West Dean Park, Sussex, was bought by William Dodge James, heir to an American railway fortune, in 1891. He carried out a major refurbishment of the house which had been remodelled by James Wyatt in 1805-8. The house was transformed by the architects George and Peto in a predominantly Edwardian style. In the early years of English furniture collecting the James's assembled an interesting group, particularly of satinwood, much of which is illustrated in Percy Macquoid's The Age of Satinwood (1908).