Shells and palmettes, masks and their wreaths, acanthus and stems of foliage, seemed cold and formal to society, who, wearied with the priestly demonstrations of the latter part of the king's reign, was eager for a return to the animation and brilliancy which had marked its early years. The Regent, essentially a man of pleasure, could scarcely help seconding the movement, and although with but little inclination for Art, he lent encouragement to the artists in their search after new creations. Claude Ballin, the nephew, entered on this path; and his epergnes (surtouts de table), with their complicated and florid ornamentation, had extraordinary success. After him came Thomas Germain, gifted with genuine talent, who was carried along by the force of the new fashion. But the individual who carried the rocaille style to the most exaggerated length, was Just-Aurele Meissonnier, who, taking advantage of the talent among the numerous engravers and chasers, made them put forth their full strength in works with complicated outlines, covered with rocailles, and bristling with details; the straight line disappeared beneath a mass of senseless endive ornamentation, where the eye wanders uneasily amid glittering confusion.

To this decline in Art may be added another. Gold had become scarce, and silver fetched a high price. Consequently efforts were made to discover some less costly material, which might resemble them in appearance. At Lille, a person named Reuty obtained in 1729 a patent for the discovery of a metal similar to gold; and in 1731, Leblanc, founder to his Majesty, produced in his turn an alloy called "similor," which was to supply at a cheap rate shoe-buckles, cane-heads, and sword-guards. This invention suited thoroughly the niggardly ideas of the period, and this similor figured even in diplomatic gifts. The King gave it admission into the Royal palaces; and, later on, Louis XVI. had in his table equipage plated and coated ware, and conferred the title of Royal Manufactory on the establishment founded by Tugot and Daumy, for the development of this spurious plate.

Let us not anticipate, but, having shown these tendencies, let us revert to the style of art and to the artists in renown under Louis XV. Of these, among the most celebrated, was Jacques Roettiers: his style is also that of rocailles and curled endive-leaves. The table-service which he executed for the Dauphine, and the grand epergne which he supplied in 1749 to the Elector of Cologne, established his fame; however, during the latter years of his life, his glory was thrown into the shade. Ideas began to turn towards a purer ideal, and numerous protests were made against the exaggerations of Meissonier and his school. This phenomenon is one of those whose effects we have frequently pointed out: it is never exactly at the time it takes place that we must look for the cause of a change in the taste or usages of a nation; we must go further back. The remonstrances which appeared in the "Mercure" in 1754 did not produce their effect until later, and the Louis XVI. style was the fruit of the efforts made to oppose the frenzied conceptions of the Louis XV. period. Philippe Caffieri exercised some influence on this movement, in seconding the intentions of Madame de Pompadour who was its principal promoter. Nothing then was talked of but the antique; everything, in the phraseology of the day, was borrowed from Grecian art, and we know that this aberration passed through the ephemeral reign of Louis XVI. and the Revolution to the Empire, which, fancying itself to be more Grecian than the monarchy, brought into fashion that stilted style utterly devoid of taste, which we can scarcely comprehend in the present age when genuine Greek antiquities are understood and appreciated by persons of culture.

The latter part of the reign of Louis XV, and the Louis XVI. period have left us but few examples of gold and silver plate, still enough remains to mark the progress accomplished. When we see the silver following simple lines and covered with the finest ornamental chasing, and imagine to ourselves a table set out with this plate, accompanied by the vases and biscuits of Sevres, we dream of the most coquettish refinements of elegance, and see once more revived those forms illumined by their beauty and the halo thrown around them by their misfortunes.