The modern boudoir is a very different apartment from its eighteenth-century prototype. Though it may preserve the delicate decorations and furniture suggested by its name, such a room is now generally used for the prosaic purpose of interviewing servants, going over accounts and similar occupations. The appointments should therefore comprise a writing-desk, with pigeon-holes, drawers, and cupboards, and a comfortable lounge, or lit de repos, for resting and reading.
LIT DE REPOS, EARLY LOUIS XV PERIOD.
PLATE XXXVIII.
The lit de repos, which, except in France, has been replaced by the clumsy upholstered lounge, was one of the most useful pieces of eighteenth-century furniture (see [Plate XXXVIII]). As its name implies, it is shaped somewhat like a bed, or rather like a cradle that stands on four legs instead of swinging. It is made of carved wood, sometimes upholstered, but often seated with cane (see [Plate XXXIX]). In the latter case it is fitted with a mattress and with a pillow-like cushion covered with some material in keeping with the hangings of the room. Sometimes the duchesse, or upholstered bergère with removable foot-rest in the shape of a square bench, is preferred to the lit de repos; but the latter is the more elegant and graceful, and it is strange that it should have been discarded in favor of the modern lounge, which is not only ugly, but far less comfortable.
LIT DE REPOS, LOUIS XV PERIOD.
PLATE XXXIX.