[Illustration:  Combination of Studio and Living Room in a New York Duplex Apartment]

Tapestries and mural paintings were framed by a marvellous system of mouldings which covered ceilings and sidewalls.

The colour scheme was such as would naturally be dictated by the general mood of artificiality in an age when dreams were lived and the ruling classes obsessed by a passion for amusements, invented to divert the mind from actualities.  This colour scheme was beautifully light in tone and harmoniously gay, whether in tapestries, draperies and upholstery of velvets, or flowered silks, frescoes or painted furniture.  It had the appearance of being intended to act as a soporific upon society, whose aim it was to ignore those jarring contrasts which lay beneath the surface of every age.

CHAPTER XX

CHARTS SHOWING HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF FURNITURE

LOUIS XIV, 1643 to {Compressed regularity {Straight, square,
  1715 { giving way in { grooved and very
Key-note { reaction to a { squat cabriole
  The Grand { ponderous ugliness. { legs. 
  Audience Rooms { {

THE REGENCY AND {The Reign of Woman. {Cabriole legs of a
  LOUIS XV, 1715 to { { perfect lightness
  1774 { { and grace. 
Key-note { {
  The Boudoir { {

{The transition style     {Legs tapering
{  between the Bourbon    {  straight, rounded
{  Interior Decoration    {  and grooved.  A
{  and that of            {  few square-grooved
{  the “Directorate”      {  legs and
LOUIS XVI, 1774 to        {  and “Empire,”          {  a few graceful,
1793                    {  characterised by a     {  slender cabriole
Key-note                  {  return to the classic  {  legs. 
The Salon Intime      {  line which reflects    {
{  a more serious turn    {
{  of mind on part of     {
{  the Nation in an age   {
{  of great mental        {
{  activity.              {

{Classic lines.  {Classic decorations with subjects taken from { Greek mythologies.  {Winged figures, emblems of liberty; antique { heads of helmeted warriors, made like { medallions, wreaths, lyres, torches, { rosettes, etc.  {Besides the wonderful mounts of Ormoulu, { designed by the great sculptors and painters { of the period, there was a great deal { of fine brass inlaying.  {Antique vases taken from ancient tombs were

THE FIRST EMPIRE, { placed in recesses in the walls of rooms
  NAPOLEON I, 1804 { after the style of the ancient “Columbaria.”
  to 1814 {Every effort was made to surround Napoleon I
                          {