‘O la belle Statue! O le beau piédestal!
Les vertus sont à pied, le vice est à cheval!’
The king, attended by Minerva, who holds her ægis over his head, is giving directions as to the building to a kneeling figure whose cloak and shield are ornamented with the fleurs de lys of France. A seated winged genius is holding a large open book, Cupids are playing musical instruments and supporting a trophy of arms and a medallion portrait of Louis XIV. The square will remain for ever memorable as the scene of the execution of Louis XVI. It was renamed Place de la Révolution.
The stick is of ivory, carved with allegorical subjects, variegated gold enrichments, the imbricated ornament painted blue, the guards inlaid with mother-of-pearl; on the reverse a tent, with soldiers drinking and smoking at a table. Jewelled pin.
Of the fans referring to the courtship and marriage of the dauphin (son of Louis XV.) we have the royal courtships in two medallions on either side of the sun in full splendour (emblem of the king), decorated with spangles; the mount of skin, the stick ivory, carved in open work with appropriate figures.
In the centre cartouche of another fan, similar in treatment and evidently by the same hand, the dauphin and dauphine bring floral offerings to Hymen, the field of the fan being occupied by two smaller medallions of Cupids, miniatures of the royal pair, and marriage emblems at intervals, the cartouches connected by spangles; the stick ivory, carved in open work with figures emblematic of the marriage.
| Building of the Place Louis XV. | The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol. |
| Dido & Æneas, Louis XV, gouache on skin, stick mother of pearl carved à jour, painted & gilt, 22-1/2 x 11-1/2. | Mrs Bischoffsheim. |