1 teapot, the ground white, with colored circles.
2 other tea potts.
4 salvers with vine blossoms.
6 green dishes.
The above inventory deserves most careful study, since it reveals so minutely the character of the objects that were to be found in the house of a noble lady who moved in the highest court circles during the reign of Queen Anne. The list of pictures that she left to her grandson has not been reproduced here; they were principally family portraits, and other pictures by the celebrated French painters of the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. These pictures, of course, had been brought over to England when the Marquise was exiled. Considering, however, that she had lived for thirty years in London till her death in 1722, the great bulk of the furniture in the above inventory must have been “Queen Anne.”
A study of the items, however, shows that some of them, especially those marked very old, were purely Louis XIV. Others, especially the chairs that matched the beds, were probably of the Marot school.
The Oriental goods are particularly noticeable, especially the lacquer screens and Indian stuffs. The china also shows that the Marquise followed the prevailing taste. It is to be noted that there is no mention of mahogany, and the wood that appears to be most in favour is the Calembour. This is otherwise known as eagle wood, a sweet-scented species of aloes that comes from the East.
The Dutch influence that prevailed during this period naturally resulted in marquetry coming into very high favour. The ordinary cabinet woods were inlaid in geometrical, floral and animal patterns with the warmer and more beautiful tints of the exotic woods. Complete pictures were often formed on broad surfaces, such as table tops, and narrower surfaces were also decorated in this manner. Plate [XXIII.], No. 7, shows a small chest-of-drawers, or dressing-table, of this period, with inlaid floral ornamentation on the legs. This dates from about the beginning of the Queen Anne period. Typical objects of this class, dating between 1690 and 1710, are described as follows:
PLATE XXIII