Chats on Old Furniture Part 11

Pet.i.t Trianon built at Versailles.

Meissonier, Director of Royal Factories (1723-1774).

Watteau (1684-1721). Pater (1695-1736).

Lancret (1690-1743). Boucher (1704-1770).

1751. The leading ebenistes compelled to stamp their work with their names.

Louis XIV. died in the year following the death of Queen Anne, so that it will be readily seen that English art was uninfluenced by France in the days of William and Mary, and how insular it had become under Anne.

The English craftsman was not fired by new impulses from France during such an outburst of decorative splendour. The reign of Louis XV. extends from George I. down to the eleventh year of the reign of George III., which year saw the cargoes of tea flung into Boston harbour and the beginning of the war with America.

In glancing at the Louis Quinze style it will be observed how readily it departed from the studied magnificence of Louis XIV. In attempting elegance of construction and the elimination of much that was ma.s.sive and c.u.mbersome in the former style, it developed in its later days into meaningless ornament and trivial construction. At first it possessed considerable grace, but towards the end of the reign the designs ran riot in rococo details, displaying incongruous decoration.

It was the age of the elegant boudoir, and the bedroom became a place for more intimate guests than those received in the large reception-room. In the days of Louis XIV. the bed was a ma.s.sive structure, but in the succeeding reign it became an elegant appendage to a room. At Versailles the splendid galleries of magnificent proportion were transformed by the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France (1715-1723) during the king's minority, into smaller _salons_ covered in wainscoting, painted white and ornamented with gilded statues. In like manner the Louis Quinze decorations were ruthlessly destroyed by Louis-Philippe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._

LOUIS XV. PARQUETERY COMMODE.

With chased and bronze-gilt mounts.

(_Formerly in the Hamilton Palace Collection._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS XV. COMMODE.

BY CAFFIERI.]

The commode in the Wallace Collection (ill.u.s.trated p. 171) is of the time when Louis XV. was in his minority, and of the days of the Regency.

It is by Charles Cressent (1685-1768), who was cabinetmaker to Philippe d'Orleans, Regent of France. This is an especially typical specimen of the cla.s.s to which it belongs as showing the transition style between Louis XIV. and the succeeding reign.

To establish Louis the Fifteenth's _pet.i.ts appartements_ the gallery painted by Mignard was demolished, and later, in 1752, the Amba.s.sadors'

Staircase was destroyed, the masterpiece of the architects Levau and Dorbay, and the marvel of Louis the Fourteenth's Versailles.

It is necessary to bear these facts in mind in order to see how a new French monarch set ruthlessly new fas.h.i.+ons in furniture and created a taste for his personal style in art. In the first part of the Louis Quinze period the metal mountings by Caffieri and Cressent are of exquisite style; they are always of excellent workmans.h.i.+p, but later they betrayed the tendency of the time for fantastic curves, which had affected the furniture to such an extent that no straight lines were employed, and the sides of commodes and other pieces were swelled into unwieldy proportions, and instead of symmetrical and harmonious results the florid style, known as the "rococo," choked all that was beautiful in design. Meissonier, Director of the Royal Factories (1723-1774), was mainly responsible for this unnatural development. He revelled in elaborate combinations of sh.e.l.lwork and impossible foliage.

In the Louis XV. commodes ill.u.s.trated (pp. 173, 175) it will be seen how far superior is the design and treatment of the one which was formerly in the celebrated Hamilton Collection. Its chased and gilt mounts are harmoniously arranged, and though the ornamentation is superbly rich, it breaks no canons of art by overloaded detail or coa.r.s.e profusion. Not so much can be said for the other commode of the rococo style, even though the mounts be by Caffieri and executed in masterly manner. There is a wanton abandonment and an offensive tone in the florid treatment which point clearly to the decline of taste in art.

The highest art of concealment was not a prominent feature in a Court which adopted its style from the caprices of Madame du Pompadour or the whims of Madame du Barry. But among the finest productions are the splendid pieces of reticent cabinetmaking by the celebrated Jean Francois...o...b..n, who came from Holland. His preference was for geometrical patterns, varied only with the sparing use of flowers, in producing his most delicate marquetry. In the pieces by Boule and others, not in tortoisesh.e.l.l but in wood inlay, the wood was so displayed as to exhibit in the panels the grain radiating from the centre. Oeben did not forget this principle, and placed his bouquets of flowers, when, on occasion, he used them, in the centre of his panels, and filled up the panel with geometric design.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS XV. _ESCRITOIRE a TOILETTE_.

Of tulip-wood and sycamore, inlaid with landscapes in coloured woods.

Formerly in the possession of Queen Marie Antoinette.

(_Jones Bequest: Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

The well-known maker, Charles Cressent (1685-1768), used rosewood, violet, and amaranth woods in his marquetry, and at this time many new foreign woods were employed by the cabinetmakers in France and Italy.

In addition to woods of a natural colour, it was the practice artificially to colour light woods, and inlay work was attempted in which trophies of war, musical instruments, or the shepherd's crook hung with ribbon, were all worked out in marquetry. Pictures, in coloured woods, in imitation of oil paintings on canvas, were foolishly attempted, and altogether the art of inlay, ingenious and wonderful in its construction, began to affect trivialities and surprising effects most unsuited to the range of its technique.

In the toilet-table ill.u.s.trated (p. 179), this misapplication of inlay to reproduce pictures is seen on the three front panels and on the middle panel above. The chief woods employed are tulip and sycamore, inlaid with tinted lime, holly, and cherry-woods. The mountings of the table are chased ormolu. The cylindrical front encloses drawers with inlaid fronts. Beneath this is a sliding shelf, under which is a drawer with three compartments, fitted with toilet requisites and having inlaid lids. This specimen of Louis Quinze work is in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was formerly in the possession of Queen Marie Antoinette. It is attributed to Oeben, though from comparison with some of the chaster work known to have come from his hand it would seem to be of too fanciful marquetry for his restrained and sober style.

It is especially true of the furniture of this great French period that it requires harmonious surroundings. The slightest false touch throws everything out of balance at once. Of this fact the inventors were well aware. If Dutch furniture requires the quiet, restful art of Cuyp or Van der Neer, or Metzu or Jan Steen on the surrounding walls, the interiors of Louis Quinze demand the works of contemporary French genre-painters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS XV. SECReTAIRE.

By Riesener, in his earlier manner.

IN TRANSITIONAL STYLE, APPROACHING LOUIS SEIZE PERIOD.

(_Wallace Collection._)]

All things worked together to produce a harmonious _ensemble_ in this brilliant period. The royal tapestry and Sevres porcelain factories turned out their most beautiful productions to decorate rooms, furniture, and for the table. Tapestries from Beauvais, Gobelins, and Aubusson, rich silks from the looms of Lyons, or from Lucca, Genoa, or Venice were made for wall-hangings, for chair-backs, for seats, and for sofas.

Fragonard, Natoire, and Boucher painted lunettes over chimney-fronts, or panels of ceilings. Of great cabinetmakers, Riesener and David Roentgen, princes among _ebenistes_, worked in wonderful manner in tulip-wood, in holly, in rosewood, purple wood, and laburnum to produce marquetry, the like of which has never been seen before nor since.

a.s.sociated with the period of Louis XV. is the love for the lacquered panel. Huygens, a Dutchman, had achieved good results in imitations of Oriental lacquer, which in France, under the hand of Martin, a carriage-painter, born about 1706, rivalled the importations from j.a.pan.

It is stated that the secret of the fine, transparent lac polish that he used was obtained from the missionaries who resided in j.a.pan before the date of the ma.s.sacres and foreign expulsion of all except the Dutch traders. Vernis-Martin, as his varnish was termed, became in general request. From 1744 for twenty years, Sieur Simon Etienne Martin was granted a monopoly to manufacture this lacquered work in the Oriental style. Although he declared that his secret would die with him, other members of his family continued the style, which was taken up by many imitators in the next reign. His varnish had a peculiar limpid transparency, and he obtained the wavy network of gold groundwork so successfully produced by j.a.panese and Chinese craftsmen. On this were delicately painted, by Boucher and other artists, Arcadian subjects, framed in rocaille style with gold thickly laid on, and so pure that in the bronze gilding and in the woodwork it maintains its fine l.u.s.tre to the present day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Foley & Ea.s.sie._

THE "BUREAU DU ROI."

THE MASTERPIECE OF RIESENER.

(From a drawing by Walter Ea.s.sie.)

(_Wallace Collection._)]

Towards the close of the reign of Louis XV. a new style set in, which reverted to simpler tastes, to which the name "_a la reine_" was given, in deference to the taste which is supposed to have emanated from Marie Leczinska, the queen, but is said to have been due to Madame du Pompadour.

At the Wallace Collection is a fine secretaire, with the mounts and ornaments of gilt bronze cast and chased, which is ill.u.s.trated (p. 181).

The central panel of marquetry shows, in life size, a c.o.c.k, with the caduceus, a snake, a banner, and symbolical instruments. It is by Jean Francois Riesener, and in his earliest manner, made in the later years of Louis Quinze in the Transitional style approaching the Louis Seize period.

Among the wonderful creations of Riesener, probably his masterpiece is the celebrated "Bureau du Roi," begun in 1760 by Oeben, and completed in 1769 by Riesener--who married the widow of Oeben, by the way. Its bronzes are by Duplesis, Winant, and Hervieux. The design and details show the transition between the Louis Quinze and the Louis Seize styles.

The original, which is at the Louvre, is in marquetry of various coloured woods and adorned by plaques of gilt bronze, cast and chased.

The copy from which our ill.u.s.tration is taken (p. 183) is in the Wallace Collection, and is by Da.s.son, and follows the original in proportions, design, and technique.

RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]

s. d.

Table, Louis XV., oblong, the legs are cabriole, it contains one drawer and a writing-slide; around the sides are inlaid panels of old j.a.panese lacquer, each panel bordered by elaborate scrollwork of chased ormolu, signed with "B. V. R. B.," surmounted by a slab of white marble, 39 in. wide. Christie, December 18, 1903 1900 0 0

Writing-table, Louis XV., marquetry, with sliding top and drawer, fitted with movable writing slab, compartment for ink-vases, &c., signed "L. Doudin," Louis XV. form, with cabriole legs, the top decorated with scrolls forming panels, the centre one containing a Teniers figure subject, parquetry and inlays of flowers round the sides, corner mounts, &c., of ormolu, cast and chased, 30 in. wide. Christie, March 18, 1904 630 0 0