David Kelly sets out in this book to chart the history of 100 or so master cabinet-makers working in New South Wales up to 1850. His introduction discusses that bland sentence in some detail, meticulously defining those terms and the parameters of his research. Then Kelly outlines the structure of the book, sources and various other points to help the reader; it is both essential and illuminating to read the introduction, as well as amusing to see him struggle to try to set strict guidelines when the data, cantankerously, defies his definitions and conventions.