Marie Antoinette's

I am going to try a new format.  Decorative arts are easy to love or hate, but let's try a comparison.  Which do you prefer and why? The attention to detail was quite extraordinary in 18th century furniture. 

I posted close up images so you could see the details better! Now, which piece do you prefer and why? What would you have in your château??

This lovely porcelain vase was made at the Meissen Factory around 1750.  When the item was made the factory had been illustrious for 4 decades, and their pieces were de rigeur for the first part of the century.  This vase features two exagerated handles on each side decorated with gilt vines and flowers.  This motif is mimicked on the base of the vase.  The dynamic flow of the base is very organic and implies the body of the vase is floating or balancing, quite gracefully, upon the growth (roots). 

The body of the vase is also organic in shape and covered in very small and well detailed blooms.  The texture is apparent and the blooms frame a miniature of a couple strolling through a pleasure garden.  The nature of this piece, with all it's floral motifs and organic bulbus shapes may just be found within an exotic pleausre garden. 

But what about your chateau? Perhaps it would sit upon the wooden end table in your living room? Or on your night stand in your private apartments? What do you say?

Here are a pair of andiron, made in France by Pierre Gouthière, when the new monarchs took the throne.  Gouthière worked in Paris and received many commissions from Marie Antoinette, he was simply one of the best! The term andiron originated in the thirteenth century and now we also refer to them as firedogs.  They are metal stands which are placed in a fireplace to hold logs. 

Elegant in style, this pair was designed with architecture in mind.  It would sit in the fireplace as we see it here. The logs lay across supports behind the gold banister, as if to represent keeping the fire within.  I particularly enjoy the exaggerated and billowy flames bursting from the two vessels on either end. But how about you? Would you use these in your fireplace?

A lovely chest of drawers which stands low, on four ornamented feet.   It is elaborately decorated in the round and the drawers are almost masked by the gilt details.  The handles used to open the drawers are actually created from the dragons' bodies which seem (and do) lift right off the surface they fly around.  The top is smooth marble, and there is an emphasized detail of the late, great Sun King in the center.

What do you say? For your château?

This porcelain vessel is intended to hold fragrant potpourri.  It is decorated in the Chinoiserie style, in a soft pink with gold, cream and green accents.  Three men lounge and play a table game in the center of the vessel.  The top is detailed with a faux piece of silk (also porcelain) decorated with gold fleur de lis across it.  Madame de Pompadour had this piece on her mantel, would you have it in your château?