THE culminating period of the long reign of Louis XIV. (1643 - 1715) was reached at the Treaty of Nimeguenin 1678. From this time forward, France not only dominated Europe by force of arms, but also by her taste and achievements in art. Paris set the fashions for the whole Continent and for the Court of Charles II. across the Channel. The "Rotmagnifique," now able to indulge every fancy and whim, makes the Palace of Versailles the symbol of the time. Although the architect Mansart began the improvements there in 1661, it was not until 1682 that the residence of the Court was fixed at Versailles. Then it became the expression of pomp, pleasure and magnificence. Magnificent Versailles, with its water-works, its statues, its groves, its gardens, its galleries, its pictures and its furnishings, cost the King a fortune. The furniture alone, not including either pictures or tapestries, amounted to 13,000,000 livres.

Anxious to exhibit a magnificence unknown since the days of Rome and Byzantium, the "Sun King" conceived the idea of entrusting the designing and manufacture of carpets, tapestries, furniture, plate, etc., etc., to artists of the first rank. His first plan was to gather around him a number of talented men, to each of whom he granted apartments in the Louvre; but he found that it would be well to subject all the various individual works to one guiding spirit and thus to create harmony. Therefore, in 1667, he established the "Manufacture des Gobelins," with the painter, Le Brun, at its head. This manufactory of the crown became not only famous for the superb tapestry that bears its name, but for cabinet work [ebenisterie), goldsmith work (orfevrerie), etc., etc., and was the special pride of Louis XIV, who, according to a contemporary:

" Ne passe guere de semaines Ou toute sa cour il n'y mene."

Among the famous artists and workers employed at the Gobelins, were the ebeniste Andre Charles Boulle, the goldsmiths Claude Ballin and Delaunay, the painters and decorators Jean Berain and Jean Lepautre, and the engravers La Barre, Viaucourt, Debonnaire, and Guil-laume and Alexandre Loir. Nor must Colbert be forgotten, the great minister of finance who aided the King in founding this important establishment. Le Brun dominated all productions with his taste, which was that of Louis himself, - magnificent, splendid, heroic and pompous. Here were produced not only the furnishings for the homes of the wealthy, but those superb gifts that Louis lavished upon the ambassadors from foreign courts.

Massive silver * furniture, which seems to have originated in Spain, and to have crossed the Pyrenees with Anne of Austria, the daughter of Philip III., became extremely popular at court and with those of Louis's courtiers who could afford such a luxury. When Charles II. ascended the English throne, and brought with him from France all the styles of Louis XIV., silver furniture was introduced into the country, some of which is still preserved.

Doubtless the richness and beauty of these rare articles developed the taste for carved and gilded wood. Its use was not confined to the wealthy; in comparatively modest dwellings and hotels the frames of the seats, mirrors, tables, consoles, etc., were carved elaborately and gilded. It is probably owing to this dazzling and glittering effect of gilded wood that has caused critics to refer to the preceding style of Louis XIII. as "sombre." The luxury and splendours of the court penetrated to the middle classes, who adopted all the styles of the day. It was not long before great changes in interior decorations were sufficiently apparent to attract the notice of contemporary writers. La Bruyere speaks of the preceding reign when copper and pewter had not been supplanted by silver. The enormous and monumental chimneypiece which reached to the cornice, a typical example of which is shown in the frontispiece, was banished for the "petite chiminee," or little chimney-piece. Mirrors now made at the Gobelin manufactory became far more common, having been brought within the reach of many who could not afford the hitherto unrivalled glasses made in Venice. The flags and tiles were now superseded by floors of inlaid woods, or parquetry, and the tapestries and embossed leather that adorned the walls in the preceding period were gradually succeeded by painted and gilt panels.

There was a tendency every where for lighter hues. This taste had already reached high expression in the Marquise de Rambouillet, who astonished everyone with her "Blue Parlour," which was decorated and draped in the colour of the sky.

* Metal furniture, however, was known to the ancients. To quote a single example, in the palace of King Ahasuerus, "the beds were of gold and silverupon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble." The Assyrian furniture was of gold, silver, and bronze, and splendid furniture of gold, silver, and bronze, likewise adorned the Egyptian and Roman palaces and villas. The Romans d aventure of the Middle Ages contain descriptions of such rich furniture, inspired by Oriental luxury.

It must not be imagined, however, that tapestry was rejected. The magnificent productions of the Gobelins reproducing in their bold colours the pictures of Le Brun, Van der Meulen, and others, made superb wall-decorations for the homes of the wealthy; and those who did not care for the hunting-scenes, war-scenes, mythological subjects, or allegories, could select Berain's fine "arabesques." We notice, however, some new colours that were extremely popular. These were particularly the yellowish pink hue of dawn, called aurora, flame-colour, flesh-colour, and amaranth, a purplish red such as occurs in the common flowers, Love-lies-bleeding and Prince's Feather. These colours occur chiefly in the sumptuous brocades and damasks from Lyons, Genoa and Flanders that were used to line the walls, for covering the seats, and draping the great beds.