4 pril, 1923 
61 
dwelling without disturbing its serenity? 
“Show me the house!” cries the pleased, 
or outraged purveyor of French taste—the 
dealer in Cressent and Caffieri or their imi¬ 
tations born for the Paris Exposition—or 
is it, “just show me the purse!” 
The man in the street who goes to his 
superior to be furnished in correct style and 
hears the term, French taste, is apt to 
visualize those rococo caves of engulfing 
gilt in some of our “palatial hotels”, or 
perhaps he looks back with a shudder to a 
family mansion of about 1880, or 1890, 
with a hideously uncomfortable parlor in 
supposedly French pieces acquired near 
what was once called Louis Fourteenth 
Street, “No Louis period room for me!” he 
glares, and the conciliator}' dealer agrees 
that the taste for Louis period rooms is on 
the wane in New York. 
That erudite chronicler of French furni¬ 
ture, Andre Saglio, has written that the his¬ 
tory of furniture is the history of the inner 
life of a nation, and although the traveled 
New Yorker is apt to speak French better 
than his English cousin, he may not know 
very' much about the story of French furni¬ 
ture—that lengthy and diversified pageant 
with banners of all peoples that might be 
(Continued on page 124) 
With a 17th Cen¬ 
tury tapestry serv¬ 
ing for background 
is this music room 
group, consisting of 
a Louis XV com¬ 
mode a la Pompa¬ 
dour, 'two Louis 
XVI bergere. Even 
the modern marble 
on the commode 
seems at home here 
A corner commode 
or encoignure and 
the chair beside it, 
with Aubosson cov¬ 
ering, belong to the 
period of Louis 
XVI, as does the 
small lit de repos, 
the other of a pair in 
this valuable collec¬ 
tion in the possession 
of Mrs. Wintlirop 
