Stools Or Tabourets

These articles of small furniture followed the same general styles of contour and ornament as were exemplified in the chairs.

Canapes Or Sofas

The same may be said of canapes or sofas. The chair of the period was the index of style.

Bedsteads

Louis XIV. As one might expect, in a period of great magnificence, the bedsteads were imposing pieces of furniture with highly ornate posts, testers and curtains. The general rectilinear contour was preserved, softened by carved amenities of decoration.

Louis XV. Bedsteads were less ponderous, posts and testers were largely abandoned for impressively draped and towering canopies over the bedhead.

Tables

Louis XIV. Under Louis XIV tables preserved a generally rectangular outline as to the tops. Legs were straight, often being square and tapered towards the foot, and were braced with saltire stretchers, or the legs were cabrioled and carved and joined by rising saltire stretchers.

Louis XV. Fancifully shaped, oval and serpentine tops came into vogue, and legs, like chair legs, exhibited more pronounced curves.

Consoles, Cabinets And Commodes

Louis XIV. These three articles of close kinship played a conspicuous part in the formal furnishings of these two successive periods. Variations of shape and detail were almost innumerable, but under Louis XIV the principle of rectangularity persisted. Legs were straight and tapered or only slightly curved, and even where moderately bombed fronts to drawers and cabinet fronts or circular fronts were introduced the general rectilinear character of the carcase was evident. This was true especially with reference to the taller pieces of cabinet work.

Louis XV. In the greater part of this period full play was given to the propensity for curving lines, so much so that in some pieces it is well nigh impossible to find a single straight line except the top, which was meant for a support for other objects. Bombe and serpentine or circular fronts for commodes and cabinets were the invariable rule. These commodes and cabinets had cabriole legs and the carcases rarely extended to the floor.

Armoires

Louis XIV. Armoires or cupboards had panelled doors in which it is significant that the heads displayed a semicircle, treated like the William and Mary hood motif or some modification and adaptation of the cyma curve.

Louis XV. Bombe fronts and Rococo scrolls were so rampant that panel forms were somewhat obscured, but the arched and curved heads continued - modified of course - as a base for elaboration.

Bureaux Or Escritoires

The writing furniture of both periods followed dominant characteristics of contour and detail. The high bureaux were not as popular as the low escritoires, upon which great pains and care were often lavished.

Torcheres And Mirrors

Torcheres or gueridons and mirrors may be considered together, as they so often composed a decorative unit. The lines of the former and the frames of the latter faithfully reflected the prevailing modes of the moment, whether Louis Quatorze, Regence or Rococo.