Shell Thatched Cottage at the Château de Rambouillet

The first reveals to visitors pilasters, niches, arches and festoons of shells.

In the Fall of 2001 on my two week stay in France I decided to go to the French village of Rambouillet 30 miles outside of Paris, to see The Laiterie de la Reine, the Queen's Dairy. The night before my visit I called my best friend Don Richmond a retired interior decorator who had studied in France in the mid 1950's. He told me make sure you see the Shell Thatched Cottage. The what I said. The Shell Thatched Cottage buit for French Queen Marie Antoinette's close friend Maria Teresa Luisa of Savoy, Princess of Lamballe. Ok I said, I will try and see it. The next morning was cold, and by the time I reached the village of Rambuillet by train around lunch time, I was hungry. I stopped for a quick something to eat. Not knowing a a lot of French I could not make out much of what anything was on the menu. I told the waiter to bring me what everybody else seam to be enjoying at the restaurant, some kind of meat with potatoes. It was fabulous even though I did not know what I was eating. Until I got a piece that was shaped funny. I latter found out it was Coq au vin made of rooster in Burgundy wine sauce.

The out side of this building seems like a peasant's thatched cottage

After touring the Château de Rambouillet. There was a special tour of The Laiterie de la Reine, the Queen's Dairy and The Chaumière des coquillages close by. We went to the Queen's Dairy first I will blog about this latter. But the surprise was The Chaumière des coquillages or shell thatched cottage not knowing what to expect. the out side of this building seems like a peasant's thatched cottage but when the door was open before me was revealed a delightful fantasy shell grotto. It's walls inlaid with Neoclassical patterns of colored shells. Built 1779-1780 by one of the richest men in France the Duc de Penthievre for his recently widowed daughter-in-law, The Princess de Lamballe. The cottage sits in a Anglo-Chinois garden laid out by Artist Hubert Robert. The Princesse de Lamballe was fond of her hideaway, as well as Marie Antoinette who used the room to serve tea after 1783 when the château became the private property of king Louis XVI, who bought it from his cousin the duc de Penthièvre as an extension of his hunting grounds. In latter years Napoleon found it a ideal escape from the agitated life at the chateau.

Maria Teresa Luisa of Savoy, Princess of Lamballe

 

Side chair by Toussaint-Francois Foliot decorated with shells and sculpted and painted with reed motifs

 

Curved Settee by Toussaint-Francois Foliot decorated with shells and sculpted and painted with reed motifs

 

Furniture circa 1780 by Toussaint-Francois Foliot

Detail of the pilasters: They are fluted with mussels and periwinklws. capped by Ionic capitals made of sea-ears and oysters.

 

In the four niches are perfume burners made of sumptuous specimens, scallop shells and tritons they stand out against broken green glass.

 Design by Claude-Martin Goupy, the architect of the duc de Penthièvre. A rotunda with walls completely covered with shells constitutes the inside of the cottage. The preciousness of the interior decoration is startling in comparison with the rustic exterior. The furniture four couches, eight chairs and a screen was made to order. The extravagance of their design adds to the general impression of bizarre originality. The furniture was ordered from wood-worker Toussaint-Francois Foliot {named master craftsman in 1773}. They are decorated with shells and sculpted and painted with reed motifs. The couches are shaped like medallions and are curved to fit the curved wall space. Sold to England during the Revolution the furniture was brought back to France in 1941 and is covered in a copy of it's original green silk lampis. A hidden room with walls painted in the Louis XVI Pompeian style is adjacent to the rotunda. In the golden age the rotunda came to life with the pastille burners in the niches burning pastille a solid aromatic substance that was burned like incense. Had two controllers but when the war of 1870 the 18th century pastille machinery was damaged.

Shell ceiling medallion

 

An arch of pearl covers this rotunda. The nacre is from Dieppe and Moile Nogent sur seine.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Mural I painted in my New Orleans home

Monuments of the Mississippi river

This is a wall mural I painted to look like 1830's French hand-blocked panoramic wallpaper. Titled Monuments of the Mississippi river. The mural shows elegant stately buildings along the Mississippi river starting from New Orleans to Natchez Mississippi with plantation homes in between, along with the people from the period. French Creoles, slaves, Free people of color and Indians.

Windy Hill Manor was constructed in the 1790's by Benijah Osmun. in the center with a Concord visible to the left, residence of the first Spanish Governor, Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, who built the house in 1794. On the mantel a collection of Old Paris porcelain.

Indians at play over a 1830's Louisiana walnut drop leaf table with Old Paris porcelain punch bowl and vase

The dance of Free woman of color with Louisiana plantations in background

 

Funeral procession and rosewood Rococo Revival chairs with original upholstery attributed to Alexander Roux from a South Carolina plantation. Primitive Louisiana Cypress tapered leg table with Paris porcelain vase.

 

Louisiana plantations, Free woman of color and pegioners brick octagonal building for pigeons. With rosewood Rococo Revival chairs with original upholstery attributed to Alexander Roux from a South Carolina plantation. Primitive Louisiana Cypress tapered leg table with Paris porcelain vase.

 

Natchez on the bluff being worked on

Detail of Indians picking bananas. 1840's French Boulle and ormolu clock in the Moorish style Old Paris porcelain.

Natchez on the bluff being worked on and 1840's French Boulle and ormolu clock in the Moorish style Old Paris porcelain and makeup Shields

 

New Orleans & Place d'Armes

 

Over-mantel hung with 1840's portrait of a Creole woman

                                                                                                                                                          

My French Quarter Apt

I lived in this small French Quarter apt for about two and a half years. from 2003 until Hurricane Katrina put a end to my stay in Aug of 2005. I had sold my house a 2500. square feet shot gun double out side of the French Quarter and needed a place to move into quick! I had lived in two different apt in the same 1834 Greek Revival townhouse on Esplanade Ave in the French Quarter before buying my home. After my house sold I contacted my old landlord and the only thing he had available was a small 400 square feet apt in the Slave quarters of the Greek Revival mansion. I tuck it. Most of my things had to go into storage I squeezed the rest into my jam packed petit pad. I remember moving in the last week of November and going to Paris for two weeks in celebration of the sale of my home the first week of December. Here are photo's of my Creole pied-à-terre as my friend called it. I loved this place but the downside was I could only entertain 2-3 people at a time no big party's in this place.

 

Pair of Portraits of Husband & wife in there original Rococo Revival frames with a French holy water font I bought at a Antiques market in the South of France.

 First photo: Rosewood New Orleans made sofa stuffed with it's original Spanish moss circa 1860. Over the sofa Oval portrait of a boy oil on canvas under glass in it's original gold leaf frame.In front of the sofa a cherry table I had made after a 18th century Louisiana Creole table. On the table from left to right Napoleon lll silver vase and opaline glass & ormlu pineapple shaped lighter. Empire Old Paris cabinet cup and saucer. Napoleon lll Chantilly bisque porcelain clock circa 1860. In front of the clock a pair of Charles X restoration period Old Paris porcelain cups painted to look like parrot tulips my favorite flower. Between the cups a Paris porcelain saucer from the The Maison A L'Escalier de Cristal or The Crystal Staircase was established in 1802 in the Palais-Royal. French blue opaline vase with gilt stars. Late 18th century English Georgian cut glass decanter.

Fruit filled 1850's Old Paris porcelain basket next to 18th century English Georgian cut glass decanter

 

             18th century French pastel of a Aristocrat with a 1830's late Georgian portrait of a gentleman below. Old Paris porcelain figures on the Creole mantel along with a ormolu Empire French clock and pair of 1840's Chinoiseries paper mache makeup shields to keep lady's wax face makeup from melting. 

1830's Louis Philippe rosewood grain slipper chair with a 1850's years subscription French art magazine with 1840's French fashion doll on top. Balloon back chair. 1830's Boston table with collection of Paris porcelain on top. On the wall 18th century petitpoint of Madonna and child in it's original frame.

 

I painted the trim in the apt steel blue with off white walls. Creole wraparound mantel with 19th century Sèvres porcelain plate hung on the side along with a Pre-Raphaelite profile of a young man.

 

Creole 1840's portrait of a Louisiana woman next to a 1840's oval portrait of a young gentleman attributed to Boston Artist Samuel Worcester Rowse.

  

1820's Louisiana made Creole armoire made of walnut and cypress on turned legs.

 

1851 singed portrait of a woman in mourning in it's original Rococo Revival frame. Large 1850's Paris porcelain clock of Diana the Huntress killing a lion.

 

1850's oil painting in original frame from Rosalie Mansion in Natchez, MS attributed to Fannie McMurtry.

  

Mid 19th century wax Shrine doll of Jesus I bought in the South of France

 

My dogs Belle & Lebeau on there mid 19th century Rosewood New Orleans sofa.

 

1830's Alabama made late classical sideboard I bought but could not enjoy because it would not fit into my apt. It went to a friends home and I sold it. It was made of cherry, poplar and yellow pine. Wish I still had it.

 

This was a great place full of wonderful memory's!

                                                                               

Corner of my dinning room

Of all the rooms in my home the dinning room will need the most work. This part of the house has settled causing plaster to crack and other problems. I need to have the house leveled and then I will start work. Until then the room has been set up with temporary displays of my collection of Antique furniture, with some of the pieces going into other rooms when the house is complete. When finish the dining room will be painted the same color green as George Washington's large dinning room at Mount Vernon. Green was the most expensive paint in the 18th and 19th century because it was made out of arsenic or vertigris scraped from copper. You need a lot of this to make paint. Although green is one of my favorite colors green paint in the 18th & 19th century was a status symbol in America and a way to show off wealth to guest upon them seeing your green painted walls. A lot of the early homes of the founding fathers had green walls and trim. I have been in George Washington's green dining room many times and it is grand and impressive! The color is a type of vertigris green painted wallpaper. Early green paints of this period were toxic. Some early green paints were so corrosive that they burnt into canvas, paper and wood. Many popular 18th- and 19th-century green wallpapers and paints were made with arsenic, sometimes with fatal consequences. One of those paints, Scheele’s Green, invented in Sweden in the 1770s.

George Washington's large dinning room at Mount Vernon showing green walls

 

George Washington's large dinning room at Mount Vernon

My dinning room was planed around a 1840's French Old Paris porcelain dinner service I bought in Baltimore. Each piece has a emerald green band of color with hand painted fruit or flowers painted in the center. The furniture is America Empire and Federal mostly high end pieces made in the South, including a huntboard, Alabama made late classical sideboard from the Crommelin family plantation in Wetumpka,AL , Baltimore Federal mahogany dinning table with classical New Orleans saber leg chairs. with corresponding oil portraits, engravings and mirrors.

 

Paris porcelain dinner service I bought that started the green room

The first photo shows the wall space between my sideboard and door. 18th century French pastel in it's original gold leaf frame of a French Aristocrat will go in my bedroom when the house is complete as well as the 1820's Baltimore Federal worktable attributed to Baltimore Cabinetmaker John Needles will be used as a nightstand next to my cannon ball bed also dating from the 1820's.The Hartford, Connecticut Hepplewhite side chair dates from the 1790's and is covered in a late 18th century style Scalamandre silk Lampas fabric. I have since sold this beautiful rare American gem.

On the worktable pair of English or American beehive brass candlesticks, 18th c Marie Antoinette factory dish and cup painted with cornflowers. And American Philadelphia coin silver spoon early 19th century. late 18th century English Georgian creamware lusterware crocuses pot.

                                                                                  

On the worktable is a extremely rare late 18th century English Georgian creamware lusterware crocuses pot. Also on the table a 18th century Old Paris dish from French Queen Marie Antoinette's porcelain factory Rue Thiroux. Just visible next to the worktable is the side of a Alabama made late classical sideboard from the Crommelin family plantation in Wetumpka,AL. The Empire Old Paris Vase on the sideboard depicts a woman drinking red wine. Also visible on the sideboard is a Paris porcelain sauce boat from the 18th century and Napoleon lll Rococo Revival candelabra. The two other photo's of this wall space shows the same setup with different chairs from my collection. A 1790's New York city mahogany side chair covered in gold velvet. This chair has a delicate carved neoclassical back. And a late classical Duncan Phyfe side chair is a close stylistic connection to a set of chairs manufactured for Phyfe's daughter, Eliza Phyfe Vail (1801–1890). Is covered in a green & gold wool Brunswick & Fils classical fabric.
                                                                                  

Wall space with late classical Duncan Phyfe side chair

 

Wall space with 1790's New York city mahogany side chair

                                                                                    

Marie Antoinette's Commode & fall front secretary

  

Exquisite Commode/chest of drawers & fall front secretary made for French Queen Marie Antoinette. Made of beautifully detailed figured Mahogany veneered on oak, gilt-bronze ormolu mounts, white marble top. Gilt-bronze moldings imitate basketry on the pieces, as do the capitals of the side columns. The top drawers are decorated with a scrolling border of sunflowers, leaves, and thistles. Attributed to: Jean-Ferdinand Schwerdfeger, French, active 1760–1798. This set was acquired in Paris by James Swan, Boston, MA Possibly part of furnishings made for Marie-Antoinette's Trellis Bedchamber at the Petit Trianon on the grounds of Versailles, near Paris. Check out my blog on the Swan collection of 18th century furniture to see more examples of 18th century French masterpieces James Swan acquired in Paris.

  

Marie Antoinette's Andirons

Theses andirons evokes the splendors of pre revolutionary France. They are made of ormolu bronze, coated with a thin layer of gold, a process involving the application of mercury that burned off in the firing, unwittingly exposing workers to the deadly effects of this toxic element. Most people working in this find had a life span of less then 5 years.

The refined technique of the andirons suggests that they are the work of Thomire, a prominent French bronzeworker. However, they may well represent the collaborative effort of many individual specialists in modeling, casting, chiseling, and gilding. The design features goats eating grapes from a basket, while below them, against a background originally covered with blue enamel, two cherubs shear a ram. The andirons may have been made for the dining room at the Hameau, Queen Marie Antoinette’s self-consciously rustic farm. Each comprising two goats with forelegs balancing on central urn and with grapes in their ouths; a thyrsus with pinecone finial extending vertically between them. The base decorated with gilt-bronze relief of cupids and grape vines against an enamel ground. Acquired in Paris by James Swan, Boston, MA. Swan kept them for his personal use. See my earlier blog titled "The Swan collection of 18th century furniture".

The Swan Collection of 18th century furniture

In the Ann and William Elfers Gallery at the Boston Museum of art is a exquisite set of 18th century French furniture of the Louis XVI period. The suite of bedroom furniture consist of a bed, Kneeling Chair, Bergere, Firescreen, 2 Armchairs, and 4 Side Chairs made by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené, French, 1747–1803. This suite of furniture was delivered to Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d'Avray in 1787, intendant-general of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, Paris. Marc-Antoine Thierry enjoyed his beautiful furniture for five years. After the downfall of the monarchy on August 10, 1792, Thierry was imprisoned and his belongings were seized by the French Revolutionary government in 1792. He died in the massacres at the Prison de l'Abbaye in September, 1792.

Portrait of James Swan by Gilbert Stuart, 1795

Sometime between 1794-1796 this set of furniture was acquired in Paris by James Swan (1754 – July 31, 1830) an early American patriot and financier. James Swan was a merchant established in Paris, and was appointed an official agent for the purchase of supplies in the United States in 1794 by the French Government. His partner was Johann-Caspar Schweizer, a Swiss. The French Government placed at his disposal luxury goods to be exchanged in America for food supplies and war materials. The Swan and Schweizer agency shipped these articles to the United States between 1794-1795, where much of it was sold. However, this suite of bedroom furniture was among those that Swan kept for his personal use.

The Swan House located on Dudley Street

James Swan used his French furniture at The Swan House located on Dudley Street at the corner of Howard across from the Morton-Taylor House. The Neoclassical Federal style house was built about 1796 as a summer home for James and his wife Hepzibah Swan following a design ascribed to Boston architect Charles Bulfinch. A balustrade, as shown on the wings, originally encircled the top as well. The center of the house was round and contained only one room, the colonial dining hall. The dining hall was thirty-two feet in diameter, two stories high, with a huge dome-shaped ceiling. This room was the drawing room but since it was the only room, it probably served as the dining hall for large parties]. General Lafayette, General Henry Knox and many other Revolutionary war heroes were entertained at the Swans residence.

                                

French furniture like this beautiful and refined set displays the highest level of artistic and technical ability. French furniture of this period was the collaborative effort of various artists and craftsmen who worked according to strictly enforced guild regulations. Established during the Middle Ages, the guild system continued with little change until being dissolved in 1791 during the French Revolution. The Parisian guild to which the furniture makers belonged was called the Corporation des Menuisiers.

This set was made byJean-Baptiste-Claude, Sene became a master menuisier at the age of twenty-one, continuing the family precedent set by his father and grandfather. He created furniture for the French royal family, notably a bed made for Marie Antoinette. After the French Revolution, Sene worked as an administrator for the new republican government, a position that allowed him to continue making furniture unlike most of his competitors.

From beginning to end this set of seated furniture passes thru many hands due to the Paris guild. A joiner would ruff out the wood pieces and join them together. Then the unfinished pieces were sent to a master carver were the pieces were carved with neoclassical acanthus leaf motif, flutes and medallions. After being carved this set was sent to Parisian painter-gilder Louis Chatard. The set was originally painted but was gilded on top of the paint. We know this because Louis entered a charge for painting the ten pieces of furniture in his account book, then, in a later entry dated August 1787, crossed out the painting and wrote in gilding. Thierry de Ville d'Avray visited the workshop while work was in process and had it change.


After gilding the set was sent to master upholsterer Claude-Francois Capin. Thierry use leftover three-color silk lampas that was originally woven for the King's Gaming Room at Fontainebleau, The elegant pattern is a characteristic neoclassical arabesque design attributable to Jean-Demosthene Dugourc. The silk lampas depicts four major motifs representing the Four Elements: spaniels (Earth), winged sea horses (water vapor, or Water), river gods (Water), and a cyclops forging Jupiter's thunderbolts (Fire). The fabric was originally woven by the Lyons firm, Reboul, Fontebrune et Compagnie . We are truly lucky to have fine examples of french furniture like this in America.