By kind permission, from the collection of Dr. Sigerson, Dublin.
CASSETTE. FRENCH; SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Containing many secret drawers.
VI
FRENCH FURNITURE. THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XIV
| Louis XIV. (1643-1715), covering English periods of Civil War, Commonwealth, Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and Anne. | 1619-1683. Colbert, Minister of Finance and patron of the arts. 1661-1687. Versailles built. 1662. Gobelins Tapestry Works started by Colbert; Le Brun first director (1662-1690). 1664. Royal Academy of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture founded by Colbert, to which designs of furniture were admitted. |
In order to arrive at a sense of proportion as to the value of English furniture and its relation to contemporary art in Europe, it is necessary to pass under hasty examination the movements that were taking place in France in the creation of a new style in furniture under the impulses of the epoch of the Grande Monarque. To estimate more correctly the styles of the Early Jacobean and of the later English furniture extending to the days of Chippendale and Sheraton, it must be borne in mind that England was not always so insular in art as the days of Queen Anne would seem to indicate. It is impossible for the cabinetmakers and the craftsmen to have utterly ignored the splendours of France. Louis XIV. had a long and eventful reign, which extended from the days when Charles I. was marshalling his forces to engage in civil war with the Parliament down to the closing years of Queen Anne. During his minority it cannot be said that Louis XIV. influenced art in furniture, but from 1661, contemporary with Charles II., when he assumed the despotic power that he exercised for half a century, his love of sumptuousness, and his personal supervision of the etiquette of a formal Court, in which no detail was omitted to surround royalty with magnificence, made him the patron of the fine arts, and gave his Court the most splendid prestige in Europe.
As a headpiece to this chapter we give a very fine example of a cassette, or strong box, of the time of Louis XIV. It is securely bound with metal bands of exquisite design. The interior is fitted with a number of secret drawers.
In the illustration (p. [159]) it will be seen that the chair of the period of Louis Treize differed in no great respects from the furniture under the early Stuarts in this country. This design is by the celebrated Crispin de Passe, and the date is when Charles I. raised his standard at Nottingham, a year prior to the birth of Louis XIV.
CHAIR OF PERIOD OF LOUIS XIII.
DESIGNED BY CRISPIN DE PASSE, 1642.