which he carried to a high state of perfection; but he was much more than a craftsman. He developed a furniture style that harmonized perfectly in its vigor and magnificence with the splendid proportions of the great royal residences. Large in scale and massive in construction, his pieces rely for their effect upon bold and striking decoration of gilded bronze and marquetry.

AN EXAMPLE OF RIESENER MARQUETRY

STYLE OF LOUIS XV

Boulle’s pieces accord thoroughly with the years of pomp and splendor of Le Grand Monarque; but even before the death of Louis a notable change in the appearance of furniture set in. The nobility, whose resources had been severely strained to maintain the splendor set by the king, found it necessary to substitute smaller apartments for their great rooms and galleries. Moreover, the heroic quality of the earlier Louis XIV decorations was no longer suited to the growing softness and effeminacy of the age. Smaller and more delicate furnishings were demanded. The Louis XIV chairs had borrowed the high upholstered backs, together with the S curves for arms and legs, from the Italians—later on the bold bombé curve appeared in the supports of the tables. By the time of the Regency these outlines had become more slender and refined and the reign of the curved line in furniture became established,—a reign that lasted for fully half a century, during which time some of the ablest masters of design that have ever lived played and conjured with curves delicate and curves bold, now bringing forth an outline pure and exquisite in quality, and again with amazing inventiveness interlacing curve with curve in combinations of infinite variety and bewildering richness.

Most Louis XV furniture develops naturally from that of Louis XIV, and is built upon thoroughly structural lines. The reaction, however, against severity and the increasing demand of a frivolous aristocracy for new and more striking effects, gradually produced a style in which decoration was often not subordinated to structure, but made an end in itself.

LOUIS XV TABLE

The rococo (from rocaille, rock, and coquille, shell) ran its extravagant course with increasing exaggeration and license during the first half of the reign of Louis XV; but it should not be thought of as affecting all the furniture even of this period, for its manifestations were mainly in the field of the carver and bronze worker, and the outlines of furniture were very little influenced, except in the case of the smaller and lighter pieces, such as console tables. About the middle of the reign the limit of artistic license had been passed and a reaction set in. The ormolu, which had reached excessive size and had become overloaded on the surface, was withdrawn to the edges, and made smaller and more suitable for the delicate proportions of the pieces. In its place marquetry of beautiful colored woods, more or less practised for over a century, was brought to a perfection never before equaled.

LOUIS XV COMMODE

LOUIS XVI—THE INFLUENCE OF THE CLASSIC

The reaction against the excesses of the rococo which had set in as early as the middle of the eighteenth century continued to gain strength during the next two decades, and to carry the design of furniture farther and farther from the fashion of the early years of Louis XV.

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