much smaller size, more highly decorated with
marqueterie, and more fancifully mounted to suit the smaller and more
effeminate apartment. The smaller and more elegant cabinets, called
_Bonheur du jour_ (a little cabinet mounted on a table); the small round
occasional table, called a _gueridon_; the _encoignure_, or corner
cabinet; the _etagere_, or ornamental hanging cabinet, with shelves; the
three-fold screen, with each leaf a different height, and with shaped top,
all date from this time. The _chaise a porteur_, or Sedan chair, on which
so much work and taste were expended, became more ornate, so as to fall in
with the prevailing fashion. Marqueterie became more fanciful.

[Illustration: Console Table, Carved and Gilt. (_Collection of M. Double,
Paris._)]

The Louis Quinze cabinets were inlaid, not only with natural woods, but
with veneers stained in different tints; and landscapes, interiors,
baskets of flowers, birds, trophies, emblems of all kinds, and quaint
fanciful conceits are pressed into the service of marqueterie decoration.
The most famous artists in this decorative woodwork were Riesener, David
Roentgen (generally spoken of as David), Pasquier. Carlin, Leleu, and
others, whose names will be found in a list in the appendix.

[Illustration: Louis XV. Carved And Gilt "Fauteui." Upholstered with
Beauvais tapestry. Subject from La Fontaine's Fables.]

During the preceding reign the Chinese lacquer ware then in use was
imported from the East, the fashion for collecting which had grown ever
since the Dutch had established a trade with China: and subsequently as
the demand arose for smaller pieces of _meubles de luxe,_ collectors had
these articles taken to pieces, and the slabs of lacquer mounted in
panels to decorate the table, or cabinet, and to display the lacquer.
_Ebenistes_, too, prepared such parts of woodwork as were desired to be
ornamented in this manner, and sent them to China to be coated with
lacquer, a process which was then only known to the Chinese; but this
delay and expense quickened the inventive genius of the European, and it
was found that a preparation of gum and other ingredients applied again
and again, and each time carefully rubbed down, produced a surface which
was almost as lustrous and suitable for decoration as the original
article. A Dutchman named Huygens was the first successful inventor of
this preparation; and, owing to the adroitness of his work, and of those
who followed h