The most highly thought of amongst the Italians who worked for the King were Domenico Cucci and Filippo Caffieri; and although the latter alone is now famous, they seem to have been looked upon as equals by their contemporaries, as is shown by four lines of bad poetry, written by the Abbe de Marolles:

"Pour la sculpture en bois, la sont venus de Rome D'entre les bons sculpteurs, Philippe Caffieri, Et du mesme pays Dominique Cucci, Que partout en leur art, justement on renomme."

The royal accounts prove that the commissions given to Cucci were extremely numerous, although he is only alluded to as "ebenist" or "founder." Unfortunately, nothing now remains but descriptions of the important pieces of furniture produced by him, from which we gather that he had not given up the decorative methods of his native country. Noteworthy examples are the two large cabinets intended for the Gallery of Apollo, famous at the time of their production under the names of the Temples of Glory and Virtue, one of which was surmounted by a figure of Louis XIV. as Apollo, leading four horses, and the other by a figure of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria as Diana, leading four stags. All that now remains of these sumptuous cabinets, which appear to have cost the treasury the enormous sum for that time of 30,500 livres, is three miniatures by Werner, which formed part of their decoration, and are now in the Louvre Museum. The actual cabinets were given to the naturalist Buffon for his museum in 1747, evidently because the mosaics let into them were considered by contemporary opinion to be interesting only from the mineralogist's point of view.

Cucci produced other cabinets that seem to have been no less costly and complicated, called of "War," of "Peace," of "The Sun," and of "The Kings." The descriptions in the Inventory show how redundant was the ornamentation with its mythological motives indulged in by the Italian ebenist, who in this respect rivalled even Golle, once the favourite of Mazarin. It would be unjust to leave this now too much neglected artist, without mentioning that his work was not limited to the ornate compositions we have enumerated. The "Comptes des Batiments du Roi" prove that he did not disdain to employ his talent in making locks and window-bolts for the palaces, in which the Grand Monarque insisted on having the very smallest details magnificent; and in addition to these, lists are given of small items sent out from his foundry for more worthy usage, such as lintels of doors, frames for looking-glasses, balustrades, pedestals, borders for marble basins, etc.

Filippo Caffieri came to France towards the close of Mazarin's life, and was more of a wood-carver than a founder; he married, in 1665, a cousin-german of Le Brun, and became the father of eleven children, three of whom followed his profession. His chief occupation was to make furniture and picture-frames for the royal palaces. A few extracts from the "Comptes des Batiments" will give an idea of his ordinary avocations; in 1665 he received 267 livres for three arm-chairs carved in the antique style (that is to say, in the Henri IV. or Louis XIII. style) and twelve folding-seats of a similar kind; in 1666 he was paid 72 livres for a border eight feet long by six broad, 34 livres for a pedestal, 741 for ten picture-frames of carved wood intended for the cabinet du Roi, 400 for certain other frames, 100 for work for the petits appartements du Rot, and 400 for the carvings of the cornice of the Chapel of Versailles. As collaborators at the Gobelins manufactory he had his fellow countryman Tuby, the sculptor Lespagnandel, and some gilders such as Paul Gougeon de la Baron-ni6re. The chief interest of his work from our point of view, justifying the space we have given to him, is not so much in his capacity as Sculpteur Ordinaire des Meubles de la Couronne as in the transition he marks between the Italian style of which Cucci was an obstinate adherent to that which was evolved under the powerful influence of Le Brun. No doubt Caffieri was not able entirely to throw off the Southern love of glitter which was in his blood, for he overloaded his work with gilding, silver-plating, and transparent-blue applique metal, but beneath all this unnecessary ornament the lines of his designs are essentially graceful, and of taste so truly French that they involuntarily betray the preponderating influence of the master chosen by Colbert. Amongst the works attributed to Caffieri still remaining in French palaces it is alone necessary, in order to trace the curious movement we are considering, to study certain undoubtedly authentic examples, such as the carved folding-doors of the great staircase of Versailles, with the sun, helmets, chimaerae, laurel-leaves, and the royal monogram, no longer in the Italian style, though the outcome of it, the style of Louis XIV.

Leaving the Italian colony of the Gobelins manufactory, the tendencies of which are sufficiently indicated by the accounts we have given of its two most gifted members, we will pass to the master who under Le Brun typifies French furniture - Andre Charles Boulle. First of all, it is important to correct a widely spread and long-persistent mistake. Not only has it been supposed that the great ebenist in question invented tortoiseshell and brass mar-queterie as a decoration for furniture, but that he practised nothing else - every work of the kind being attributed to him. Nothing could be more inexact. The making of marqueterie in which copper, tin, tortoiseshell and horn were used was practised by Italians residing in France long before the time of Boulle, and he cannot have been more than ten years old when in 1653 the inventory of Mazarin was drawn up in which are described several examples of the kind. Secondly, as proved by a number of documents relating to him, our ebenist was the author of quite as much marqueterie-work in which wood was the only material as of that in which other substances were employed.