It would be unfitting to close this chapter on French furniture without
paying a tribute to the munificence and public spirit of Mr. John Jones,
whose bequest to the South Kensington Museum constitutes in itself a
representative Museum of this class of decorative furniture. Several of
the illustrations in this chapter have been taken from this collection.

In money value alone, the collection of furniture, porcelain, bronzes,
and _articles de vertu,_ mostly of the period embraced within the limits
of this chapter, amounts to about L400,000, and exceeds the value of any
bequest the nation has ever had. Perhaps the references contained in these
few pages to the French furniture of this time may stimulate the interest
of the public in, and its appreciation of, this valuable national
property.

[Illustration: Clock, By Robin, in Marqueterie Case, with Mountings of
Gilt Bronze, (_Jones Collection. South Kensington Museum._) Louis XVI.
Period.]

Soon after this generous bequest was placed in the South Kensington
Museum, for the benefit of the public, a leading article appeared in the
_Times_, from which the following extract will very appropriately conclude
this chapter:--"As the visitor passes by the cases where these curious
objects are displayed, he asks himself what is to be said on behalf of the
art of which they are such notable examples." Tables, chairs, commodes,
secretaires, wardrobes, porcelain vases, marble statuettes, they represent
in a singularly complete way the mind and the work of the _ancien regime_.
Like Eisen's vignettes, or the _contes_ of innumerable story-tellers, they
bring back to us the grace, the luxury, the prettiness, the frivolity of
that Court which believed itself, till the rude awakening came, to contain
all that was precious in the life of France. A piece of furniture like the
little Sevres-inlaid writing table of Marie Antoinette is, to employ a
figure of Balzac's, a document which reveals as much to the social
historian as the skeleton of an ichthyosaurus reveals to the
palaeontologist. It sums up an epoch. A whole world can be inferred from
it. Pretty, elegant, irrational, and entirely useless, this exquisite and
costly toy might stand as a symbol for the life which the Revolution swept
away.

[Illustration: Harpsichord, from the Permanent Collection belonging to
South Kensington Museum. Date: About 1750.]

[Illustration: Italian Sedan Chair. Used at the Baptism of the Grand
Ducal