The second period of the _style Louis Quatorze_ is especially characterized by Bérain, and is nothing more than an attenuated Louis XIV., which forms a quite natural transition to the style of the Regency.
The swelling curves and the heavy masses of decoration gradually become finer, more delicate and more refined, until at length they merge into the succeeding period.
Another characteristic taste of the day was for the Chinese style. One of the Trianon palaces exhibited in high degree this taste for _la chinoiserie_ in decoration. It was called the _palais de porcelaine_. Four of its small pavilions were ornamented with plaques of _faïence_ in imitation of porcelain. The interior was painted also in porcelain. The walls were covered with mirrors and the furniture was extremely sumptuous. The flowers and shrubs were planted in handsome porcelain pots.
One of the distinctive styles of furniture at this period is that made by André Charles Boulle (also written Boule and Bühl). He was the son of Jean and the nephew of Pierre Boulle, both of whom were “_menuisiers du roi_” and lived in the Louvre. Our Boulle, born in 1642, also lived in the Louvre from 1672 until his death in 1732, and when Louis XIV. established his manufactory at the Gobelins he was made “_ébéniste, ciseleur, et marqueteur ordinaire du Roi_.”
Boulle’s furniture is exclusively _de luxe_, or _apparat_, and only harmonizes with rich surroundings. It consists almost exclusively of consoles, _armoires_, commodes, cabinets, tables, desks and clock cases,—forms that present large surfaces for the decoration that he carried to such perfection. His designs are very heavy. Occasionally they take the curved, or _bombé_ forms. This swelling curve is especially found in the _commodes tombeaux_ (tomb-commodes) and _commodes à panse_ (paunch chests).
Boulle’s furniture was an excuse for decoration, which was carried so far that even the joinings of the panels were lost beneath the clever designs of foliage, flower, or scroll. Many pieces still exist that were merely intended for show (_apparat_). Yet nothing could be richer than Boulle’s work, with its marquetry of exotic woods, its incrustations of tortoise-shell, its threads of copper or pewter beautifully engraved, its scarlet lines and its splendid gilt mascarons, handles, and bas-reliefs that form a sort of frame for the beautiful marquetry-work. Particularly handsome are the console-tables, upon whose marble slabs should stand rich vases of goldsmith work, jasper or porphyry, perhaps, with gilt mouldings and garlands; and, when these are reflected back by numerous mirrors, the effect is dazzling.