LOUIS XV.
When the old King died, at the ripe age of 77, the crown devolved on his great-grandson, then a child five years old, and therefore, a Regency became necessary; and this period of some eight years, until the death of Philip, Duke of Orleans, in 1723, when the King was declared to have attained his majority at the age of 13, is known as l'Epoch de la Régence, and is a landmark in the history of furniture.
BOULE COMMODE.
Probably made during the period of the Regency.
(Musée du Louvre.)
There was a great change about this period of French history in the social condition of the upper classes in France. The pomp and extravagance of the late monarch had emptied the coffers of the noblesse, and in order to recruit their finances, marriages became common which a decade or two before that time would hardly have been thought possible. Nobles of ancient lineage married the daughters of bankers and speculators, in order to supply themselves with the means of following the extravagant fashions of the day, and we find the wives of ministers of departments of State using their influence and power for the purpose of making money by gambling in stocks, and accepting bribes for concessions and contracts.
FRENCH SEDAN CHAIR.
(From an Engraving in the South Kensington Art Library.)