Gardes Françaises

The Gardes Françaises or French Guards were one of the many units from the Military Household of the King of France responsible for the safety and security of the King and the Palace of Versailles during the Ancien Regime. The French Guards' quarters were located inside the South East Pavilion of the Secretaries of States were, today, I dedicated a small room of the entresol were, before the Revolution, officers had their bedrooms, to pay homage to them. I've selected and display here a series of prints showing the different uniforms of these soldiers, and added two flags belonging to this famous regiment as well as some ancient and representative weapons. In fact, only the three men in bicorne hats (on the top right print) are from a different military unit, the Gardes de la Porte (or Guards of the King's Door). 

In fact, all these units had to work hand in hand with each other and did a pretty good job of keeping Versailles and the Royal Family safe during many years, until that is, in 1789 things get really nasty for the King and then, bye bye! The French Guard of the time defected to the Revolution.

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 2

Now that's a proper teaser! We learn a little more about the house from it, and we end up with yet more questions about this property. Surrounded by trees it seems indeed to be; it has more than one window too! And apparently a front door (always convenient)... And... that's about it! What can we tell more? Oh, just in case you were wondering, the window shown in the previous post, through which we discovered the fireplace and the very nice mirror, is the one on the left side of the door, from our point of view. I certainly hope we'll learn more, and very soon, or the whole game will become very frustrating indeed!

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.

A Glimpse of Riesener ?

This is a glimpse at the latest arrival in the furniture collection of the palace. This modest Louis XVI style mahogany chest of drawers, with marble top and gilded bronzes, might be an early work by the famous 18th century cabinet maker J.H. Riesener, who worked for the court of France and Queen Marie Antoinette herself. In any case, it is highly probable this chest of drawers was originally made for the palace of Versailles. Well, it's back home!

A Louis XVI style chest of drawers, Duchess's Apartments, South-East Pavilion of Secretaries of State.

Rafraîchissoir (Wine Cooler Side Table)

Saturday seems to become the day when I visit the antique shops, and for two weeks in a row now I didn't come back empty handed! The rafraîchissoir I came back with yesterday is a perfect example of this type of wine cooler side table I wanted to have in our collections for a long time. It is a very singular type of furniture, and many rafraîchissoirs made from the end of the 18th century to the early 20th century present the same general arrangement.

As you can see from the photographs, a rafraîchissoir is a small table with, generally, two circular openings on top in which are placed two metal containers where bottles are kept in ice.

 Our rafraîchissoir has a marble top. As you can see below, the tin containers can be removed to pour ice in them more easily, or, quite conveniently, to empty the ice and water when their job is done!

Usually, a rafraîchissoir has a small drawer, on the side or front. On our model, the drawer is large enough to contain a couple of glasses. Once again, quite convenient! I'm still looking for a bottle opener from the same period to keep in here too.

 If you read the post about the side table, you have probably noticed the similarities in stile between the side table and the rafraîchissoir. It is possible that the two were made by the same cabinet maker.

One last thing. Today, such a piece of furniture as the rafraîchissoir has of course become a curiosity, as wine bottles are kept chilled more conveniently, if needed, by more modern apparatuses. Therefore, it is not uncommon for rafraîchissoirs to be used as decoration tables and for the holes or containers to receive plants. A word of warning though : Xavier Dièvre, MOF, cabinet maker in Versailles, warns on its website that the humidity produced by the plants in such a case is not good for the piece of furniture. You've been warned if you decide to use your rafraîchissoir in such a way!

As you can see, ours, which is very precious, is kept in a pristine condition by being used only in accordance with its original function, or, better still, not used at all. This, ladies and gentlemen, is money well spent.

Cheers!

A Louis XVI style Wine Cooler Side Table from the palace's collections. The glasses and bottles are from Lego ® .