Kitchen
Furniture
Louis XV furniture
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 Regence, and is a landmark in the history of furniture.
Boule Commode, Probably made during the period
of the Regency (Museé du Louvre.)
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.
French Sedan Chair. (From an Engraving in
the South Kensington Art Library.) Period: Louis XV.
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 in
composition 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.16
Part of a Salon, Decorated in the Louis Quinze
style, showing the carved and gilt Console Table and Mirror, with other
enrichments, en suite.
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 or Beauvais, 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 smaller and more elegant cabinets, called
Bonheur du jour (a little cabinet mounted on a table); the small round
occasional table, called a gueridon; 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.
Console Table, Carved and Gilt. (Collection
of M. Double, Paris.)
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.
Louis XV. Carved And Gilt "Fauteui."
Upholstered with Beauvais tapestry. Subject from La Fontaine's Fables.
During the preceding reign the Chinese
lacquer ware then in use was imported from the East, the fashion for
collecting which had grown 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. Ébenistés, too, prepared such parts of woodwork as were
desired to be ornamented in this manner, 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 trifling details in the costumes and foliage of decoration,
not strictly Oriental in character.
Commode. With Panels of fine old Laquer and
Mountings by Caffieri. Jones Collection, S. Kensington Museum.
Period of Louis XV.
About 1740-4 the Martin family had three
manufactories of this peculiar and fashionable ware, which became known as
Vernis-Martin, or Martins' Varnish; and it is singular 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 colours; 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.
In Parqueterie with massive Mountings of Gilt
Bronze, probably by Caffieri, (Formerly in the Hamilton Palace
Collection. Purchased (Westheims), £6,247 ICS.) Louis XV.
Period.
The gilt bronze mountings of the furniture
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 colour 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 exceedingly 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 XV. 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 pâte 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.
Bureau Du Roi. Made for Louis XV. by Riesener.
(Collection of "Mobilier National.") (From a pen and ink drawing by H.
Evans.) Period: Louis XV.
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.
Without doubt, the most important example of
meubles de luxe of this reign is the famous "Bureau du Roi," made for
Louis XV. in 1769, and which appears fully described in the inventory of the
"Garde Meuble" in the year 1775, under No. 2541. This description is very
minute, and is fully quoted by M. Williamson in his valuable work, "Les
Meubles d'Art du Mobilier National," and occupies 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 Riesner'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, à l'arsenal de Paris." Riesener
is said to have received the order for this bureau 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 taken 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
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
offered for sale, between fifteen and twenty thousand pounds. A full-page
illustration of this famous piece of furniture is given.
A similar bureau is in the Hertford (Wallace)
collection, which was made to the order of Stanilaus, King of Poland; a copy
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.
Kitchen Furniture
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