The great influence of the Orient at this time is very noticeable.  There had been a beginning of it in the previous reign, but during the Regency and the reign of Louis XV it became very marked. “Singerie” and “Chinoiserie” were the rage, and gay little monkeys clambered and climbed over walls and furniture with a careless abandon that had a certain fascination and charm in spite of their being monkeys.  The “Salon des Singes” in the Chateau de Chantilly gives one a good idea of this.  The style was easily overdone and did not last a great while.

During this time of Oriental influence lacquer was much used and beautiful lacquer panels became one of the great features of French furniture.  Pieces of furniture were sent to China and Japan to be lacquered and this, combined with the expense of importing it, led many men in France to try to find out the Oriental secret.  Le Sieur Dagly was supposed to have imported the secret and was established at the Gobelins works where he made what was called “vernis de Gobelins.”

The Martin family evolved a most characteristically French style of decoration from the Chinese and Japanese lacquers.  The varnish they made, called “vernis Martin,” gave its name to the furniture decorated by them, which was well suited to the dainty boudoirs of the day.  All kinds of furniture were decorated in this way—­sedan chairs and even snuff-boxes, until at last the supply became so great that the fashion died.  There are many charming examples of it to be seen in museums and private collections, but the modern garish copies of it in many shops give no idea of the charm of the original.  Watteau’s delightful decorations also give the true spirit of the time, with their gayety and frivolity showing the Arcadian affectations—­the fad of the moment.

As the time passed decoration grew more and more ornate, and the followers of Cressant exaggerated his traits.  One of these was Jules Aurele Meissonier, an Italian by birth, who brought with him to France the decadent Italian taste.  He had a most marvelous power of invention and lavished ornament on everything, carrying the rocaille style to its utmost limit.  He broke up all straight lines, put curves and convolutions everywhere, and rarely had two sides alike, for symmetry had no charms for him.  The curved endive decoration was used in architraves, in the panels of overdoors and panel moldings, everywhere it possibly could be used, in fact.  His work was in great demand by the king and nobility.  He designed furniture of all kinds, altars, sledges, candelabra and a great amount of silversmith’s work, and also published a book of designs.  Unfortunately it is this rococo style which is meant by many people when they speak of the style of Louis XV.

Louis XV furniture and decoration at its best period is extremely beautiful, and the foremost architects of the day were undisturbed by the demand for rococo, knowing it was a vulgarism of taste which would pass.  In France, bad as it was, it never went to such lengths as it did in Italy and Spain.