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1720-1750 Called ROCOCO, term given by the Italians to the style which will reign in Europe in first half of the XVIII-th century. In France he is called Louis XV or style Rocaille because of the ornament of the same name that one finds again on some furniture of this time. The style of the furniture can amount in two words : bend and comfort. The back of the seats the feet of many furniture become round, the springs armchairs are curved, make their appearance. The typical ornament is rocaille where from the name of Rococo. rocaille is a motive in the form of shell : asymmetry completes, restless and ripped drawing. The mahogany appears in the region bordelaise in 1730 and gains Paris towards half of the century. However, the wood fashionably for the construction of the massive furniture are : * The oak, the walnut and the plum tree But the Rococo it is the triumph of the veneer and of the marquetry at first. The exotic essences bring the wealth of their brightness. The common furniture are massive and polished. The luxury furniture are marquetes or lacquered. The artisans of the Rococo also fabricated furniture in beech intended to be painted. Hold that the spring is an invention of the XVIII-th century and when see them are thread on all their surface, included head. Regional Louis XV : in province, the style Louis XV has qualities that we appreciate very today, because it allies the elegance of the cabinetwork of Paris to the candor of the materials : massive wood, so as in the simplicity of the ornaments : horseshoes or brass instead of bronze. The used wood are : the oak and the walnut everywhere ; the beech and the spruce more specially in Alsace ; Scotch pine and the wild cherry more specially in Normandy ; the sorb and the pear tree more specially in Provence. Know that the stamp of the furniture was made compulsory in France
under Louis XV : in 1741. Previously, a great number of furniture was
not signed (Boulle has never marked its works). |