This and many other similar regulations were made in vain; the trading classes became more and more powerful, and we quote the description of a furnished apartment in P. Lacroix’s “Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages.”

“The walls were hung with precious tapestry of Cyprus, on which the initials and motto of the lady were embroidered, the sheets were of fine linen of Rheims, and had cost more than 300 pounds, the quilt was a new invention of silk and silver tissue, the carpet was like gold.  The lady wore an elegant dress of crimson silk, and rested her head and arms on pillows ornamented with buttons of oriental pearls.  It should be remarked that this lady was not the wife of a great merchant, such as those of Venice and Genoa, but of a simple retail dealer who was not above selling articles for 4 sous; such being the case, we cannot wonder that Christine de Pisan should have considered the anecdote ’worthy of being immortalized in a book.’”

[Illustration:  “The New Born Infant.”  Shewing the interior of an Apartment at the end of the 14th or commencement of the 15th century. (From a Miniature in “Histoire de la Belle Helaine,” National Library of Paris)]

As we approach the end of the fourteenth century, we find canopies added to the “chaires” or “chayers a dorseret,” which were carved in oak or chesnut, and sometimes elaborately gilded and picked out in color.  The canopied seats were very bulky and throne-like constructions, and were abandoned towards the end of the fifteenth century; and it is worthy of notice that though we have retained our word “chair,” adopted from the Norman French, the French people discarded their synonym in favour of its diminutive “chaise” to describe the somewhat smaller and less massive seat which came into use in the sixteenth century.

[Illustration:  Portrait of Christine de Pisan, Seated on a Canopied Chair of carved wood, the back lined with tapestry. (From Miniature on MS., in the Burgundy Library, Brussels.) Period:  XV.  Century.]

The skilled artisans of Paris had arrived at a very high degree of excellence in the fourteenth century, and in old documents describing valuable articles of furniture, care is taken to note that they are of Parisian workmanship.  According to Lacroix, there is an account of the court silversmith, Etienne La Fontaine, which gives us an idea of the amount of extravagance sometimes committed in the manufacture and decorations of a chair, into which it was then the fashion to introduce the incrustation of precious stones; thus for making a silver arm chair and ornamenting it with pearls, crystals, and other stones, he charged the King of France, in 1352, no less a sum than 774 louis.

The use of rich embroideries at state banquets and on grand occasions appears to have commenced during the reign of Louis IX.—­Saint Louis, as he is called—­and these were richly emblazoned with arms and devices.  Indeed, it was probably due to the fashion for rich stuffs and coverings of tables, and of velvet embroidered cushions for the chairs, that the practice of making furniture of the precious metals died out, and carved wood came into favour.