PLATE XV
Bérain and Lepautre designed many commodes of excessive richness, which even the magnificent examples of Boulle, one of which is given on Plate [XIV.], did not surpass.
The Duchess of Orleans owned a walnut commode 3 feet, 7 inches long, and 2 feet wide, containing three drawers with iron rings. The Duke had a bureau en commode, 3 feet, 5 inches long, and 25 inches wide, containing two large drawers with iron rings.
Madame de Gaudry (1708) had an oak bureau containing three drawers with iron rings. It was 3 feet, 4 inches long, and 2 feet, 1 inch wide. It was covered with a leather carpet lined with green serge. She also had a pine bureau containing two large drawers with copper rings. This measured 3 feet, 3 inches by 26 inches. A red leather carpet lined with red serge covered it.
Madame de Maintenon owned a veneered walnut bureau inlaid with threads of ebony. It had seven drawers on each side with copper gilt key-plates. This piece was 5 feet long and 2½ feet wide, supported by eight small columns. It was covered with a carpet of red velvet bordered with a narrow gold braid.
The Duchess of Orleans had a walnut table in the form of a bureau with two large drawers. It was 3 feet, 4 inches long and 25 inches wide. There were two covers for it: one of red leather and the other of red damask and gold moiré. Both covers were trimmed with gold braid and gold fringe.
The dressing-table as a separate piece of furniture seems to have been unknown. All the contemporary illustrations of ladies at their toilettes show them seated before a rather low table which is covered with a cloth, sweeping the floor, over which is spread another cloth probably of linen or leather. Upon it stand a small mirror and all the vases, pots, cushions, and small articles for paint, patches and perfumes. Sometimes the dressing-table was arranged like the one on Plate [XXIII.], No. 1, or again a commode, or table with drawers, was placed under a mirror, as shown in No. 3 and Nos. 5 and 8, also on Plate [XXIII.]
The handsomest tables of the day were of marquetry, ornamented with mascarons, or of carved and gilded wood. Many of them have the hind’s foot, or the term leg, and are connected with straining-rails. However, tables were also made of violet-wood, walnut, pine, cherry, or other woods, with simple turned feet. These were always covered with a carpet, or cloth, that matched the hangings of the room. The card-tables were sometimes three-cornered and sometimes cut into five faces. The guéridon, the shape of which was a stem, bearing a small round top and ending in three feet, was often used for cards. Typical tables are shown on Plates [XIII] and [XVI.]
Madame de Maintenon’s tables included two tables of violet wood each 2 feet, 8 inches long, by 2 feet wide. Their covers were black velvet trimmed with gold braid. She also had a little table of cherry, 2 feet, 3 inches long, and 17½ inches wide, with a drawer and compartments. It was inlaid with ebony in a design of lozenges and foliage and stood on four term-shaped pillars. The Duke of Orleans had a walnut table inlaid with ebony. It stood on four twisted legs and contained a drawer. The dimensions were 2 feet, 11 inches long, by 23 inches wide.
The console is somewhat squarer than that of the former period, and stands frequently with its back against a pier glass. The slab is of marble and sometimes of rich mosaic. The hind’s feet here give place to the termed legs, which are joined by straining-rails. Some of them have eight feet, that is to say, four double feet.