The industrial arts, which concur with architecture in the embellishment of buildings, receive the same impulse from the spirit of fashion, and no kind of beauty or worth possessed by these articles of taste can assure them any longer existence than the interval of time necessary to find a new taste to replace them. To do everything according to reason in such a way that the reason may be perceived and justifies the means used, - this is the first principle of architecture. However, the first principle of fashion is to do everything without reason and never to do otherwise. The form and needs of the body give no reason for the forms of clothes; because people do not dress to cover themselves, but to adorn themselves. Furniture does not make a virtue of necessity with regard to the forms. We pass from the straight line to the tortuous, from the simple to the composite and vice versa. This is only too well exemplified in the history of modern architecture and its vicissitudes."

The true inspiration of this period was David, the painter; and it has been aptly said that Desmalter did little but "translate into furniture the Greco-Roman dreams of the painter of the Sabines." Prudhon was another artist of influence. The most famous decorative artists and designers were Percier and Fontaine.

The general characteristics of the Empire style are stiffness, severity and coldness. The forms are cubic and rectangular, without projections or carvings. Round tables on tripod legs, sofas and beds with heavily-scrolled ends, secretaries and desks with secret arrangements of drawers, etc., and a great use of metal ornamentation are among the prominent details of this style. The decorative motives are rosettes, allegorical figures, mahogany columns of cylindrical shafts, without flutings and surmounted by the Doric capital (and often with a bronze gilt bracket), fasces, sphinxes, wreaths of laurel, and the swan used upon the arms of chairs and sofas, the sides of beds and for the feet of tripods. No. 1 on Plate LXV. is an interesting example of the use of the swan. The sphinx was also used for decorating the arm of a chair, as shown on Plate LXV., No. 3,and on the double chair on Plate LXVIII. Its use as a table leg is exhibited on Plate LXV., and as a support for candles on Plate LXVII. Clocks and candelabra are decorated with heroes from ancient history in preference to divinities and allegorical figures.

A little clock supported by an eagle appears on Plate LXV. This is one of Percier and Fontaine's designs.

The greater number of the designs on Plates LXV., LXVI., LXVIL, and LXVIII. are taken from Percier and Fontaine. Plate LXIV. is a reproduction of one of Percier and Fontaine's bedrooms. "The ornaments that decorate this room," they say, "are painted in oil upon plaster; they fill, without being of any determined subjects, various compartments; and among them are pictures of fruit, fragments of ordinary objects, painted in grisaille on a light background. All the furniture - the table opposite the bed, the tripod, the toilet, the bed and the frame over the mantel-piece - is covered with bronzes, enamelled paintings and incrustations of various kinds of wood. The isolated pedestal at the head of the bed is an armoire, which contains conveniences for the night. On the top of the tall column is a winged goddess under which statue the letters "La bonne de-esse," appear. The bed is of the form of the large drawing that is shown on Plate LXVI. The two chairs on either side of the mantel-piece the designers tell us were made by Jacob. The detail No. 3, on Plate LXVII is an enlargement of part of the mantel-piece, the fire-back of which represents the forge of Vulcan. The open-worked grate is copper gilt.

The designs on Plates LXVI. and LXVII are all by Percier and Fontaine, No. 1.on Plate LXVI., they say, is an arm-chair to stand in front of a desk; No. 2. is a lustre made of rock-crystal and bronze; No. 3 is a sofa-bed, and below it is a large sofa bed that was designed for a patron who was fond of war and sport. The hangings and the decorations of the wall behind the bed are therefore repeated here. The frame of the mirror is of gilded bronze. The glass swings forward. The rich commode with drawers on Plate LXVII.is an excellent example of the Percier and Fontaine work; above it, No. 2, is another commode and above that No. 1 the end of a bureau. Of the secretary on the same plate, they say: "This little piece of furniture, designed to preserve books, papers and money, has a clock in the upper part; below are secret drawers; in the centre a rolling cylinder and writing table. Chi-maeras on each side of the table support girandoles for lights. The whole is made of different kinds of wood ornamented with bronzes."

The rich sofa, or "double chair," and the sofa-bed, on Plate LXVIII. are also by these designers. Of the tea-table on Plate LXV., they tell us: "The design of this table was sent to Russia so that it might be executed there in porcelain and bronze; the compartments and ornaments that decorate the table have to be painted in colour with the background and the parts that stand out in relief of gold. The principal subject is the birth of Amphitrite, who is surrounded by Tritons and dolphins."

The cornice and lambrequin are unknown to the Directoire period; a pole ending in an arrow, or thyrsus, supports two curtains of calico, or silk. These curtains are relieved by a Greek border. The Empire taste demands a little more. Satins and velvets are added to the above. The drapery becomes very ample and beneath them are thin muslin curtains embroidered in dots, stars and squares. Sometimes two rods are used at each window to support the inner and outer curtains. A very fashionable method of furnishing the window was to have two curtains of silk and two of muslin. Decorative borders were used for these. The cornice is restored, and consists of the palm, the thyrsus, a bow, or a laurel wreath in gilded bronze, or painted wood. The colours of these draperies are limited. There are but five strong hues - crimson, green, blue, yellow and white - and there are no shades of these.