For many people life in the early twentieth century was not very different from what it had been in the eighteenth century, but after the Second World War standards of living rose markedly with the transition to the almost universal use of gas and electric power. Many items that would have been familiar to householders of the last few centuries are illustrated in this book and placed in the context of the domestic life of their periods, describing how they developed and how they were used. Such obsolete household utensils now attract the interest of collectors, but it is still possible to acquire some of them relatively inexpensively, and besides providing the owner with a piece of social history, many of them are quite decorative. The bygones described in this book range from fire irons and the equipment used for cooking on the open fire to the moustache cup and the goffering stick.