to COTTAGE Ok PROVINCIAL

FRENCH PROVINCIAL

During the Renaissance the furniture in the provinces of France
was affected by this Italian influence. Later the court style of
Louis XV also spread to all the provinces, but the Louis XVI style
was less influential, and the Empire style had no effect outside
urban centers. Isolated provinces retained older styles, but others
followed the changing fashions of the court. When the court
ceased to exist, the provinces continued with the styles then in
vogue. The Renaissance style remained dominant in the provinces
of Alsace, Brittany, Burgundy, Lyonnais, and Savoie; the Louis
XIII style in Guienne and Gascony; the Louis XV style in Lor-
raine, Auvergne, and Limousin; the Dutch style in Flanders; and
the typical French Rococo style in all the other provinces. How-
ever, there was a general national relationship in the furniture
styles of all the provinces in spite of the diversification.

Provincial cabinet makers greatly simplified the court furniture,
thereby often improving it. The limited furniture in most pro-
vincial homes usually consisted of chests, wardrobes, and cup-
boards made by the Joiners' Guild, and four-post beds, tresde
tables, and straw-bottom chairs made by the Turners7 Guild.
Some pieces, such as armoires, rush-bottom chairs, and tables, were
much alike throughout all the provinces. Others, such as cup-
boards, were affected by local needs and climatic conditions.

The brief resum6 has not suggested the romance of French Pro-
vincial furniture. The gaily decorated bread holders hung on the
wall in Provence, the rack suspended over the table to hold the
spoons in Brittany, the master's chair in the Basque country, the
table chests in Poitou, the gaily painted German furniture in Alsace,
the cupboard beds in Brittany, the half-closed beds in Burgundy,
the built-in furniture in Lorraine, the open-dresser shelves filled
with Quimper pottery in Brittany, and the rose copper and brass
kettles in the Dutch kitchens in Flanders are but a few of the
fascinating things to read about or, better still, to see. Since pro-
vincial house museums are numerous in France, a person who is
interested can find much material to study and enjoy*

Reproductions of French Provincial furniture are bourgeois in
type rather than peasant. They are generally available k the
United States but are expensive* See pages 106 and 300*