Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) (Pts. 1, 2 & 3)

This quintessential collection of 999 product designs in three thigh-numbing volumes explores product design from the late 1600s to the present. They include everything from 300-year-old scissors to modern airplanes and the work of such 20th-century stalwarts as Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, Henry Dreyfuss, Ray and Charles Eames, and a host of up-and-comers. In homage to one of the primary principles of good design—durability—most of the products featured here are still in production.