Originating in early twentieth-century France, Art Deco is a pastiche of artistic styles, influenced by Cubism and Futurism, Egyptology and the Orient, Ballet Russes and the Bauhaus. Alistair Duncan's exhaustive work surveys one of the most exhilarating periods of decorative art, illuminating the cultural fabric of the period, and discussing some of the century's most influential artists and craftsmen and their works. From Edgar Brandt's ornate ironwork for ocean liners, to Rene Lalique's celebrated perfume bottles, to the Chrysler Building, ''Art Deco'' takes us on a dazzling tour of one of the century's most vital decorative movements. Antique Collector praises the book as ''lavishly illustrated with photographs of interiors as well as individual pieces...an invaluable book for collectors.'' 194 illus., 44 in color