdy novels to look forward to, but you might also—just as millions do now—encounter such pleasures while gaming.