A great deal might be written about the beautiful furniture of Marie Antoinette's time, and in my "Illustrated History of Furniture" I have devoted more space to this important period of French industrial art; but for the purposes of this slight review we must press on.

The great Revolution brought about a change in the style of furniture as in everything else. Between the period of those terrible tragedies which marked this great historical catastrophe and that of the First Empire, there was a period known as the Directoire. The style of this time was marked by a mixture of the lines of the period which had just passed away, and an affectation of the classical-ism of ancient Rome. We find torcheres of tripod form with a serpent coiling round the centre support ; clocks and candelabra the supports of which are seated griffins; the same mystic emblem of an old world mythology serves as the support of a table, and Caryatides figures stiff in posture, form the pilasters of cabinets. These are some of the characteristic ornaments of this period of taste.

The plainer or more domestic furniture of simple mahogany, or of white painted wood, was not materially altered from the Louis Seize designs; the metal mounts, if any, would be a little more stiff and formal, but they would scarcely be distinguishable from those of the previous style, unless marked by some detail which showed this classic influence. The reader will remember that the years were renumbered and the months renamed by the National Convention, which was to destroy monarchies and set up republics in their place. Naturally we find some evidence of this pseudo-classic-alism in the decoration and furniture of the short life of Directory government.

A FIRST EMPIRE CHAIR.