[Illustration:  Carved Oak Bedstead of Jeanne D’albret.  From the Chateau of Pau. (Collection “Mobilier National.”) Period:  French Renaissance (Date 1562).]

[Illustration:  Carved Oak Cabinet.  Made at Lyons.  Period:  Latter Part of XVI.  Century.]

Another example of four-post bedsteads of French sixteenth century work is that of the one in the Cluny Museum, which is probably some years later than the one at Pau, and in the carved members of the two lower posts, more resembles our English Elizabethan work.

Towards the latter part of Henri IV. the style of decorative art in France became debased and inconsistent.  Construction and ornamentation were guided by no principle, but followed the caprice of the individual.  Meaningless pilasters, entablatures, and contorted cornices replaced the simpler outline and subordinate enrichment of the time of Henri II., and until the great revival of taste under the “grand monarque," there was in France a period of richly ornamented but ill-designed decorative furniture.  An example of this can be seen at South Kensington in the plaster cast of a large chimney-piece from the Chateau of the Seigneur de Villeroy, near Menecy, by Germain Pillon, who died in 1590.  In this the failings mentioned above will be readily recognized, and also in another example, namely, that of a carved oak door from the church of St. Maclou, Rouen, by Jean Goujon, in which the work is very fine, but somewhat overdone with enrichment.  This cast is in the same collection.

During the ‘Louis Treize’ period chairs became more comfortable than those of an earlier time.  The word “chaise” as a diminutive of “chaire” found its way into the French dictionary to denote the less throne-like seat which was in more ordinary use, and, instead of being at this period entirely carved, it was upholstered in velvet, tapestry or needlework; the frame was covered, and only the legs and arms visible and slightly carved.  In the illustration here given, the King and his courtiers are seated on chairs such as have been described.  Marqueterie was more common; large armoires, clients of drawers and knee-hole writing tables were covered with an inlay of vases of flowers and birds, of a brownish wood, with enrichments of bone and ivory, inserted in a black ground of stained wood, very much like the Dutch inlaid furniture of some years later but with less colour in the various veneers than is found in the Dutch work.  Mirrors became larger, the decoration of rooms had ornamental friezes with lower portions of the walls panelled, and the bedrooms of ladies of position began to be more luxuriously furnished.