Knock-off

You might not know it if you never make anything from scratch, but the “designing” process, the “deciding the dimensions” and the “how it will be done” part takes time, often even more time than the “just making the stuff” part. That’s why, if you can copy and use a design that’s already been done, you’ll save the better part of the effort.

Here’s how we did just that in copying an existing fire screen for a new series of furniture.

For what it’s worth, you can have a look here at how the first screen was used.

If You're Happy Then Have A Laugh

This small Louis XVI style guéridon, or small circular table, is now part of the furniture of the Duchess's Grand Cabinet. It has been ordered specially to stand in front of the newly acquired fire screen, between the two matching armchairs. In fact, this combination of objects (screen and guéridon), serves the same function (shielding you from the fire and offering you a small surface to write on or to display some small item) performed by a single object in the case of the small screen-table displayed in the Golden Cabinet.

Smoke Screen

The frame of a Louis XVI style fire screen.

If you were a nobleman in the 17 th, 18 th, 19 th and up to to the 20 th century at least, and you had a fireplace, you had to have a fire screen. Made of wood and fabric, sometimes intricately decorated and set in front of the hearth, the fire screen was supposed to protect the room and its occupants against projections from the fire or intensive heat. Even when a fire was not burning, the screen, if it was large enough, could offer protection against draughts coming from the chimney shaft. The only thing screens couldn't offer you protection from in Versailles was smoke, for the palace's flues are said to have been particularly inefficient at evacuating it. 

But maybe more importantly, in the houses of the aristocracy during the Ancien Regime, the fire screen was an indispensable element of decor, and its colour and fabric were often to match those of the room's furniture. 

The screen delivered today for the Duchess's Grand Cabinet is in a very elegant Louis XVI style, and in perfect harmony of colour and style with the armchairs. (What are the armchairs in harmony with is another question!) Also note how the curves of the screen subtly echo those of the mirror frame above the fireplace.

Armchairs and matching Fire Screen in front of the fireplace in the Duchess's Grand Cabinet.

More Armchairs

We were writing in the last post about the name given to armchairs meant to be placed along a wall and essentially kept there with no other purpose than contributing to the decor of a room. Such armchairs are called fauteuils meublants. You may see in the picture above (taken today in the Duchesse's Golden Cabinet) how such seats may be arranged on either side of a fireplace for instance.

For really seating, two other identical armchairs have been delivered. Those will be used as fauteuils courants, or armchairs positioned in the centre of the room and more freely moved around according to needs. To complete the furniture, two matching bergères will be delivered soon.

An armchair in the Duchess's Golden Cabinet, of the same model as those furnishing the Grand Cabinet, but in gold and off-white tones.

A less formal arrangement of armchairs, set around a table for tea or conversation. 

Three armchairs in the Duchess's Golden Cabinet.

Armchairs

An armchair from a pair delivered for the Duchess's Grand Cabinet.

This type of Louis XVI armchair is said to be à la reine, which means it has a straight back. An armchair with a curved back is said to be en cabriolet. 

Armchairs meant to be moved freely around a room, like this pair, are called fauteuils courants. On the other hand, armchairs placed against a wall and staying pretty much at the same place all the time are called fauteuils meublants (furniture armchairs).

Slideshow

The above video is a first attempt at creating a very basic slideshow using the YouTube Slideshow Creator. The photographs shown here are almost all from the blog; so nothing new if you're familiar with its pictural content already! The original 4:3 photos have been re-framed to a 16:9 screen size (the one used by YouTube), hence some awkward framing... But, once again, this is only a test as they say! (And of course, while all this fancy stuff is being done, the construction and decoration work in the Palace have come to a standstill! Gee!)

Wood Paneling 2.0

Newly made wood panels have replaced the old ones in the Duchess's Grand Cabinet. These are views of the room without paintings on the walls to let you see the boiseries better. As you can see, we opted for an early installation of the panels even if we have still to fix (and build!) the doors.

The mirror frame above the fireplace is much more elaborate and intricately carved compared to the previous one, but still, it remains the only gilded element of the walls' decor.

The Mirror frame is loosely based on the ones, designed by Antoine Rousseau, visible today in Madame Victoire's bedroom in her apartments on the ground floor of the palace of Versailles.

If you want to know how much better (hopefully!) those new wood panels are compared to the old ones, just browse for the ancient ones on this blog; for now, there are still photos of them around...! 

Garniture

The Golden Cabinet or Salon Louis XVI received some garniture today. Garniture, as you may know is "a set of decorative accessories, in particular vases" (as defined for us by the Oxford English Dictionary). In fact, four gouaches by landscape painter Van Barenberghe, two pairs of vases and a restored clock are now part of the precious artefacts decorating the cabinet. The two Molitor encoignures are also, at least for now, part of the room's furniture.

Two very rare golden vases from the Shang period of the Hang Dynasty are exhibited on the mantelpiece. In the corners of the room, each encoignure supports a pair of Japanese hexagonal jars from the 17th century in the Emari ware style. The four gouaches, at last, bring a welcome and soothing touch of blue to the decor, counterbalancing the omnipresent gold.

Oh, and did you notice we made the skirting board too?

Fireplace

A newly delivered Louis XV style fireplace made for a room being decorated in the South East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State of the Palace of Versailles.

Golden Cabinet or Salon Louis XVI

At last! At last the content of this blog is getting closer to the promises of its subtitle. It's been months since we advertised to you the Gilded Rooms of the Palace of Versailles. Rooms you saw plenty (OK : you saw some rooms). But gold? Well... Voilà! The Golden Cabinet (where did they got that name I wonder) has received its gilded panels today, which are our first recent attempt at recreating the white and gold wooden paneling so closely associated with Versailles. The fireplace is new and voluntarily quite sober to let the gilded boiseries (wooden paneling) and the Versailles style floor speak for themselves. Oh, sure, for now, you'll have to imagine the floor... (But have a look at some other posts on this blog, such at this one, to have a taste of things to come.) For the moment, we borrowed an encoignure to the Prints Cabinet next door, we chose to display in this room the desserte acquired in July, and we present a portrait of Louis XVI on the back wall to pay homage to the last king to have inhabited the palace.

From the drawing to the actual woodwork. 

In the Cabinet, if the panels of boiserie are prudently crafted in a relatively sober Louis XVI style, all in straight lines, to let us challenge increasingly the difficulty of making carved gilded ornaments, the mirror frames, on the other hand, are boldly displaying the curves and intricacy of the previous Louis XV style. Such a combination of styles is of course not uncommon, as each style was not strictly framed in time, but rather melted progressively into the next.

Mirror effects at night in the Salon Louis XVI

“O Wind, If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind

With winter approaching once again, wood for fireplaces, screens or room dividers, curtains and carpets are delivered to the apartments of the Palace for those of its occupants who can afford them. In the Duchess's main drawing room in Her apartments of the South East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State, a wool carpet from the Savonnerie manufactory have been laid on the parquet flooring, and two newly aquired room dividers now stand in front of two of the room's doors, ready to cut out the infamous draughts of the Palace of Versailles. Note that wood has also been delivered to the fireplace.

These two elegant and newly acquired room dividers are not identical but symmetrical. They are the perfect complement to the beautiful portrait of Madame Adélaïde by Nattier that hangs above the very fine chest of drawers, by Jean-Henri Riesener (late period). The flower motif on the screens will be a constant reminder, during the cold winter days, that in a few months, spring will have come back to Versailles and its gardens.

Dining room

I thought I'd let you have a look at my newly restored dining room, the one set in my semi-private apartments of the South East Pavilion of the Secretaries of States of the Palace of Versailles. Those among you who visited the previous version of this room will be quite shocked I guess! Before the complete reconstruction of my apartments and the renovation work this part of the palace undergone recently, no solid walls or partitions there, no panelled walls, no tomettes floor, no Louis XV fireplace and its matching mirror! I found the engravings and the screens in the attic (which explains why you might already have seen them on this blog), in an apartments which is awaiting some important construction work too. (Arr! So much to do, so little time!) The two landscapes (contradictorily in "portrait" format) have been ordered two years ago to ornate another room of the Palace. They find here a perfect place!

Teaser

A house not far from Versailles is being restored. A glimpse through one of the first floor windows reveals a red Louis XV style fireplace and a gilded framed mirror of the same style hanging above it. The rest of the décors seems yet absent. No doubt the occupants of the house -- set somewhere in a clearing, in the extended hunting grounds of the Palace -- are not Mr and Mrs Average Joe... What is this house? Whom is it being restored for? Can we see more of it? Is it really a simple house or is it part of something bigger? No doubt you'd like to see more, dear Reader! That's why we'll reveal a series of details from that mysterious building, as teasers, in a series of upcoming posts, before revealing the whole picture and giving this building its name. Let's hope you won't be disappointed!

Armourer's Bedroom

The Armourer's Bedroom is a tiny windowless room inside the Duchess's apartments where her personal armourer may rest or spend the night. The tiny proportions of this room make it even impossible for you to stand, unless you are quite small. But you're in a bedroom to lie and rest anyway, aren't you? You'll notice the simple hexagonal terracotta tile floor, characteristic of the service areas of the palace.

The fireplace seems to be original, probably made for the room in the beginning of the 18th century.

Servant's Quarters

What a stark contrast between the decor of this room and the one of the salon I showed you again in the last article! If the salon does not present an example of the richest decors you can find anywhere in the palace (those can be found in the king's apartments of course, or in the Great Gallery), still you can start to develop an idea of the hierarchy that exists in the decoration of the different rooms of Versailles. The present room, judging by its characteristically simple stone mantelpiece (above which you wouldn't usually find such a large mirror, but this little room hasn't got any window, and the mirror is not new), its plain white walls and its floor made of the hexagonal terracotta tiles so widespread in Versailles, is clearly secondary and used by servants. (And still, a nice room for servants! There's worst! Believe me folks!)

A simple stone mantelpiece and terracotta floor in the South Wing's King's Pavilion. 

Just Got Lucky

I've been looking around through the collections of the antiques shops in Versailles today, when in a small shop I spotted a pair of very fine encoignures from the 18th century. I was looking for this type of furniture recently, because I thought I could use two of them to refurnish the small Prints Cabinet which we are bringing step by step to its former glory. The pair seemed fine and of a quality worthy of Versailles, plus the marble and faux marble used in the shelves was reminiscent of the one from the fireplace of the cabinet. I was very surprised though when, inspecting the back of the pieces of furniture, as you should always do, I spotted written on them the very mark ("CV") of the palace of Versailles! This encoignures, more than worthy of featuring in the collections of the palace were in fact artefacts which had been part of these collections during the Ancient Regime! I'm not entirely certain yet, but it is even highly probable that these two encoignures were indeed made for this very room in the first place. The name of their maker (no doubt very gifted) is unfortunately unknown for now. I got twice lucky to find the pair too, because quite frequently, elements of furniture that work in pair get separated over time and it is not always possible to reunite such fine examples of the craftsmanship of the Age of Enlightenment.

This is the second pair of high quality encoignures you can now see (in pictures at least!) in the rooms of the palace. You'll be as lucky as me if you can manage to see the originals!

Encoignures in the Prints Cabinet on the First Floor of the South-East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State.

Spot the Difference

Yes : this is basically the same image I've shown you two days ago -- that is the Prints Cabinet viewed from the salon next door, but we now see the cabinet with... well, I won't give you the answer! If you remember the photo from the 5th of this month, you'll know what has changed.

And because I'm nice, here is a slightly better view of the cabinet, just to prove to you there are indeed more than two prints hung on the walls. (There are nine now, all drawings of Louis XIV's family or important members of his court.)

Oh! Yes! You noticed that? Skirting boards are still missing everywhere.

Salon and Cabinet, South-East Pavilion of Secretaries of States, First Floor.

Prints Cabinet

The Prints Cabinet (or Cabinet des Gravures) is a tiny room in the Work Apartments of the Duchess of Couteau. This room showcases one of the finest examples of 17th century prints in Couteau. Only part of the Duchess's collection is displayed here. The room is never open to the public and the occasions to see it are extremely rare. However, having been working here to supervise the ongoing restoration of the cabinet, I was able to take the following photograph. 

I was holding my camera aloft to have enough distance and had to use the flash because the room has no window!

The Prints Cabinet, First Floor of the South-East Pavilion of Secretaries of State.

Behind the Door

Recently, a gentleman from our readers was wondering in a comment what was hidden behind the imposing doors of a beautifully restored room of the palace. Today, we are too happy to oblige and offer this gentleman a peep through one of these doors. Lo and behold! The open leaves reveal yet another room, much more smaller, in which the wood panelling (boiseries) and the fireplace have just been reinstalled today.

Here is a closer look at the fireplace, a rare example of a Louis XV style fireplace still adorning a courtier's apartments anywhere in the palace.

On a secondary note, if you're used to the royal apartments of Versailles, you may be surprised to notice that not all mirrors in Versailles came with a gilded frame! Walls of secondary rooms in courtiers' apartments and mirror frames were usually simply painted white as you see in these photographs. Welcome to the world of the simple courtier!

Rooms and Fireplaces on the First Floor of the South-East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State.

Antechamber

This is a rare glimpse of the rooms of the attic of the palace. The attic of the South-East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State, in which the present antechamber is situated, is currently unoccupied as the rooms are being restored to their former glory. 

This antechamber presents an example of a fireplace positioned in a corner of the room but still parallel to the main wall. This bizarre setup is in fact not uncommon in the palace of Versailles.

As for the antechambers themselves, they are maybe the epitome of a room belonging to a rich mansion or palace from the past. Who can afford nowadays to have at its disposal such rooms (sometimes vast and beautiful) and not making them their living room, bedroom or dining room? Note that a lot of theses antechambers (generally the second one if you had two) were in fact used as a dining room. In the first antechamber stood your servants and waited the visitors of less importance.

Antechamber in the attic of the South-East Pavilion of the Secretaries of State.