THERE is something so distinct in the development of taste in furniture, marked out by the three styles to which the three monarchs have given the names of "Louis Quatorze," "Louis Quinze," and "Louis Seize," that it affords a fitting point for a new departure.

This will be evident to anyone who will visit, first the Palace of Versailles,[12] then the Grand Trianon, and afterwards the Petit Trianon. By the help of a few illustrations, such a visit in the order given, would greatly interest anyone having even a smattering of knowledge of the characteristic ornaments of these different periods. A careful examination would demonstrate how the one style gradually merged into that of its successor. Thus the massiveness and grandeur of the best Louis Quatorze meubles de luxe became, in their later development, too ornate and effeminate, with an elaboration of enrichment, culminating in the rococo style of Louis Quinze.

Then we find in the "Petit Trianon," and also in the ChÂteau of Fontainebleau, the purer taste of Marie Antoinette dominating the Art productions of her time, which reached their zenith, with regard to furniture, in the production of such elegant and costly examples as have been preserved to us in the beautiful work-table and secretaire—sold some years since at the dispersion of the Hamilton Palace Collection—and in some other specimens which may be seen in the MusÉe du Louvre, in the Jones Collection in the South Kensington Museum, and in other public and private Collections. Several illustrations of these examples will be found in this chapter.

We have to recollect that the reign of Louis XIV. was the time of the artists Berain, Lebrun, and, later in the reign, of Watteau, also of AndrÉ Charles Boule, ciseleur et doreur du roi, and of Colbert, that admirable Minister of Finance, who knew so well how to second his royal master's taste for grandeur and magnificence. The Palace of Versailles bears throughout the stamp and impress of the majesty of le Grande Monarque; and the rich architectural ornament of the interior, with moulded, gilded, and painted ceilings, required the furnishing to be carried to an extent which had never been attempted previously.

Louis XIV. had judgment in his taste, and he knew that, to carry out his ideas of a royal palace, he must not only select suitable artists capable of control, but he must centralize their efforts. In 1664 Colbert founded the Royal Academy of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture, into which designs of furniture were admitted. The celebrated Gobelins tapestry factory was also established; and it was here that the King collected together, and suitably housed, the different skilled producers of his furniture, placing them all under the control of his favourite artist, Lebrun, who was appointed director in 1667.

The most remarkable furniture artist of this time, for surely he merits such title, was Andre Charles Boulle, generally spelt Boule. He was born in 1642, and, therefore, was 25 years of age when Lebrun was appointed Art-director. He appears to have originated the method of ornamenting furniture which has since been associated with his name. This was to veneer his cabinets, pedestals, armoires, encoignures, clocks, and brackets with tortoise-shell, into which a cutting of brass was laid, the latter being cut out from a design, in which were harmoniously arranged scrolls, vases of flowers, satyrs, animals, cupids, swags of fruit and draperies. Fantastic compositions of a free Renaissance character constituted the panels; to which bold scrolls in ormolu formed fitting frames; while handsome mouldings of the same material gave a finish to the extremities. These ormolu mountings were gilt by an old-fashioned process,[13] which left upon the metal a thick deposit of gold, and were cunningly chiselled by the skilful hands of Caffieri or his contemporaries.

Boule subsequently learned to economise labour by adopting a similar process to that used by the marqueterie cutter; and by glueing together two sheets of brass, or white metal, and two of shell, and placing over them his design, he was then able to pierce the four layers by one cut of the bandsaw; this gave four exact copies of the design. The same process would be repeated for the reverse side, if, as with an armoire or a large cabinet, two panels, one for each door, right and left, were required; and then, when the brass, or white metal cutting was fitted into the shell so that the joins were imperceptible, he would have two right-hand and two left-hand panels. These would be positive and negative: in the former pair the metal would represent the figured design with the shell as groundwork, and the latter would have the shell as a design, with a ground of metal. The terms positive and negative are the writer's to explain the difference, but the technical terms are "first part" and "second part," or "Boule" and "counter." The former would be selected for the best part of the cabinet; for instance, the panels of the front doors, while the latter would be used for the ends or sides. An illustration of this plan of using all four cuttings of one design, occurs in the armoire No. 1026 in the Jones Collection, and in a great many other excellent specimens. The brass, or the white metal in the design, was then carefully and most artistically engraved; and the beauty of the engraving of Boule's finest productions is a great point of excellence, giving, as it does, a character to the design, and emphasizing its details. The mounting of the furniture in ormolu, of a rich and highly-finished character, completed the design. The MusÉe du Louvre is rich in examples of Boule's work: and there are some very good pieces in the Jones Collection, at Hertford House, and at Windsor Castle.

The illustration on page 144 is the representation of an armoire, which was, undoubtedly, executed by Boule from a design by Lebrun: it is one of a pair which was sold in 1882, at the Hamilton Palace sale, by Messrs. Christie, for £12,075. Another small cabinet, in the same collection, realised £2,310. The pedestal cabinet illustrated on page 148, from the Jones Collection, is very similar to the latter, and cost Mr. Jones £3,000. When specimens, of the genuineness of which there is no doubt, are offered for sale, they are sure to realize very high prices. The armoire in the Jones Collection, already alluded to (No. 1026), of which there is an illustration, cost Mr. Jones between £4,000 and £5,000.

In some of the best of Boule's cabinets, as, for instance, in the Hamilton Palace armoire (illustrated), the bronze gilt ornaments stand out in bold relief from the surface. In the Louvre there is one which has a figure of le Grand Monarque, clad in armour, with a Roman toga, and wearing the full bottomed wig of the time, which scarcely accords with the costume of a Roman general. The absurd combination which characterizes this affectation of the classic costume is also found in portraits of our George II.

The masks, satyrs, and rams' heads, the scrolls of the foliage, are also very bold in specimens of this class of Boule's work; and the "sun" (that is, a mask with rays of light radiating from it) is a very favourite ornament of this period.

Boule had four sons and several pupils; and he may be said to have founded a school of decorative furniture, which had its votaries and imitators now, as it had in its own time. The word one frequently finds misspelt "Buhl," and the term has come to represent any similar mode of decoration of furniture, no matter how meretricious or common it may be.

Later in the reign of Louis XIV., as other influences were brought to bear upon the taste and fashion of the day, this style of furniture became more ornate and showy. Instead of the natural color of the shell, either vermilion or gold leaf was placed underneath the transparent shell; the gilt mounts became less severe, and abounded with the curled endive ornament, which afterwards became thoroughly characteristic of the fashion of the succeeding reign; and the forms of the furniture itself followed the taste for a more free and flowing treatment; and it should be mentioned, in justice to Lebrun, that from the time of his death and the appointment of his successor, Mignard, a distinct decline in merit can be traced.

Contemporary with Boule's work, were the richly-mounted tables, having slabs of Egyptian porphyry, or Florentine marble mosaic; and marqueterie cabinets with beautiful mountings of ormolu, or gilt bronze. Commodes and screens were ornamented with Chinese lacquer, which had been imported by the Dutch and taken to Paris, after the French invasion of the Netherlands.

About this time—that is, towards the end of the seventeenth century—the resources of designers and makers of decorative furniture were reinforced by the introduction of glass in larger plates than had been possible previously. Mirrors of considerable size were first made in Venice; these were engraved with figures and scrolls, and mounted in richly carved and gilt wood frames. Soon afterwards manufactories of mirrors, and of glass, in larger plates than before, were set up in England, near Battersea, and in France, at Tour la Ville, near Paris. This novelty not only gave a new departure to the design of suitable frames in carved wood (generally gilt), but also to that of Boule work and marqueterie. It also led to a greater variety of the design for cabinets; and from this time we may date the first appearance of the "Vitrine," or cabinet with glass panels in the doors and sides, for the display of smaller objets d'art.

The chairs and sofas of the latter half of the reign of Louis Quatorze are exceedingly grand and rich. The suite of furniture for the state apartment of a prince, or wealthy nobleman, comprised a canapÉ, or sofa, and six fauteuils, or arm chairs, the frames carved with much spirit, or with "feeling," as it is technically termed, and richly gilt. The backs and seats were upholstered and covered with the already famous tapestry of Gobelins or Beauvais. A short account of these factories will be found in the Appendix.

Such a suite of furniture, in bad condition and requiring careful and very expensive restoration, was sold at Christie's some time ago for about £1,400, and it is no exaggeration to say that a really perfect suite, with carving and gilding at the best, and the tapestry not too much worn, if offered for public competition, would probably realize between £3,000 and £4,000.[14]

In the Appendix will be found the names of many artists in furniture of this time, and in the Jones Collection we have several very excellent specimens which can be easily referred to, and compared with others of the two succeeding reigns, whose furniture we are now going to consider.

As an example of the difference in both outline and detail which took place in design, let the reader notice the form of the Louis Quatorze commode vignetted for the initial letter of this chapter, and then turn to the lighter and more fanciful cabinets of somewhat similar shape, which will be found illustrated in the "Louis Quinze" section which follows this. In the Louis Quatorze cabinets the decorative effect, so far as the woodwork is concerned, was obtained first by the careful choice of suitable veneers, and then by joining four pieces in a panel, so that the natural figure of the wood runs from the centre, and then a banding of a darker wood forms a frame. An instance of this will also be found in the above-mentioned vignette.

LOUIS XV.

When the old King died, at the ripe age of 77, the crown devolved on his great-grandson, then a child five years old, and therefore, a Regency became necessary; and this period of some eight years, until the death of Philip, Duke of Orleans, in 1723, when the King was declared to have attained his majority at the age of 13, is known as l'Epoch de la RÉgence, and is a landmark in the history of furniture.

There was a great change about this period of French history in the social condition of the upper classes in France. The pomp and extravagance of the late monarch had emptied the coffers of the noblesse, and in order to recruit their finances, marriages became common which a decade or two before that time would hardly have been thought possible. Nobles of ancient lineage married the daughters of bankers and speculators, in order to supply themselves with the means of following the extravagant fashions of the day, and we find the wives of ministers of departments of State using their influence and power for the purpose of making money by gambling in stocks, and accepting bribes for concessions and contracts.

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It was a time of corruption, extravagance, licentiousness, and intrigue, and although one might ask what bearing this has upon the history of furniture, a little reflection shows that the abandonment of the great State receptions of the late King, and the pompous and gorgeous entertainments of his time, gave way to a state of society in which the boudoir became of far more importance than the salon, in the artistic furnishing of a fashionable house. Instead of the majestic grandeur of immense reception rooms and stately galleries, we have the elegance and prettiness of the boudoir; and as the reign of the young King advances, we find the structural enrichment of rooms more free, and busy with redundant ornament. The curved endive decoration, so common in carved woodwork and its imitation in "compo." of this period is seen everywhere; in the architraves, in the panel mouldings, in the frame of an overdoor, in the design of a mirror frame; doves, wreaths, Arcadian fountains, flowing scrolls, Cupids, and heads and busts of women terminating in foliage, are carved or moulded in relief, on the walls, the doors, and the alcoved recesses of the reception rooms, either gilded or painted white; and pictures by Watteau, Lancret, or Boucher, and their schools, are appropriate accompaniments.[15]

The furniture was made to agree with this decorative treatment; couches and easy chairs were designed in more sweeping curves and on a smaller scale, the woodwork wholly or partially gilt and upholstered, not only with the tapestry of Gobelins, Beauvais, and Aubusson, but with soft colored silk brocades and brocatelles; light occasional chairs were enriched with mother-of-pearl or marqueterie; screens were painted with love scenes and representations of ladies and gentlemen who look as if they passed their entire existence in the elaboration of their toilettes or the exchange of compliments; the stately cabinet is modified into the bombÉ fronted commode, the ends of which curve outwards with a graceful sweep; and the bureau is made in a much smaller size, more highly decorated with marqueterie, and more fancifully mounted to suit the smaller and more effeminate apartment. The elegant cabinet, called Bouheur du jour (a little cabinet mounted on a table); the small round occasional table, called a guÉridon; the encoignure, or corner cabinet; the ÉtagÈre, or ornamental hanging cabinet with shelves; the three-fold screen, with each leaf a different height, and with shaped top, all date from this time. The chaise À porteur, or Sedan chair, on which so much work and taste were expended, became more ornate, so as to fall in with the prevailing fashion. Marqueterie became more fanciful.

The Louis Quinze cabinets were inlaid, not only with natural woods, but with veneers stained in different tints; and landscapes, interiors, baskets of flowers, birds, trophies, emblems of all kinds, and quaint fanciful conceits are pressed into the service of marqueterie decoration. The most famous artists in this decorative woodwork were Riesener, David Roentgen (generally spoken of as David), Pasquier, Carlin, Leleu, and others, whose names will be found in a list in the Appendix.

During the preceding reign, the Chinese lacquer-work then in use was imported from the East, the fashion for collecting which had set in ever since the Dutch had established a trade with China; and subsequently as the demand arose for smaller pieces of meubles de luxe, collectors had these articles taken to pieces, and the slabs of lacquer mounted in panels to decorate the table, or cabinet, and to display the lacquer. Ébenistes, too, prepared such parts of woodwork as were desired to be ornamented in this manlier, and sent them to China to be coated with lacquer, a process which was then only known to the Chinese; but this delay and expense quickened the inventive genius of the European, and it was found that a preparation of gum and other ingredients applied again and again, and each time carefully rubbed down, produced a surface which was almost as lustrous and suitable for decoration as the original article. A Dutchman named Huygens was the first successful inventor of this preparation; and owing to the adroitness of his work, and of those who followed him and improved his process, one can only detect European lacquer from Chinese by noting certain trifling details in the costumes and foliage of decoration, not strictly Oriental in character.

About 1740-4 the Martin family had three manufactories of this peculiar and fashionable work, which became known as Vernis-Martin, or Martins' Varnish; and it is a singular coincidence that one of these was in the district of Paris then and now known as Faubourg Saint Martin. By a special decree a monopoly was granted in 1744 to Sieur Simon Etienne Martin the younger, "To manufacture all sorts of work in relief and in the style of Japan and China." This was to last for twenty years; and we shall see that in the latter part of the reign of Louis XV., and in that of his successor, the decoration was not confined to the imitation of Chinese and Japanese subjects, but the surface was painted in the style of the decorative artist of the day, both in monochrome and in natural colors; such subjects as "Cupid Awakening Venus," "The Triumph of Galatea," "Nymphs and Goddesses," "Garden Scenes," and "FÊtes ChampÊtres," being represented in accordance with the taste of the period. It may be remarked in passing, that lacquer work was also made previous to this time in England. Several cabinets of "Old" English lac are included in the Strawberry Hill sale catalogue; and they were richly mounted with ormolu, in the French style; this sale took place in 1842. George Robins, so well known for his flowery descriptions, was the auctioneer; the introduction to the catalogue was written by Harrison Ainsworth.

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The gilt bronze mountings of the furniture of this time became less massive and much more elaborate; the curled endive ornament was very much in vogue; the acanthus foliage followed the curves of the commode; busts and heads of women, cupids, satyrs terminating in foliage, suited the design and decoration of the more fanciful shapes; and Caffieri, who is the great master of this beautiful and highly ornate enrichment, introduced Chinese figures and dragons into his designs. The amount of spirit imparted into the chasing of this ormolu is simply marvellous—it has never been equalled, and could not be excelled. Time has now mellowed the color of the woodwork it adorns; and the tint of the gold with which it is overlaid, improved by the lights and shadows caused by the high relief of the work and the consequent darkening of the parts more depressed, while the more prominent ornaments have been rubbed bright from time to time, produces an effect which is exceedingly elegant and rich. One cannot wonder that connoisseurs are prepared to pay such large sums for genuine specimens, or that clever imitations are extremely costly to produce.

Illustrations are given from some of the more notable examples of decorative furniture of this period, which were sold in 1882 at the celebrated Hamilton Palace sale, together with the sums they realised; also of specimens in the South Kensington Museum, in the Jones Collection.

We must also remember, in considering the meubles de luxe of this time, that in 1753 Louis XI. had made the SÊvres Porcelain Manufactory a State enterprise; and later, as that celebrated undertaking progressed, tables and cabinets were ornamented with plaques of the beautiful and choice pÁte tendre, the delicacy of which was admirably adapted to enrich the light and frivolous furnishing of the dainty boudoir of a Madame du Barri or a Madame Pompadour.

Another famous artist in the delicate bronze mountings of the day was Pierre GouthiÈre. He commenced work some years later than Caffieri, being born in 1740; and, like his senior fellow craftsman, did not confine his attention to furniture, but exercised his fertility of design, and his passion for detail, in mounting bowls and vases of jasper, of SÊvres and of Oriental porcelain. The character of his work is less forcible than that of Caffieri, and comes nearer to what we shall presently recognise as the Louis Seize or Marie Antoinette style, to which period his work more properly belongs. In careful finish of minute details, it more resembles the fine goldsmith's work of the Renaissance.

GouthiÈre was employed extensively by Madame du Barri; and at her execution, in 1793, he lost the enormous balance of 756,000 francs, which was due to him, but which debt the State repudiated, and the unfortunate man died in extreme poverty, the inmate of an almshouse.

The designs of the celebrated tapestry of Gobelins and of Beauvais, used for the covering of the finest furniture of this time, also underwent a change; and instead of the representation of the chase, with a bold and vigorous rendering, we find shepherds and shepherdesses, nymphs and satyrs, the illustrations of La Fontaine's fables or renderings of Boucher's pictures. The arm chair, or fauteuil, with upholstered instead of open sides, was introduced into the suite of tapestry furniture, and the term by which it is known, "chaise bergÈre," seems to be a sign of the fashion of the day.

Without doubt, the most important examples of meubles de luxe of this reign is the famous "Bureau du Roi," made for Louis XV. in 1769, and which is fully described in the inventory of the "Garde Meuble" in the year 1775, under No. 2541. The description is very minute, and is fully quoted by M. Williamson in his valuable work, "Les Meubles d'Art du Mobilier National," occupying in space no less than thirty-seven lines of printed matter. Its size is five and a half feet long and three feet deep; the lines are the perfection of grace and symmetry; the marqueterie is in Riesener's best manner; the mountings are magnificent—reclining figures, foliage, laurel wreaths, and swags, chased with rare skill. The back of this famous bureau is as fully decorated as the front: it is signed, "Riesener, f. e., 1769, Á l'arsenal de Paris." Riesener is said to have received the order for this celebrated piece of furniture—of which a full-page illustration is given—from the King in 1767, upon the occasion of the marriage of this favourite Court Ébeniste with the widow of his former master Oeben. Its production, therefore, would seem to have occupied about two years.

This celebrated chef d'oeuvre was in the Tuileries in 1807, and was included in the inventory found in the cabinet of Napoleon I. It was moved by Napoleon III. to the Palace of St. Cloud, and was only saved from capture by the Germans by its removal to its present home in the Louvre in August, 1870. It is said that it would probably realise, if now offered for sale, between fifteen and twenty thousand pounds.

A similar bureau is in the Hertford Wallace collection, which was made to the order of Stanilaus, King of Poland; and a copy of it, executed by Zwiener, a very clever Ébeniste of the present day in Paris, at a cost of some three thousand pounds, is in the same collection. Between the publishing of the third and fourth editions of this book, this valuable collection, under the will of the late Lady Wallace, passed into the possession of the English nation, and the fine specimens of furniture which it contains are now available for reference.

LOUIS XVI. AND MARIE ANTOINETTE.

It is probable that for some little time previous to the death of Louis XV., the influence of the beautiful daughter of Maria Theresa on the fashions of the day was manifested in furniture and its accessories. We know that Marie Antoinette disliked the pomp and ceremony of Court functions, and preferred a simpler way of living at the favourite farm house which was given to her husband as a residence, on his marriage, four years before his accession to the throne; and here she delighted to mix with the bourgeoisie on the terrace at Versailles, or donning a simple dress of white muslin, would busy herself in the garden or dairy. There was, doubtless, something of the affectation of a woman spoiled by admiration, in thus playing the rustic: still, one can understand that the best French society, weary of the domination of the late King's mistresses, with their intrigues, their extravagances, and their creatures, looked forward, at the death of Louis, with hope and anticipation to the accession of his grandson and the beautiful young queen.

Gradually, under the new rÉgime, architecture became more simple. Broken scrolls were replaced by straight lines, curves and arches were introduced when justified, and columns and pilasters reappeared in the ornamental faÇade of public buildings. Interior decoration necessarily followed suit: instead of the curled endive scrolls enclosing the irregular panel, and the superabundant foliage in ornament, we find rectangular panels formed by simpler mouldings, with broken corners, having a patera or rosette in each, and between the upright panels there is a pilaster of refined Renaissance design. In the oval medallions supported by cupids, is found a domestic scene by Fragonard or Chardin; and portraits of innocent children by Greuze replaced the courting shepherds and mythological goddesses of Boucher and Lancret. Sculpture, too, became more refined and decorous in its representations.

As with architecture, decoration, painting and sculpture, so also with furniture. The designs became more simple, but were relieved from severity by the amount of ornament, which, except in some cases where it was over-elaborate, was properly subordinate to the design and did not control it.

Mr. Hungerford Pollen attributes this revival of classic taste to the discoveries of ancient treasures in Herculaneum and Pompeii, but, as these occurred in the former city so long before the time we are discussing as the year 1711, and in the latter as 1750, they can scarcely be the immediate cause; the reason most probably is that a return to simpler and purer lines came as a relief and reaction from the over-ornamentation of the previous period. There are not wanting, however, in some of the decorated ornaments of the time distinct signs of the influence of these discoveries. Drawings and reproductions from frescoes, found in these old Italian cities, were in the possession of the draughtsmen and designers of the time; and an instance in point of their adaptation is to be seen in the small boudoir of the Marquise de Serilly, one of the maids of honour to Marie Antoinette. The decorative woodwork of this boudoir is fitted up in the Kensington Museum.

A notable feature in the ornament of woodwork and in metal mountings of this time, is a fluted pilaster with quills or husks filling the flutings some distance from the base, or starting from both base and top and leaving an interval of the fluting plain and without ornament. An example of this will be seen in the next woodcut of a cabinet in the Jones Collection, which has also the familiar "Louis Seize" riband, surmounting the two oval SÊvres china plaques. When the flutings are in oak, in rich mahogany, or painted white, these husks are gilt, and the effect is chaste and pleasing. Variation was introduced into the gilding of frames by mixing silver with some portion of the gold, so as to produce two tints, red gold and green gold: the latter would be used for wreaths and accessories, while the former, or ordinary gilding, was applied to the general surface. The legs of tables were generally fluted, as noted above, tapering towards the feet, and were relieved from a stilted appearance by being connected by a stretcher.

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There occurs in M. Williamson's valuable contribution to the literature of our subject ("Les Meubles d'Art du Mobilier National,") an interesting illustration of the gradual alterations which we are noticing as having taken place in the design of furniture. This is a small writing table, some 3ft. 6in. long, made during the reign of Louis XV., but quite in the Marie Antoinette style, the legs tapering and fluted, the frieze having in the centre a plaque of bronze dorÉ, the subject being a group of cupids, representing the triumph of Poetry, and having on each side a scroll with a head and foliage (the only ornament characteristic of Louis Quinze style) connecting leg and frieze. It was made for the Trianon, and the date is just one year after Marie Antoinette's marriage. M. Williamson quotes verbatim the memorandum of which it was the subject:—"Memoire des ouvrages faits et livrÉs, par les ordres de Monsieur le Chevalier de Fontanieu, pour le garde meuble du Roy par Riesener, Ébeniste a l'arsenal Paris," savoir Sept. 21, 1771; and then follows a fully detailed description of the table, with its price, which was 6,000 francs, or £240. An illustration of this table precedes this page.

The maker of this piece of furniture was the same Riesener whose masterpiece is the magnificent Bureau du Roi in the Louvre, to which we have already alluded. This celebrated Ébeniste continued to work for Marie Antoinette for about twenty years, until she quitted Versailles, and he probably lived quite to the end of the century, for during the Revolution we find that he served on the Special Commission appointed by the National Convention to decide which works of Art should be retained, and which should be sold, out of the mass of treasure confiscated after the deposition and execution of the King.

Riesener's designs do not shew much variety, but his work is highly finished and elaborate. His method was generally to make the centre panel of a commode front, or the frieze of a table, a tour de force, the marqueterie picture being wonderfully delicate. The subject was generally a vase with fruits and flowers; the surface of the side panels was inlaid with diamond-shaped lozenges, or a small diaper pattern in marqueterie; and then a framework of rich ormolu would separate the panels. The centre panel had sometimes a richer frame. His famous commode, made for the ChÂteau of Fontainebleau, which cost a million francs (£4,000)—an enormous sum in those days—is one of his chefs d'oeuvres, and is an excellent example of his style. A similar commode was sold in the Hamilton Palace sale for £4,305. An upright secretaire, en suite with the commode, was also sold at the same time for £4,620, and the writing table for £6,000. An illustration of the latter is on the following page, but the details of this elaborate gem of cabinet maker's work, and of GouthiÈre's skill in mounting, are almost impossible to represent in a woodcut. It is described as follows in Christie's catalogue:—

"Lot 303. An oblong writing table en suite, with drawer fitted with inkstand, writing slide and shelf beneath; an oval medallion of a trophy and flowers on the top, and trophies with four medallions round the sides: stamped T. Riesener and branded underneath with cypher of Marie Antoinette, and Garde Meuble de la Reine." There is no date on the table, but the secretaire is stamped 1790, and the commode 1791. If we assume that the table was produced in 1792, then these three specimens, which have always been regarded as amongst the most beautiful work of the reign, were almost the last which the unfortunate Queen lived to see completed.

THE "MARIE ANTOINETTE" WRITING TABLE.

(Formerly in the Hamilton Palace Collection.)