“pigeon-holes” and a place for books in the upper. In another
writing-table “half of the front feet come out with the Drawer,” and in
one corner is a “quadrant drawer for ink and sand.”
Another has a “flap on hinges in the top that rises to write upon.”
Frames and brackets for marble slabs, picture frames and frames for
looking-glasses, girandoles, sconces, etc., etc., appealed very
naturally to the carver. The very charming bracket, No. 1 on Plate XLII.
with its frets, its scrolls, shells, roses, and leaves, which was, of
course, intended for gold leaf, is very simple when compared with the
girandoles and mirrors, of which Chippendale has given so many examples.
One frame for a marble slab (really a console table) he evidently likes.
It is “supported by two piping Fauns, leaning against two vines,
intermingled with foliage, etc. It will have a grand appearance,” he
adds, “if executed with judgment and neatly gilt.” Æsop and mythology
and Chinese subjects afford Chippendale plentiful suggestion for other
consoles. The pier glass on Plate XLII. shows Chippendale when he is
most himself. This is 44 inches high and 28 inches wide, and the frames
fairly bristle with spiky tufts of grass, scrolls, leaves, flowers,
dripping water and long-tailed, open-mouthed, excited birds, while at
the top under a small canopy stands a Chinese holding a tray of fruit.
The mirror is in three panels: a large central one with a smaller one on
each side.
The girandole was also subject to the most fantastic kind of carving,
out of which the sconce arms emerged in graceful sweeps. One of great
interest is carved with the fox and grapes from Æsop while another
represents a piece of ruins intermingled with various ornaments, and
another shows a squirrel eating nuts.
No sideboard nor buffet appears in any edition of Chippendale’s designs.
He gives a number of sideboard-tables, however, which are long, heavy
tables that stand on four legs. These he carves ornately in either the
Gothic or Chinese style, and specimens are shown on Plate XLI., Nos. 1,
2, 3 and 4.
“Chandeliers,” Chippendale says, “are generally made of glass and
sometimes of brass. But if neatly done in wood and gilt in burnished
gold, would look better and come much cheaper.”
A standing-candlestand appears on Plate XLI. This is delicately and
gracefully carved in wreathing leaves and scrolls, blossoming flowers
and dripping water. Other articles for illumination are “lanthorns” for
halls, passages and staircases; some of them are square, some have six
sides and others are egg-shaped. These he directs to be “made of brass
cast from wooden moulds.”
The chimney-piece afforded Chippendale the greatest scope. He published
many designs far more ornate than the one that appears in Plate XXXVII.
Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to follow out all the details of
carving bestowed upon them. One very ornate example, he says, “requires
great care in the execution. The Imbossments must be very bold and the
Foliage neatly laid down, and the whole properly relieved. The top may
be gilt, as likewise some other ornamental parts.”
Grates, ornamental parts of grates of wrought brass and fire-screens
also receive attention. The cornice, wall decorations, borders for
paper-hangings, designs for frets that may be applied to various uses,
patterns for “handles and escutcheons for brass-work” appear among all
the miscellaneous articles. Chamber organs, book shelves, china shelves,
terms for busts, stands for tall china vases and beakers and
fire-screens are all included. Among the latter we may note that those
that stand on four legs are commonly called “horse fire-screens.” Some
of them slide up and down, others stand on the horse-leg, and others
fold.
Clock-cases also appear; one is ornamented with Gothic columns, and one
with a serpent running around the oval dial, “representing Time lasting
to Eternity, and the Wings on the sides show how swiftly it flies away.”
Table clock-cases also occur.
One of his handsome cisterns, or wine-coolers, which always stood
beneath the sideboard table, was cut in the form of a shell supported by
cherubs with tails that rose out of the grass. This was to be executed
in “wood or marble and cut out of the solid.” The other designs “may be
made in parts and joined with the Brass-work.” Tea-kettle stands of
delicate proportions, tea-trays and tea-chests received much attention.
Some of them had brass or silver ornaments and some were in the Gothic
or Chinese taste. The breakfast table and the china table, intended both
for use and the display of porcelain, are represented.
No. 1 on Plate XXXVII. is a breakfast table. Its height is 28 inches and
its leaves 45 inches. Its carved straining-rails are interesting. No. 2
on the same plate is a china table, the straining-rail of which drips
profusely with icicles or falling water.
From a careful study of the _Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director_
we find that Chippendale’s favourite ornaments are the shell, the fret,
the endive and acanthus leaves, the dolphin, the wyvern, the ram’s head
holding swags, the squirrel, the crow, the fox, the long-tailed and
long-billed bird, the dog, the lion, the masque, the quatrefoil,
ribbons, flowers of various kinds, the spiky thorn, bells, the Chinese
mandarin, the Chinese pagoda, the Chinese umbrella, the Chinese canopy
with bells at the corners, the monkey’s head, the cockatrice, the pine
cone, Cupids, satyrs, Bacchantes, boys blowing horns, the rising sun,
the two cɔ, the eagle, the horn, violin, pipes, and the lion’s head. We
also note an occasional use of the fluttering ribbon, attributes of
music, poetry, hunting, emblems of war, the sea, the bull’s head, the
serpent among flowers, the caduceus, and Venus rising from the sea in
her shell.
In his _Analysis of Beauty_, Hogarth says: “There is scarce a room in
any house whatever where one does not see the waving line employed in
some way or other. How inelegant would the shape of our movables be
without it! How very plain and unornamental the mouldings of cornices
and chimney-pieces without the variety introduced by the _ogee_ member,
which is entirely composed of waving lines!”
The above was printed in 1753, just at the height of the Louis XV.
period and the year before Chippendale published his designs. In a few
years all that Hogarth so justly admired was destined to pass away, for,
as we shall see in the following chapter, the reaction against the
graceful and fantastic curve had already begun.
LOUIS XVI. PERIOD
[Illustration]
LOUIS XVI. PERIOD
The Louis XVI. style is easily recognizable. In every kind of furniture
whether viewed from the full face or profile, the straight line strikes
the eye. It is everywhere, in all the uprights, in the leg and backs of
tables and chairs, and parallel lines are close together. Another
striking object is a peculiarly slender oval that appears in medallions
and vases and all kinds of ornaments. Oval medallions are to be met with
on panels and wood marquetry in light tints. These medallions, in which
the favourite device is a basket of flowers, are surrounded by a frame,
or border, of a straight row of eggs, itself bordered within by a row of
pearls. At the top of the medallion is a knot or bow of ribbon, from
which falls on either side a little bunch of flowers.
The indications of the coming Louis XVI. style really began between 1745
and 1750, and developed at the same time that the rococo was in full
flower. The discoveries made in Pompeii and Herculaneum are responsible
for the enthusiasm of certain masters of decoration for the straight
line and the regular forms of Greek art. Madame de Pompadour greatly
favoured this new style.
This period is characterized by a peculiar liking, or pretended liking
for everything relating to the fields and to nature. Books of _Idylles_
and _Bergeries_ are multiplied; _l’homme de champs_ has appeared in
literature; and the word “_sensible_” is very fashionable. The works of
J. J. Rousseau, Berquin and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre are now being
widely read. Ornamentation includes all the pastoral attributes (such as
shepherds’ crooks, shepherds’ and shepherdesses’ hats, scythes, rakes,
spades, watering-pots, pipes, flutes, Basque drums, and bird-cages),
knots of ribbon, wreaths of roses, bunches of flowers, baskets of
flowers, falling garlands, sheaves of wheat, architectural eggs and
pearls, or beads, parallel groovings, the thyrsus, quivers, torches, the
lyre, the broken column, the grooved shaft, the little open galleries or
rails on the tops of pieces of furniture (see Plates XLVIII. No. 1;
XLVII. and XLIV.) and round, oval, elliptical, or long square medallions
containing pastoral subjects. Acanthus scrolls with slender stems
support the tablets; and the mouldings are almost invariably bordered
with pearl headings. The laurel leaf in the form of a wreath, or a swag,
is often used; and the husk, or bell-flower, drops down the pilasters
and legs of furniture. (Typical legs appear as Nos. 6 and 7 on Plate
XLVII.) The vase is exceedingly prominent. Sometimes it holds flowers,
sometimes a pine cone or a flame; the shield is also evident; the
woodwork is often oak painted white; the walls are divided up by
pilasters delicately carved and painted in colours, and often the
mouldings are gilt. The chairs and sofas are covered with rich silk or
tapestry. Pastoral subjects, flowers and trophies are worked for the
backs and seats. Cabinets and tables are inlaid with woods of various
colours: tulip-wood, rosewood, pear, holly and ebony are all in use; and
bright colours are obtained by chemical treatment.
A critic has asked: “How is this? Should a decorator lose all sense of
appropriateness and invite you to sit down upon a pigeon, to obliterate
a love scene, and lean your back against a panier of fruit, or a basket
of flowers?” The answer was: “Is it not as absurd to eat from a plate
decorated with flowers which will mingle with the sauces, or to drink
from a cup decorated with butterflies which might fly down your throat!
If the pigeons, baskets of flowers and pastoral scenes delight the eye,
that is sufficient.”
The materials used in this style are principally white marble, bronzes
covered with a soft burnished gold, woods painted white, or in pale
delicate hues, such as grey, with which is mixed a little blue, green,
or red. To these numerous shades of grey the name “celadon” was given.
“The effort was everywhere made to substitute straight lines for curved
and broken lines and unsymmetrical forms, so that simultaneously a right
principle of construction was recognized and ornament was no longer
required to serve constructive ends. It recovered its place as mere
decoration, and as such was added or applied to furniture, though not
always happily, for chairs and tables were adorned with freely modelled
festoon and floating ribbons and garlands, which were too loosely
connected with the objects decorated, and stood in too slight connection
with them. Not only were the structural parts of furniture once more
made rectilinear, but their profiles and dimensions were decidedly more
delicate, and the legs of chairs and tables tapered downward to a point.
Although this is essentially right in principle, as it gives furniture a
more portable appearance, still it can be carried too far. This was so
much the case with the furniture of this period that tables, chairs,
high-legged secretaries and cabinets look poor and thin, stiff and
stilted,—an effect which is not condoned by their elegant prettiness.”
The above quotation is from Falk, who goes on to say:
“That which was new in the style of Louis XVI. consisted in the
employment of antique ornamental designs, which, having lately been made
known through the excavations at Pompeii, had become fashionable; we
mean those flowery, conventional, and charming arabesques interspersed
with many graceful animal forms, with which the decorators of the time
skilfully and pleasingly added an approach to the realistic use of
natural forms, quite opposed to the system of Rococo ornament. Perfectly
preserved examples of this style of ornament, which was used at the
Petit Trianon, still exist in the above-mentioned boudoir of Marie
Antoinette at Fontainebleau, as well as in the palace at Haga,[19] both
painted on and carved in the woodwork, although the latter is not left
in its natural colour, but is gilded in various shades.”
Pollen describes the interior decoration of the rooms of this period as
follows:
“The panelling of rooms, usually in oak and painted white, was designed
in severe lines with straight moulding and pilasters. The pilasters were
decorated with well designed, carved work, small, close and splendidly
gilt. The quills, that fill the fluted columns still seen round so many
interiors, were cut into beads or other subdivisions with much care.
Fine arabesque works in the style of the Loggie of Raphael, partly
carved in relief, partly drawn and painted, or gilt, with gold of a
yellow or a green hue, the green being largely alloyed with silver, and
with silver leaf as well.... The houses built for members of the
brilliant court of Marie Antoinette at Versailles and Paris, were filled
with admirable work in this style, or in the severer but still delicate
carved panelling in wood plainly painted. The royal factories of
Gobelins and of Sèvres turned out their most beautiful productions to
decorate the rooms, the furniture, and the table service of the young
Queen and her courtiers. The former of these factories produced the
tapestries for wall hangings.... Gobelins tapestry was used for chair
backs and seats, and for sofas. Rich silks from the looms of Lyons, and
from those of Lucca, Genoa and Venice were also employed for this kind
of furniture, both in France and Flanders, Germany, Italy, and Spain, as
well as in our own country. But in all these matters France led the
fashions.”
One of the specialties of this period is the great use of porcelain
applied to the front of furniture; these placques are round or oval, and
frequently a long rectangle. This fashion had already become popular
during the former reign; but it was carried to excess in the days of
Louis XVI. Jacquemart says:
“We again repeat that no classification exists that is not defective;
between the end of the reign of Louis XV. and the beginning of that of
Louis XVI. there is certainly no marked transition; the sobered
furniture in the style _à la reine_ is still seen with its chequered
marquetry and delicately chased bronzes. Louis XV., the founder of the
Porcelain manufactory of France, no doubt caused Sèvres plaques with
bouquets, bordered with turquoise blue to be inlaid in the furniture he
had around him, or which he offered as gifts. And yet it is more
particularly in the reign of Louis XVI. and at the time when Amboyna
wood and spotted mahogany were replacing marquetry mosaic, that
porcelain and Wedgwood cameos were incrusted in panels, friezes, and the
drawers of furniture; it may be permitted, therefore, for the sake of
clearness, to call the overlaying of furniture with china by the name of
the sovereign who so especially admired and patronized it. In fact, the
period of Louis XVI. is that in which cabinet-making employed its
resources most largely and multiplied its styles.”
[Illustration: PLATE XLIII]
Among the designers who are classed under the epoch of Louis XVI., but
whose works are a mixture of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. styles, are Roubo,
Lucotte, Watelet, Jean Baptiste Pierre, Dumont, Demontigny, Charles de
Wailly, Le Lorrain, Choffart and Neufforge. The latter, a native of
Liège, was one of the most prolific designers of the age. His eight
books of architecture with supplement give examples of interior
decorations. The fifth volume, which appeared in 1763, is devoted
exclusively to mantel-pieces, ceilings, tables, stoves, commodes,
parquet floors, vases and other furniture; and many designs of sofas,
cabinets, buffets, _armoires_, clocks, consoles and commodes are
included in the eighth volume published in 1768. Although Neufforge
published all his designs during the reign of Louis XV., they form a
complete illustration of both the exterior and interior decoration of
houses of the Louis XVI. style. However, Neufforge did also produce some
designs in the _style Louis XV._ A mirror by Neufforge appears on Plate
XLVII., No. 2.
The most important designers of the Louis XVI. period are: Delafosse,
Ranson, Forty, De Lalonde, Salembier, Fragonard, Boucher _fils_, de
Cuvilliés _fils_, Marillier, Moreau le jeune, Prieur, Petitot, Cauvet,
Fay and Le Canu. Others of reputation include: Boulanger, Simon Challe,
Houel, Bellicart, Saint Non, LePrince, Bachelier, Liard, Robert, St.
Aubin, Renard, Queverdo, Fonlanieu, Pariset, Moreau, Houdan, Beauvais,
Le Geay, Bertren, Janel, LaRue, Parizeau, Bonnet, Duplessis _fils_,
Fossier, Huet, Demarteau, Percenet, Pouget, Tibesar, Gardette Ponce,
Moithey, Panseron, Desvoyes, Taraval, Charton, Aubert Parent, and
Normand.
Delafosse (b. 1721) designed every species of interior decoration, and
every kind of furniture and ornament in use, besides innumerable
trophies, pastoral attributes, and attributes of music, painting,
science, hunting, fishing, etc., etc. His furniture includes sofas,
_canapés_ and _fauteuils_ in the picturesque taste, and chairs in the
antique taste, Turkey ottomans and beds, gondola sofas, French, Italian
and Chinese beds, and couches and settees in all the novel forms of the
day, as well as window-seats, secretaries, corner-cupboards,
candlestands, pedestals, stoves, and chimney-pieces. In some of his
designs there are reminiscences of the Louis XV. style, but he is
regarded as one of the exponents of the Louis XVI. style and their
individuality has given them the name “_genre de la Fosse_.”
Fragonard (b. 1733; d. 1806) has among his designs bas-reliefs gay with
fauns and Bacchantes in luxuriant foliage, panels and over-doors, and
charming studies for ceilings, especially adapted for boudoirs.
Forty, designer, engraver, carver, etc., worked in Paris from 1775 to
1780; and in taste and execution his works are perfect examples of the
time. In addition to books of vases, iron work for balconies, gratings,
stairways, and designs for goldsmiths, he published eight books entitled
_Œuvres de Sculptures en bronze_, in which are designs for girandoles,
lustres, clocks, candelabra, dials, barometers, etc., and a “design for
Two Toilettes,” representing everything that is appropriate to the use
of a lady, and ornamented with the proper figures and allegorical
attributes. Jewel-boxes, powder-boxes, comb-trays, etc., are included.
De Lalonde’s first publications, in the Louis XVI. style, are addressed
“to artists and persons who wish to decorate with taste”; and he assures
them that everything is in the newest style. They include borders and
frames, both square and round, feet for furniture, tables and consoles,
doors, cornices, entablatures, girandoles, lustres, candelabra,
trophies, soffits, vases, mantel-pieces, over-doors, ceilings and
rosettes for ceilings, fire-places, locks and knobs for the use of doors
and furniture, chimney-pieces and sconces. His thirteen books of
furniture represent sofas, _lits de repos_, _bergères_, duchesses,
_banquettes confidents_, ottomans and other varieties of beds and sofas,
_fauteuils_ of both the square and gondola form, billiard and
card-tables, desks of the cylinder and tomb shapes and desks with hind’s
feet, commode desks, commodes of marquetry, square commodes and commodes
with hind’s feet, corner-cupboards, screens, chiffonniers, bookcases
with pilasters, little toilette commodes, _demi-toilettes_,
flower-stands, etc., etc. Other books show numerous designs for the
table service. The later publications of De Lalonde approach the new
Classic taste. In these there are numerous plates for the decoration of
apartments, cornices, consoles, ceilings, doors, alcoves, windows,
chimney-pieces, girandoles, lustres, sofas, _canapés_, _fauteuils_ and
beds, most of which are “in the antique taste.” Among the chairs there
is a _chaise renversée à bergère_, a _fauteuil à griffon_, a _chaise
élastique_, a _fauteuil à tête renversée_, and a _fauteuil à chimère
antique_.
De Lalonde’s designs were exceedingly popular. His beds and sofas _à la
duchesse_, _à la polanaise_, _à colonnes_, _à trois dossiers_, _à la
turque_, etc. are legion, and his chairs, arm-chairs, _bergères_,
screens, tabourets, consoles, etc. appeared at Trianon and
Fontainebleau, and many of them survived the Revolution. De Lalonde
continued his work under the Directoire and so slavishly followed the
fashion that his work leads directly into the style of the Empire as
expressed by Percier and Fontaine.
De Lalonde is fond of the ribboned leg (see No. 3, Plate XLVI.) and the
grooved leg; and his favourite ornaments are the quiver, the urn, the
lyre, the garland, the burning torch, and, in his combinations of
trophies, the ribbon plays an important part. Specimens of De Lalonde’s
works are shown on Plate XLVI., Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.
Ranson was particularly fond of trophies and flowers. He composed many
designs and motives for the embroidery of arm-chairs. His books give all
sorts of trophies and floral designs for various kinds of decoration. He
also designed a great deal of furniture, particularly beds. Among the
varieties exhibited in his plates are: _Lit à Impériale à colonnes_,
_lit à chaire à prêcher_. _Lit à la Polonaise à tombeau_, _lit à
l’antique_, front and side view, _lit à la duchesse_, _lit à la
chinoise_, _lit à la Romaine_, _lit à la militaire_, _lit à la Panurge_,
_lit à la Polonaise à tombeau retroussé à la chinoise_.
Ranson was particularly fond of the pastoral accessories; and he groups
large hats, shepherds’ crooks, spades, trowels, and bird-cages, and
throws around them garlands and ribbons. The round or oval frames of his
chairs are generally surmounted by a garland of roses wherein doves
sometimes bill and coo, or a quiver of arrows is set. An example of the
latter design appears as No. 3 on Plate XLIV. Two sofas by Ranson are
shown on Plate XLIV., Nos. 1 and 2. The first is a “sofa with drapery
and cushions,” the second is an “_ottomane à la reine_.”
[Illustration: PLATE XLIV]
The cabinet-makers made a vast number of Ranson’s designs.
Salembier’s publications are chiefly devoted to the study of ornaments,
particularly trailing foliage and arabesques, the acanthus and the
thistle leaf. He designed no large pieces of furniture, but there are a
few plates of consoles, _guéridons_, sconces, chandeliers, clocks, feet
and corners of tables; friezes and panels for doors are also included.
In Salembier’s designs, the foliage is not very luxuriant, and the
acanthus leaf takes the place of the shell. The figures of Cupid that he
uses are more like the Greek in treatment; and although his ornaments
are plentiful, they grow slenderer. His arabesques are very ornate,
although they are composed of light elements, mingled with branches,
mosses and grass.
Petitot’s best book contains many views and studies of a salon in the
purest Louis XVI. taste. He also published sets of vases.
Jules François Boucher (b. 1736, d. 1781), the son of the famous
painter, published various decorations for panels, elevations for
alcoves, windows, buffets, details of _armoires_ and commodes,
libraries, drawing-rooms, cabinets, bath-rooms, dressing-rooms,
boudoirs, bedrooms, dining-rooms, vestibules, etc. His work is
particularly valuable; for the decorations, like those of Neufforge,
give a more correct idea of the general ornamentation of the Louis XVI.
period than the very rich and elaborate designs of Cauvet, Salembier and
others.