[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 him and improved his process, one can only detect European lacquer from Chinese by trifling details in the costumes and foliage of decoration, not strictly Oriental in character.

[Illustration:  Commode.  With Panels of fine old Laquer and Mountings by Caffieri. Jones Collection, S. Kensington Museum. Period of Louis XV.]

About 1740-4 the Martin family had three manufactories of this peculiar and fashionable ware, which became known as Vernis-Martin, or Martins’ Varnish; and it is singular that one of these was in the district of Paris then and now known as Faubourg Saint Martin.  By a special decree a monopoly was granted in 1744 to Sieur Simon Etienne Martin the younger, “To manufacture all sorts of work in relief and in the style of Japan and China.”  This was to last for twenty years; and we shall see that in the latter part of the reign of Louis XV., and in that of his successor, the decoration was not confined to the imitation of Chinese and Japanese subjects, but the surface was painted in the style of the decorative artist of the day, both in monochrome and in natural colours; such subjects as “Cupid Awakening Venus,” “The Triumph of Galatea,” “Nymphs and Goddesses,” “Garden Scenes,” and “Fetes Champetres,” being represented in accordance with the taste of the period.  It may be remarked in passing, that lacquer work was also made previous to this time in England.  Several cabinets of “Old” English lac are included in the Strawberry Hill sale catalogue; and they were richly mounted with ormolu, in the French style; this sale took place in 1842.  George Robins, so well known for his flowery descriptions, was the auctioneer; the introduction to the catalogue was written by Harrison Ainsworth.

[Illustration:  In Parqueterie with massive Mountings of Gilt Bronze, probably by Caffieri, (Formerly in the Hamilton Palace Collection.  Purchased (Westheims), L6,247 ICS.) Louis XV.  Period.]