The gloom and solemnity of the last years of Louis XIV., ruled by a morose monarch and his bigoted, unacknowledged wife, gave place to the license of the Regency, and the exuberant vitality of a young king, the influence of which is fully reflected in decorative art. The Regency saw a short period of inflated wealth such as had never been dreamed of by any living man. Law’s Mississippi Bubble, before it was pricked, enabled men to get rich in a day, and some of the upstarts paid fabulous sums for the best work that artists of all kinds could produce. Architecture had to give up parade and magnificence, and cater to comfort and convenience. Paris saw mansions and pretty little houses rise by the hundred. Their furniture and decoration bore the stamp of gaiety and caprice. There was open rebellion against the rigid rule of the last reign.

Le Brun’s divinities become gay and frisky and laugh at you. Fauns get very hairy about the snout, plants climb and frolic along the limbs of the goddesses. Olympus becomes human; partitions are built to break up the too cold and imposing grand galleries and transform them into cabinets particuliers. The pier invades the walls, the chimney-piece assumes shell forms. In fact, as the subtle “Advice to lovers of design,” which heads Oppenord’s collection of engravings says, these works are composed in a “taste after the antique,—but richer.” Then, we are led on to the charming follies of Meissonier, whom later we shall see go even further, growing ever and ever more “rich,” but still thoroughly under the illusory conviction that his style is “antique.”

Now we have arrived at what is perhaps the most exquisite and perfect period of the history of furniture in France. The workers of the Regency and of the reign of Louis XV. united with an incomparable manual dexterity a grace, fancy and caprice that is found nowhere else except perhaps in the best art of Japan.

Perhaps the greatest furniture-maker of this time was Charles Cressent (b. 1685). For the perfection of his workmanship, he ranks as high as AndrÉ Charles Boulle, and perhaps surpasses the latter in the qualities of seductiveness and elegance. He was an engraver as well as a carver. Copper played a great part in the ornamentation of his coloured marquetry works, and he was able to set his own mark of taste and finesse directly upon his productions.

The Orient was exercising a powerful influence on French as on Dutch and English taste. We have seen that a liking for the contrast of richly coloured exotic woods was noticeable toward the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The Siamese embassy with its rich offerings of porcelain and lacquer had concentrated the eyes of the Court for a moment on the art of the East. French artists catered to the novelty, and from then till the middle of the Eighteenth Century the lacquers of China and Japan were actively though freely imitated.

First, the monkey was all the rage as a decorative motive. Monkeys climb up piers, swing on garlands in panels, and not only play their usual malicious tricks, but musical instruments also. They appear in all attitudes and combinations. Watteau, Huet, Gillot and even Chardin, the realist, bowed to the demand for Singerie. A good example of the use made of the monkey in furniture decoration is the beautiful Regency screen on Plate XXX., in which the characteristic scroll and shell also appear.

The monkey, however, was not the sole motive of decoration. Chinese and Japanese screens, jars and fans soon asserted their rights; and “chinoiserie” was in full swing. The walls and furniture for a time, as in England, show strong evidence of the “Chinese” taste. In France, however, it is followed at a greater distance from the original, and artistically modified and developed. The “chinoiserie” of Watteau and Gillot has only a faint though delicate flavour of the real Far East. This “chinoiserie” had some effect on furniture in certain ornamental details, and Cressent’s work shows traces of the prevailing taste.

The artist who perhaps had the greatest influence in producing the Louis XV. rocaille style was J. A. Meissonier (b. 1695), who by his contemporaries was abused for having broken up the straight line outrageously and pushed the curve to extreme limits. He was the abomination of all who held the angular and dry in reverence. A very able designer, Cochin, in 1754, issues an appeal to goldsmiths, chisellers, interior woodwork carvers, engravers, etc. He begs them “when carving an artichoke or celery head in natural size to be kind enough not to set beside it a hare as big as a man’s finger, a lark of natural size, and a pheasant one-fourth or one-fifth size; children of the same size as a vine-leaf; or figures of a supposed natural size supported by a decorative flower that could scarcely support a little bird without bending; trees with trunks slimmer than one of their own leaves, and many other sensible things of the same order. We should also be infinitely obliged to them if they would be kind enough not to change the uses of things, but to remember, for instance, that a chandelier should be straight and perpendicular, in order to carry the light, and not twisted as if it had been wrenched; and that a socket-rim should be concave to receive the running wax and not convex to shed it back upon the chandelier; and a multitude of equally unreasonable details that would take too long to particularize. Similarly, carvers of interior decorations of rooms are begged to be obliging enough, when executing their trophies, not to make a scythe smaller than an hour-glass, a hat or Basque drum larger than a bass-viol, a man’s head smaller than a rose, nor a sickle as big as a rake.”

In reply we have the following protest: “It was necessary to find another kind of architecture in which every worker could distinguish himself and bring that kind of skill within the reach of everybody; nevertheless, accepted tastes should not be rudely shocked by the sudden production of novelties too remote from the reigning taste, thereby risking a hissing. At first the famous Oppenord served us zealously.... He made lavish use of our favourite ornaments and brought them into favour. Even now he is useful to us, and there are some of us who take him as a model.... We found a stronger support in the talents of the great Meissonier. It is true that the latter had studied in Italy, and consequently was not one of us, but as he had wisely preferred the taste of Boromini to the wearisome antique taste, he had thereby come closer to us; for Boromini rendered the same service to Italy that we have to France, by introducing there an architecture gay and independent of all those rules that anciently were called good taste. Meissonier began by destroying all the straight lines that were used of old; he curved the cornices and made them bulge in every way; he curved them above and below, before and behind, gave curves to all, even to the mouldings that seemed least susceptible of them; he invented contrasts;—that is to say, he banished symmetry, and made no two sides of the panels alike. On the contrary, these two sides seem to be trying which could deviate most, and most oddly, from the straight line that till then they had been subject to.”

As Oppenord may be said to have presided at the opening of the Regency style, so Meissonier inaugurated that of Louis XV. His rocaille escaped the exaggerations of the contemporary foreign masters, and kept within the bounds of good taste.

Among other decorators, less inventive but of charming taste, who followed in the traces of Meissonier were Michel, RenÉ Stoldz or La JoÜe, Chevillon, etc. The Print Room of the BibliothÈque Nationale possesses a collection of the beautiful designs of the two last-named artists in water-colour and gouache. These designers used many of the same motives as Meissonier, the shell, the cabbage-leaf, the shrimp (of course, the forms derived from these objects), but they added to their decorations still more fleeting and vague elements, such as falling water, the ostrich plume, etc. La JoÜe is a real past master in the art of introducing into a decorative panel a cascade which sometimes falls from nowhere and loses itself in pearly foam: for him everything serves as a pretext for a cascade: neighing horses plunging in the water, an open-jawed dragon clinging to the base of a column, a hunted stag vomiting a jet of water into a fount whose marble rim is full of twists and contortions.

The list of artists who contributed to interior decorations during the Louis XV. period is a long one. It includes: Boffrand, Le Roux, Oudry, Brisseux, Huquier, Pineau, Mondon, CuvilliÉs, Gravelot, Boucher, Blondel, Babel, Germain, Marvye, Chedel, Jombert, Babin, Cochin, Pillement, Peyrotte, Eisen, Demarteau and Martinet. These are the great masters of the style. The principal smaller ones are: Aubert, Crepy, Vassy, Bachelier, Roumier, Vervien, Caylus, Lassurance, Lange, La Collombe, Dubois, Bouchardon, Prevost, Le Grand, Fraisse, Blanchard, Marsenois, De La Cour, Canuc, Poulleau, Mollet, Mansart, De Jouy, Perault, Dumont, Aveline, Cornille, Chamblin, Bellay, Vanerve, Pelletier, Paty, Chopart, Borch, La Datte, Lamour, Girard, Ballechou, Herisset, Hubert, Metayer, Servandoni, Sloiste, Caque, L’Hermitais, Roy, Duval, FranÇois, Charpentier, Lebas, Radel, De Lorme, Courtelle, Viriclix, Tessier, Lattre, De Laborde and Harpin.

One of the cabinet-makers who best produced the ideas of Meissonier was Jacques Caffieri (b. 1678), who was “sculpteur, fondeur et ciseleur du roi.” Even if he did not himself manufacture, he directed the production of splendid cabinet-work. His work is distinguished by grace and aristocratic elegance. He executed a great quantity of bronze for the famous cabinet-maker, Œben. Many extant works bear the mark of a C surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and these are usually attributed to this master, but the great inequality of excellence makes many critics doubtful. Œben was a pupil of Boulle, and devoted himself exclusively to the branch of marquetry in cabinet-making, leaving the metal decoration to his assistants, Caffieri and Duplessis. His work was in the greatest favour with Madame de Pompadour, who bought it through the merchant Duvaux, one of whose best customers was the king himself. Œben died about 1756, and his works helped to furnish all the mansions and castles of the Marquise and King in Paris, Fontainebleau, CompiÉgne, Versailles, Bellevue, CrÉcy, Champs, Saint-Ouen, and la Celle Saint-Cloud. His widow married his foreman, J. Henri Riesener. The other great cabinet-makers of this period whose works are to be found in the Rothschild, Wallace, South Kensington, and other famous collections, are Bernard, Boudin, Ollivier, Dubois and Cremer, who worked principally in artificially coloured marquetry, and Gamier, Pafrat and Roubo. The latter wrote a very valuable treatise called L’Art du menuisier.

The taste for Chinese and Japanese art was very insistent, but at the same time only skin-deep. There was no true feeling for the profundity of the wonderful art in the patient work that produced the Chinese and Japanese lacquer. It was regarded as a toy. However, progress is noticeable, and fashion gladly welcomed the art products of the Far East. In Angola, a novel within the period, we read: “Upon my word!” says the Count to the Countess, “you have a splendid chimney-furnishing, and those Chinese cabinets are charming. Is this the rue du Roule?^[16] I am simply crazy about that little man. Everything that he sells is so expensive and scarce.” “Oh,” says the Countess, “it is a pretty good selection.” “Well,” replies the Marquis, “there is simply a divine taste in everything there. There are little divinities in the most wonderful forms. This one, for instance; this and your fool of a husband are as like as two peas.” Another description from the same work and in the same tone tells us a “lit de repos, in a niche of damask, coloured rose and silver, looked like an altar consecrated to delight; an immense screen surrounded it, and the rest of the furniture was in perfect accord with it; consoles, jasper corner-shelves, China cabinets loaded with the most rare pieces of porcelain, and the chimney-piece was decorated with corpulent gods of the most wonderful and clownish shapes.”

These Chinese cabinets were principally of lacquer, more or less adapted to French demand. Just as soon as the French taste required Oriental goods, orders were sent abroad and the “Heathen Chinee” was quick to supply the foreign market. The native art was gladly modified by the merchants in accordance with the demands of foreign trade. Sometimes even French and other goods were transported to China to have the finishing touches added there. Of course, the time came when native craftsmen tried to meet the demands of fashion by imitations of the Eastern ware. The trouble was that for a long time the home workmen could not produce the proper varnish and make a satisfactory lacquer. Some workmen boldly used native varnishes without attempting to imitate the Chinese and Japanese, and produced charming work of the most delicate finish; but these, unfortunately, scarcely outlasted the special entertainment for which they were manufactured. The undoubted chiefs of these varnishers were the Martins. In 1744, a decree of the Council allowed “au Sieur Étienne Martin le cadet exclusivement À tous autres, À l’exception du Sieur Guillaume Martin,” the privilege of manufacturing for twenty years all kinds of relief-work in the Japanese and Chinese taste. In addition to the above-mentioned, we must not forget the brothers Julien and Robert. The number of panels, carriages, sedan-chairs, boxes and ceilings and walls that they varnished is innumerable. The rage for their work was such that the wonderful Boulle-work in marquetry on the walls of Versailles that Louis XIV. had had executed for his son were destroyed and replaced by Martin decorations on a green background. They also did a lot of work for Madame de Pompadour at Bellevue. Their fame spread, so that Frederick the Great summoned Robert’s son, J. A. Martin, to decorate Sans Souci. Voltaire even thought the Martin work worth writing couplets in its praise.

Like all fads, the Vernis Martin aroused criticism and enmity. Mirabeau indignantly denounces the “voitures Vernis par Martin.” Notwithstanding jealousy and abuse, the Vernis Martin held its own, and to-day is a thing of great price. Good as it was, it could not compare with the Japanese and Chinese lacquer, and the specimens that have survived are relatively scarce. It may be interesting to note that the old lacquers that sunk in the shipwreck of the Nile, in 1874, near Yokohama, were found practically uninjured a year afterwards. At the same time, the modern products of Kioto and Yeddo were entirely destroyed.

In the Louis XV. period, the word apartment means a complete suite of living-rooms. There are three kinds of apartments, large, medium and small. A large apartment consists of a vestibule, a first ante-chamber, a second ante-chamber, a principal chamber, a salon or company-room (reception-room or drawing-room), a bedroom and several cabinets (studies), and garde-robe (wardrobe rooms). The medium apartment has fewer rooms and the small apartment still fewer. However, to be complete, the smallest apartments must comprise four rooms,—an ante-chamber, a chamber, a cabinet (dressing-room) and a garde-robe (a wardrobe), to which a small staircase leads. Each room has its own especial decoration. First comes the vestibule. This is a passage leading into the apartment. It is ornamented with columns, or pilasters, and circular niches, in which statues are placed. The ante-chamber comes next to the vestibule, and is destined for the servants. This room is ornamented in simple style: the woodwork of the doors and windows gives it its chief decoration, but mirrors and handsome paintings are often hung on the walls, and sometimes the corners are rounded for the sake of effect. This room frequently contains a stove, so that the cold air from the vestibule may be tempered before it reaches the inner apartments.

Next comes the second ante-chamber, where the servants who are in direct attendance upon the master wait. Sometimes this room is used for a dining-room, or a drawing-room. If used as a drawing-room, the woodwork is more or less richly carved, handsomely framing mirrors and pictures. Console-tables with marble slabs stand underneath the mirrors, contributing to the decoration of the room and exhibiting handsome vases, ornaments, etc. Sometimes the walls are adorned with rich tapestries reaching to the wainscot, which is of the same height as the slab of the chimney-piece. When used as a dining-room, the buffet is the chief feature. After indicating the place of the buffet, D’Aviler says: “The buffet can be incrusted with marble or Portland stone, or wainscotted with woodwork. This consists of a recess which occupies one entire side of the room; here you place a table of marble or stone supported on consoles, beneath which you may stand a small stone basin for cooling the wine bottles. On each side of the table is a deep niche, ornamented with aquatic attributes, such as Tritons, dolphins and mascarons of gilded lead, which throw water into the little basins below, from which it escapes, as well as into the basin underneath the table. The back of the buffet is ornamented with a little gallery with consoles, above which is hung a picture, usually representing fruits or flowers, a concert of music, or other pleasant subjects. This one (represented in D’Aviler’s book) represents upon a background of foliage, grapes and birds, a bust of Comus’s God of Festivity, upon which two little Satyrs are placing a crown of flowers and grapes.”

The chamber is the principal room in an apartment. Formerly it included all the rooms inhabited by the master except the vestibules, salons, peristyles and galleries.

The bedroom is the sleeping-room where the bed is placed. As a rule, this faces the windows. The decoration cannot be too rich, but this does not mean an overloading of ornament, as the best adornment consists of panels, mirrors and pictures well distributed. The large mirror is hung between the two windows opposite the bed, and below it is placed a console-table of gilded wood with a marble slab. Each window is furnished with a seat and has glass panes and an outside railing. On each side of the window, in the corners of the room, are pilasters, like those that decorate the rest of the room. Opposite the chimney-piece is another glass, beneath which stands a rich commode. Pictures are placed over the doors and mirrors.

The bedroom may also be hung with tapestries of silk like the hangings of the bed. The pattern should be of large floral branches and leaves.

The chambre de parade demands the handsomest kind of furniture. Here visits of ceremony are received. A magnificent bed stands here in a rich alcove, or is separated by a balustrade from the rest of the room. The railing is quite high, gilded, and terminates in Corinthian columns. Carved panels with pilasters, painted white and brightened with gold, decorate the walls. A rich cornice, ornamented with consoles, and whose metopes are enriched with bas-reliefs and trophies, runs around these panels. The ceiling should be tastefully painted, and pictures, mirrors and handsome furniture should complete the decoration.

White and gold, according to D’Aviler, is the most elegant composition, especially if the wall behind the balustrade, where the bed is placed, is covered with a tapestry of blue silk, and the bed hung with blue and white curtains, ornamented with gold braid. The form of this room is important: (1) it must be deeper than wide, so that, if the space occupied by the bed is excepted, the room is square; (2) the windows must be opposite the bed; (3) the chimney-piece must mark the centre of the room and be exactly opposite the principal entrance.

As a rule, the salon is rectangular. Its proportions are 4 to 3 or 2 to 1. There are square, round, oval and octagonal salons. Sometimes Corinthian columns are used for decoration and to frame the mirrors and pictures. The decoration is left largely to the taste of the owner, but whatever is chosen must be of great richness and charm, because the salon is supposed to be “a retreat after a day spent in hunting or after a walk.” Here the inmates and guests gather to enjoy the evening with cards or conversation and light refreshments.

The cabinet is a little room in the apartment, consecrated to study. It should be secluded and removed from all noise. As a rule, it is between the ante-chamber and the bedroom. The morning hours are usually passed in the cabinet. The servants go into the bedroom through the exits by the bed, and the master or mistress is undisturbed in his cabinet, which is decorated in the simplest kind of fashion so as not to take the thought away from study. Sometimes the cabinet consists of three little rooms, one arriÈre-cabinet where books, etc., are kept and which is very private (cabinet secret); the next is a serre-papier, where titles, contracts, business papers and money are kept; while the third is a kind of wardrobe and toilet-room, which communicates with the bedroom, and has an exit for the servants. The name cabinet is also given to the room where the ladies make their toilette, have their oratory, or take their noonday rest.

The garde-robe is the room where the clothes are kept and where the body-servants sleep. Some architects like a chimney-piece here, for the sake of an occasional fire.

Such is the arrangement and decoration of the large apartments. It will be noticed that carved panels, with or without pilasters, and panelled doors surmounted by paintings or panes of glass occur in nearly every room. The wall decorations are important. D’Aviler says:

“The paintings in the spaces above the doors or other parts of the room should, especially in the first rooms, show the qualities of the master, or his exploits, so as to announce by these allegories the respect due to the person who lives there.”

One of the favourite ways of arranging the bedroom, particularly for the small apartment, was to place the bed in a niche, from which circumstance the room received the name of chambre en niche. D’Aviler describes it as follows:

“As for the chambre en niche, the bed is viewed from the front; an arm-chair may stand on either side, the alcove being ten to eleven feet wide. If it is smaller, the bed must be turned sideways, and the width of the alcove must not be more than the length of the bed, its depth also being restricted to the breadth of the bed. (See Plate XXIX.) This will cause it to be called a niche, and the room will also receive the same name. In this case, for the sake of symmetry, a false bolster is placed at the foot of the bed, which has caused it to be called the two-bolster bed (lit À deux chevets). These rooms are usually covered with carpentry, all the mouldings and ornaments of which are gilded. Sometimes people content themselves with varnish.”

D’Aviler, however, greatly prefers the chambre en alcove to the chambre en niche, and goes on to explain that the alcove is the part of the bedroom in which the bed is placed. “Usually the top of it is formed by a parallel headpiece of carpentry work, accompanied by two other panels vertical or perpendicular to it. Sometimes, also, it is separated from the rest of the room by an estrade, or by several columns or other architectural ornaments. This makes quite a fine effect, and it is susceptible of great decoration. Besides the magnificence in sculpture, painting and gilding, of which the panels are susceptible, the back of the alcoves may also be adorned with mirrors; which light up the room and do away with the deep shadows which a bed almost always produces in a room. This kind of strengthening has a peculiar usefulness when it is well placed or arranged in a room; there is then enough space remaining on both sides for small wardrobes, or at least entrances into other wardrobes. The alcove is thus accompanied by two doors with glass in them to admit light into these little wardrobes, and they may be very richly decorated.”

In Blondel’s Maisons de plaisance (1734), he gives us a very clear insight into the arrangement and furnishing of a fashionable, though somewhat modest, house of the period. We cannot do better than paraphrase his recommendations.

As the building is intended to receive only a few people at a time, all the rooms, with the exception of the Salon, in case of a reception, are not very large.

“The vestibule is graceful in form; in the four angles are niches with statues. The four doors are symmetrically arranged. The outside door faces that leading to the Salon. This room is high in proportion to its size. The decoration is of woodwork, painted white, without gilding, because it is so situated as to serve as a passage to the outer rooms around it. However, the servants having the vestibule for retirement and the Salon being then able to be occupied by the masters, it is therefore adorned with pictures, sculpture and mirrors. In cold weather, there is a fire here for those who want to warm themselves after their different amusements, the apartments to the right and left being reserved for the relaxation of the masters of the house.

“On the right of the Salon is a room for play. Opposite the windows that light it, is a niche for a sofa, and in the two angles are recesses for cabinets for holding the chess, tric-trac, counters, etc. Opposite the chimney-piece, the wall is panelled and carved, the ornaments being varnished and gilded.

“All these small rooms being intended for recreation of the mind, nothing should be neglected to render the decoration fine and gay. It is here that genius may soar and abandon itself to the vivacity of its caprices, whilst in the apartments de parade it must restrict itself to the most rigid rules of conduct and good taste, and not fall into the unrestrained liberties of the carving of to-day, which should be banished with all the more reason that true architects scarcely tolerate them in the rooms we are now describing.

“This play-room leads into another one where coffee is served. Here Indian and Chinese plants and figures have full licence to take part in the decoration: here they are naturally befitting; and, in my opinion, this is the sole place where they should be admitted.

“Next we enter a cabinet en niche, oval in form, which is lighted by a glass door that leads into a little bosquet, which serves as a private promenade for this chamber. Opposite this door is a chimney-piece in an arcade which matches the arcade in which the lit en niche is contained, and opposite which another of the same form is imitated, or the door leading into this room. In this doorway is a staircase leading up to the entresols that are over this room and a little room behind it, which are intended for the servants’ sleeping-rooms.

“From the coffee-room you enter a gallery that terminates the right side of this building. This gallery is symmetrically decorated, and the spaces between the windows are enriched with mirrors and consoles on which are placed various curios, such as bronzes, crystals, porcelains, etc.

“From this gallery you enter the garden.

“To the right of the Salon is a billiard room of a shape appropriate to its use. Ornaments, mirrors and pictures rarely form part of the decoration of this kind of a room on account of the accidents incidental to this game; and the walls are simply covered with large panelling.

“This billiard room leads into a room which in turn leads into a chambre en niche; it may be ornamented with tapestries above a wainscot. As for the chambre en niche, its walls should be covered with carpentry work all the way up. This will preserve it from the humidity it might have, being on the ground floor, and which always attacks apartments that are not constantly occupied. The decoration is perfectly symmetrical. To combine pleasure and convenience, I have arranged close to it a small garde-robe that is lighted from and opens into a little court. On each side of the niche that contains the bed, there is a door; one serves as a passage into the garde-robe, and the other opens into a recess for keeping the linen in and keeping under key whatever the master desires.

“The little court communicates with the kitchens.

“The dining-room on the right of the vestibule is of an irregular form. The chimney-piece faces the two windows; the angles of the superfices on which it is placed are rounded, and in them I have placed niches for marble tables, on which can be set the silver, crystal and dessert, during the repast, and afterwards be put away in the closet next to this room.

“On the other side of the vestibule, is the common room in which the servants dine. Next to it come the kitchens.”

When the dining-room is separate from the suite, it is usually situated on the ground floor, near the large stairway. The architects of the day insisted that it should be well lighted, and, if possible, open upon a garden. The floor was of parquetry, and the walls wainscotted in oak and sometimes carved; yet it was not unusual to have the panels carved, painted white and gilded. The buffet with its fountain and wine-cooler was the centre of attraction. The curtains were of silk, the chairs were upholstered and the floor warmed by a carpet or rugs laid. On the mantel-piece stood a clock and candelabra, and sconces and chandelier holding many candles brightly illuminated the rooms.

One of the changes of this reign was the appearance of the petit salon and boudoir, smaller rooms beautifully and comfortably furnished, which were more adapted for intimate social life.

“In order to find useful furniture,” says Jacquemart, “we must pass to the reign of Louis XV., the king who deserted the state apartments for by-places with secret doors and back staircases.”

The Palais Soubise in Paris, the ancient home of the Guises, and the home of the Prince de Soubise, a favourite of Louis XV. and a devoted friend of Madame de Pompadour, is happily extant. The Prince de Soubise took for his second wife, his cousin, Anne Julie Charbot de Rohan, so celebrated for her beauty and her intrigues. The embellishments at the HÔtel de Soubise were begun by them in 1704 and continued by their son, the Duc de Rohan, who died in 1749, and the decorations of this mansion are considered among the triumphs of the “ÉlÉgances raffinÉes” of the Eighteenth Century. Germain Boffrand, a pupil of Mansart, is responsible for the interior architecture.

The two floors in which the Prince and Princess had their apartments were laid out identically. The Prince occupied the rez-de-chaussÉe, or ground-floor, consisting of a bedroom, a Salon oval and ante-chambers, etc.

The bedroom communicated directly with the Salon oval and the many windows and glass doors of the latter opened upon a formal French garden. The decorations of these rooms were in the pale grey tone known as gris de lin. There were no bright colours and no mythological pictures of love and gallantry. The panels were laden with beautiful wood carvings, and in the upper part between the archivolts of the doors and windows were eight allegorical groups representing the arts and sciences. Music, Justice, Painting and Poetry, History and Fame were painted by Lambert Sigisbert Adam; and Astronomy, Architecture, Comedy and the Drama by Jean Baptiste Lemoine.

The Princess’s apartments above consisted likewise of a bedroom, Salon oval, and an antechamber. The bedroom was lighted by two windows that looked upon an interior court. In the cornices and in the centre of the panels were groups of figures inspired by the stories of Greek mythology. On the piers, a skillful carver related the amorous adventures of Venus and Adonis, Semele and Jupiter, Europa and the Bull, and Argus and Mercury. In the four corners of the ceilings, the gilded medallions represented Diana, Leda, Ganymede and Hebe; and, finally, in the cornice, stucco figures of almost natural size stood out boldly. They formed four groups. Between the windows, Bacchus and Ariadne were represented; in the depth of the alcove, Diana and Endymion, and at the side of the Salon Oval, Pallas and Mercury,—opposite to Venus and Adonis. Innumerable little Cupids, bearing attributes of sciences, arts and letters were everywhere. Over each door was a painted panel: one, by Boucher represented the Graces presiding at Cupid’s Education, the other, signed TrÉmoliÈres and dated 1737, Minerva teaching a Young Girl the Art of Making Tapestry. In the back of the room, standing out from the red damask of the alcove, were two pastorals by Boucher, with shepherds in satin garments, and shepherdesses in panier-skirts, and beribboned sheep. All the frames, so graceful in sweeping curves, were in delightful harmony with this subject, adding as Jules Guiffrey says, “a fantastic piquancy to these mythological gallantries.”

“The Oval room,” says the same art critic, “will always remain one of the most artistic models of the Eighteenth Century; and everybody knows that the period of Louis XV. carried the science of decoration to its last limit.” The chief paintings were done by Charles Natoire in 1737–1739, and describe the story of Cupid and Psyche in the most charming colours; but, still quoting from M. Guiffrey, “the details of the ornaments of the salon oval defy all description. You must study in detail the entwinings of the rosace, the little cupids clothed in a beautiful coating of gold, all different in gesture, attitude and expression, to gain an idea of the infinite resources of the designers and sculptors of the time.”

The original chimney-piece was removed to the Tuileries, where it was burned. The floor originally was incrusted in the style of Boulle’s furniture, in branches of copper and pewter.

The boudoir is generally smaller than the average room of the period. The ceiling should be painted in the style of Boucher, with a pale sky scattered with clouds, garlands and Cupids. The cornices are white and gold, and the cartouches flowered and gilt. The doors are white and gold, and ornamented with painted motives very light. The panels of the wall are covered with silk, bearing flowers and birds on a pale rose, blue, or lilac background. The nails are covered with a harmonious braid. The alcove, or niche, is hung with the same material as the panels, and the cornice matches the other woodwork. Opposite the alcove is the window, the cornice of which repeats that of the alcove, and from it fall the curtains, made of the same material as the wall panels and alcove draperies, heavily wadded and lined with silk. They are surmounted by a light drapery, caught into festoons here and there, ornamented with shells or knots of the same stuff, and tassels or bell-shaped balls of silk. The under curtains are white lace, and the heavy curtains are looped back by means of light tassels of various hues. A scarf of drapery falls on either side of the alcove, the cornice of which sometimes is decorated with pommes. Below this is a valance corresponding with the valance at the base of the lit de repos that is placed within it. The chimney-piece is white marble, surmounted by a mirror with a frame of gilded wood carved richly in palms, flowers, birds, shells, etc. Upon it should stand a clock and two small candelabra of like design, or of SÈvres or Dresden porcelain. Opposite the chimney is a similar mirror, below which is a pier table or a commode. The carpet is Aubusson of light colours, and the doors, if preferred, can be hung with portiÈres agreeing with the window curtains.

Sofas, easy-chairs, arm-chairs, secretaries, small tables, corner-cupboards and chiffonniÈres are all appropriate to the boudoir, which may be heated with a wood fire on bright andirons, or by a grate. The light is supplied by candles.

A book called La Petite Maison (1758) contains a description of the furnishings of a wealthy home in the height of the reign of Louis XV.

Taking the dining-room first, we find that the walls are in stucco of many colours, made by the famous Milanese worker in stucco, Clerici, who made the Salon de Neuilly for the Comte d’Argenson and the Rendez-vous de chasse de Saint-Hubert for the King. In the compartments were bas-reliefs of stucco, the work of the sculptor Falconet. They represented the feasts of Comus and Bacchus; and the King’s sculptor VassÉ had adorned the pilasters with twelve trophies, representing the pleasures of the chase, fishing and good cheer. On each of these trophies was fixed a torchÈre of gilded bronze, bearing a six-branched girandole, which could make this fine room as bright as day.

In the adjoining small cabinet, in which coffee was served, the panels were painted of a sea-green hue with picturesque subjects brightened with gold. In this room were a number of baskets filled with fleurs d’Italie. The furniture was covered with embroidered moirÉ. Next came the cabinet de jeu. Here the walls were done in Chinese lacquer; the furniture was also of lacquer, with rich Oriental material finely embroidered. The girandoles were of rock crystal, and upon finely carved and gilded brackets were valuable porcelains from Saxony and Japan. A thick-piled carpet was spread upon the floor. This room communicated by two doors with the dining-room and the boudoir. The door into the latter was disguised by a portiÈre of tapestry.

The salon, which opened out upon the garden, was circular, arched en calotte and painted by HallÉ, a French painter, who much resembled Boucher. The panels were painted in lilac and framed by very large mirrors. The space above the door was also painted by HallÉ in a mythological design. The lustre and the girandoles were of SÈvres porcelain, with supports of gilded bronze or moulu.

The bedroom, square in form and À pans, was lighted by three windows that looked upon the garden,—an “English garden” it was. It ended in an arch, and this arch contained in a circular frame a picture representing Hercules in the arms of Morpheus, awakened by Love, painted by Pierre. The panels were imprinted with a pale sulphur. The parquet was marquetry of the odorous woods of amaranth and cedar. In the four corners of the room were mirrors, and beneath them console-tables with marble tops, upon which were arranged with great taste fine porcelains, handsome bronzes and marbles. The bed was draped in a material from Pekin, jonquil colour, ornamented with the gayest hues; and was enclosed in a niche or alcove, which communicated both with the garde-robe and bath-room. The garde-robe was hung with gourgouran (a kind of silk from India), gros vert, on which were hung rare prints by Cochin, Lebas and Cars. The furniture here consisted solely of ottomans, sultanes and duchesses.

In the bath-room, marbles, porcelains and muslin were not stinted. The panels were covered with arabesques executed by PÉrot after designs of Gillot, and distributed in compartments with much taste. Marine plants mounted in bronze by Caffieri, pagodas, crystals and shells decorated the room. In it were two niches: in one was a silver bathtub; in the other a bed draped in Indian muslin, embroidered and adorned with tassels. This was a lit de repos, and at its side opened the dressing-room. The panels here were painted by Huet, the designs being medallions, garlands of flowers, birds, fruits, and some gallant subject in the style of Boucher. The upper part was finished with a cornice, surmounted by architectural motives that also bordered a surbased calotte containing a mosaic of gold, with bouquets of flowers painted by Bachelier. Natural flowers filled the bowls of porcelain gros bleu, ornamented with gold. Furniture, gros bleu, the wood of which was aventurine, had been finished by Martin. The toilet service was of silver, made by the goldsmith Germain.

The boudoir was, perhaps, the most elaborate of all the rooms. The walls were completely covered with mirrors, whose joinings were masqued and disguised by the trunks of artificial trees massed and arranged so that they formed a quincunx that one might believe real. These trees were loaded with flowers of porcelain and gilded girandoles, which produced, with their rose-coloured and blue candles, a soft and diaphanous light, reflected, but moderated by the transparent gauze that had been spread over the mirrors at the back of the room, where there reigned a voluptuous twilight. In the niche, also covered with mirrors, was a lit de repos enriched with gold braid and accompanied with cushions of all sizes. The parquet was of rosewood. All the carpentry work and carving was painted by Dardillon, who, in painting and gilding the panels, had mingled with the colours some odorous ingredients for the purpose of having them exhale a perfume. This boudoir was thus a natural bouquet, exhaling from its paintings and gilding the combined perfume of violet, jasmin and rose.

One wishing to furnish a room in the Louis XV. style could hardly find a better model than the following that dates from 1730. This had a furnishing of Lyons brocade of jonquil-coloured background embossed with silver flowers, designed by LalliÉ, and trimmed with braid, lace, and silver fringe. The set consisted of a bed, two fauteuils, two square cushions, six folding-stools, a screen, a folding-screen, wall-hangings, and four portiÈres. The window-curtains were of plain jonquil taffeta, trimmed at the sides and top with silver lace, and at the bottom with a silver fringe. Each curtain was 13 feet, 10 inches long, divided into two parts, each part containing two lengths. The four portiÈres of jonquil and silver brocade were lined with jonquil taffeta. Each was in two parts, each of three lengths (2? ells long), and trimmed like the window-curtains. The wall-hangings were trimmed with silver braid. They comprised 24 lengths, 10? ells around the course, which was 3¼ ells high. The fauteuils were of the typical style with wavy top rail, curving arms with cushions on the elbows and bombÉ fronts. The frames were richly carved and silvered. These chairs were covered with jonquil brocade and trimmed with silver braid and fringe. The square cushions of the same brocade were trimmed with silver braid and had a silver tassel at each corner. The frames of the folding-stools were carved and gilt; the seats were covered with jonquil brocade. The screens were also covered with the same material, which was tacked on by silver-headed nails upon silver braid. The bed was magnificent. It was 11 feet, 8 inches high, 6 feet long and 5½ feet wide. The draperies were exclusively of the jonquil brocade lined with jonquil taffeta and trimmed with silver braid and silver fringe. The draperies consisted of three inside and four outside valances enriched with embroidery. The latter were gracefully looped in irregular festoons and trimmed with a silver braid. Silver braid arranged in the form of shells fastened the curtains back to the columns. The headboard was embroidered in silver with designs of flowers and peacock feathers in high relief. The Imperial, or canopy, to which were attached the inside valances, was lined with jonquil taffeta and trimmed with silver braid. Four “pommes” in the shape of vases covered with jonquil brocade trimmed with silver, supported by leaves and scrolls of embroidery, held four “bouquets,” containing altogether 120 plumes and four aigrettes.

The furnishings of the bed were luxurious in the extreme. It was supplied with four woollen mattresses covered with some jonquil-hued material, a down bolster covered with white taffeta, a scarlet ratteen blanket of Holland manufacture, another blanket of white wool bordered with jonquil ribbon, a counterpane of Marseille piquÉ, and a quilted and wadded counterpane of white satin. The outside ornamental counterpane was of jonquil and silver brocade lined with jonquil taffeta and trimmed with silver braid and fringe.

Another suggestion for furnishing may be gained from a description of Madame de Pompadour’s room at the ChÂteau de Saint-Hubert, which was furnished in 1762 with a rich damask from India of green and white stripes. The two fauteuils and six chairs with backs were covered with this material, ornamented with a braid of assorted silks. The wood of the frames was carved and painted green and white. A small tabouret, a little footstool, and a fauteuil en confessional^[17] with its cushion were similarly covered and had also carved frames painted white and green. There was also a fauteuil de toilette made of beech and cane, the cushion and back of which were covered with green and white damask. There was a folding-screen covered with the same damask on both sides and ornamented with silk tassels. The carved frame was also painted green and white. The one portiÈre in the room contained three lengths of the same damask, two ells in length, and was lined with white taffeta and trimmed with silk braid. The toilet-table was covered with a piece of the same damask, 7 feet, 4 inches long, lined with white taffeta and ornamented at each corner with a tassel of green and white silk. The window curtains were in two parts, each part containing two lengths of white silk (gros de Tours), 2½ ells long, trimmed with a braid of green and white silk.

The bed was completely draped in the same damask. It had four columns, headboard and footboard, and “imperial” or canopy (with four outside and four inside valances) four curtains en cantonniÈres, containing altogether twenty lengths, with four silk cords to attach them; the counterpane, three lower valances, four sheaths for the pillows, and four pommes were trimmed with silk fringe.

This bed stood on castors, and was 4½ feet wide; 6 feet, 3 inches long; and 8 feet high. Three mattresses, a down-bed, two down bolsters, soft woollen blankets bordered with ribbons, a piquÉ Marseilles counterpane, and a white satin coverlet, were among its comfortable furnishings.

In this room were also two commodes of rosewood veneered and set with mosaics, the tops of violet breccia marble. In front were two drawers. The length was 3½ feet; the width 20 inches; and the height 32 inches. The mounts, trimmings and shoe of the leg were of bronze gilt or moulu. The writing-table was of rosewood inlaid with flowers of violet wood, with flap to let down. This was covered with black leather. On the right, it had a drawer that contained writing-materials. All the mounts and feet were of bronze gilt. This table was 26 inches high, 23 inches long and 15 inches wide.

A night-table was also in this apartment. It was 20 inches long, 13 inches wide and 32 inches high. It was of violet wood and rosewood, the top, a slab of breccia marble from Aleppo, the height 32 inches; the length, 20 inches; and the width 13 inches. The shoes of the feet and the ring-handles were of gilt bronze or moulu.

The room was heated by means of a grate, on each side of which was represented a child holding a bouquet. The depth was 22 inches. The shovel and tongs were gilded.

A peculiar feature was a niche en tabouret for two dogs, covered with the same damask of white and green, the wood painted white and green. Within it were two mattresses covered with white linen.

PLATE XXXIV