The lit de repos, or chaise longue (see Plate [VIII.]) is an elongated seat. As a rule, this couch, or seat, is six feet long, and upon it rests a mattress or cushion. It is also furnished with a bolster, which should be covered with the same material as the mattress and back. Being exactly the width of the seat, it is placed below the back at right angles to the mattress. Sometimes this piece of furniture has elbows, and sometimes it has only turned supports at the sides of the back.
Many of the handsome tables were of a fashion that was continued through the succeeding reign, being of richly carved and gilded wood with hind’s feet or with term legs with or without stretchers. Some of them were enriched with gilded bronze, and incrustations and marquetry work of shell, copper and other metal. The tops, like those of the preceding reign, were frequently of marble or marquetry. They were also covered with a cloth and a housse of leather, serge, tapestry, etc. The table-carpet, as a rule, reached to the floor and was garnished with a narrow or wide fringe. This was the housse, and above it was a second cloth (see Frontispiece). These table-coverings were either simple or rich, according to the purse or fancy of the owner. Cardinal Mazarin, for example, had four table-coverings of crimson damask flowered, bearing the arms of his Eminence; four of “red crimson” Turkey leather trimmed with gold fringe and gold tassels and lined with red taffeta, and a green flowered damask table-carpet with four sides, lined with green cloth and trimmed with gold fringe à la Romaine. One of the handsomest varieties of table appears as a full drawing on Plate [II.]
Although the console is known during the reigns of Henri II. and III., it is in the reign of Louis XIII. that the phrase table en console appears in the inventories. The console was derived from the credence, and was even in its earliest form a large table with a marble top, jutting out like a bracket and serving to support a bust or vase. The three visible faces of the console were in the early days frequently supported with chimæras, fauns, etc. The word table was gradually dropped and the article was known as console.
A variety of table, known as the guéridon, was also popular. This is a small round table mounted on a stem or baluster that ends in three legs (Plate [III.], No. 2). It was made of various woods, sometimes of pear-wood stained black and sometimes painted. It was of great convenience. Sometimes it was used for cards; but more often it held a lamp, or candelabra, or a refreshment tray.
The chandeliers were usually of brass and hung from the centre of the room. Of course, candles were inserted in the arms. Candelabra and small candlesticks were also used to give light, and sconces were frequently attached to the walls. Pictures were framed and hung directly over the tapestries, as shown in the Frontispiece. Their frames differed but slightly from the frames of the mirrors, specimens of which appear on Plate [II.] as a full drawing and as No. 1. Another frame appropriate for either a picture or a mirror is seen on Plate [IV.], No. 3.
THE JACOBEAN PERIOD
PLATE V
THE JACOBEAN PERIOD