The elaborate designs upon the rich Genoa velvet that adorns this piece of furniture are quite in the Marot style.

Plate XLVIL - Carved Oak Bahut. CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.

Fig. 38: Ornament in the Auricular Style.

The bed of this period was particularly suited to Marot's taste, and he made many designs, in which the festoon is conspicuous.

The bed shown in the frontispiece of this book is a typical example of Marot. The heavy cornice is adorned with a cartouche in the centre and four "pommes" of ostrich feathers in vases at the corners. The headboard is also characteristic of Marot, and consists of an urn with swags of leaves and husks, with mermaids as caryatides or supporters at the sides. At the base of the bed is a mascaron. The silk draperies are arranged in formal swags tied with bows of silk and cords and tassels, and the valance around the bottom of the bed is similar to the cornice decoration. Running around the cornice is a brass rail for the outside curtains, which can be drawn around the bed enclosing it entirely, with the exception of the "pommes." The counterpane, bolster and pillow are covered with material that carries Marot designs. The pillow is adorned with tassels.

Another of Marot's designs for a bed is reproduced in Plate XLVIII. This is interesting on more than one account. The carving of the canopy shows the advent of the rocaille work that ran mad during the periods of the Regency and Louis XV. The scrolls in the woodwork at the foot of the bed are of the same form as the stretchers in tables, chairs, stands and stools of the period. The decoration of the room is worth notice also. The walls are covered with tapestry, and the same lambrequin that adorns the bed is repeated all along the walls under the cornice. The same decoration is repeated around the seat of the armchair on either side of the bed. The low foot-posts of the bed are surmounted by "potnmes," which usually hold the positions above, here occupied by carved shells. Finally, the sconce mirror over the chair is graceful in form.

Queen Anne's bed at Hampton Court Palace gives one a good idea of the Marot decoration. It has a square canopy and tester, below which hang curtains that when drawn enclose the entire bed. The head-board is upholstered. The furnishings of this bed are entirely of stamped or cut velvet, a white ground with formal patterns of crimson and orange. The chairs, tabourets and long forms are also covered with this material.

A beautiful chandelier of silver decorated with glass balls hangs from the ceiling, which was painted by Sir James Thornhill. The design depicts Aurora rising from the ocean in her chariot, drawn by four white horses and attended by cupids, while Night and Sleep sink away.

Marot's armchairs owe their effect almost entirely to upholstery: the framework is certainly solid, heavy and ungainly. He prefers carved feet of animals' claws to the popular Dutch bulb. A typical form of the seat and legs appears in Fig. 43. The top of the back is usually a straight line, though, if the chair is designed for a prince or noble, the centre sometimes rises in a carved crown or coronet. The woodwork is generally gilded.

Figs. 40, 41 and 42. - "Sophas." Fig. 43 - Lower part of Chair, by Marot.

Figs. 44 and 45. - Lambrequins, by Marot.

Marot's sconces usually had only one candle socket (see Plate XLIX). When the mirror was of silver, or any burnished metal, its surface was generally convex. When it was of glass it was flat, but very often the edges were bevelled. The three examples on Plate XLIX show the characteristic ornamental details of mascarons, floral scrolls, and heavy chutes of the bell-flower or wheat-ear. The same ornamentation, intermingled with "pommes," geometrical lines and broken scrolls, distinguishes the two large mirrors above. Other handsome oval and rectangular mirrors appear on Plate L. The lower one on the right, with cornucopias disgorging chutes of fruit, bears the crossed double L of Louis XIV, with a royal crown, and therefore must belong to Marot's early period before he went to Holland. The mascarons and human figures on the other mirrors on this plate also belong to the early Louis Quatorze period.

On Plate LI are two more mirrors, large and small, one above an inlaid console table and three candle or candelabra stands. These are interesting as showing the extent to which Marot made use of caryatides and swags in decorative work. It will be noticed that his Junos, Floras and Venuses are functional as well as graceful and decorative. With their heads and arms they have real work to do and weights to support.

Tables of Marot's design are represented on Plate LII, which also gives a series of eight mascarons. Plate LIII shows three of Marot's tall clocks, with details of decoration and designs for key handles. The little frieze of designs for keyholes at the top of the Plate show that the forms of chinaware were even invading goldsmiths' work.

It will be noticed that the grandfather's clock in Marot's mind was somewhat more ornate than the modern idea of that timepiece. Chippendale owed a heavy debt to Marot's forms of clocks and candlestands.

Marot's designs for rooms show the limit to which porcelain could be used as a decorative feature. There are brackets, brackets everywhere. Vases of different shapes and sizes stand on the ledges, oval, circular or straight, above the doors and stud the cornices; but it is the chimneypieces that serve, as the tiered dressoir did in Mediaeval days for plate, in the display of porcelain. The corner chimneypieces of Hampton Court with their diminishing shelves give some faint idea of the many plates of Marot's designs. Some of these show brackets and shelves that support hundreds of cups, saucers, pots, bowls, bottles and vases. In one extreme case more than three hundred pieces may be counted on the chimney-piece and hearth alone. These are not merely suggestions, for we have evidence that, in Holland, rooms decorated in this style really existed. Thus one poet sings: