Furniture in the old homes of Quebec varied depending on the area — urban or rural — and even more on the financial means of the occupants. Many studies have already been carried out on movable furniture, but there is a category of furniture which forms an integral part of the house and which might well be called "built-in." The corresponding French term, meubles meublants, was used with reference to the appointments of high society interiors in eighteenth-century France. Homes in rural France also contained built-in furnishings and something of this tradition was transposed to New France where certain examples persisted until the nineteenth century while others disappeared. In addition to field research, notarial archives provide an excellent insight into built-in furnishings. An overall picture of this aspect of Quebec furniture is provided in a table which suggests a classification based on function.
