LATE 17TH CENTURY

Designed in the Louis XIV ‘antique’ style popularized by Jean Bérain, pliants of this type were employed almost exclusively for the Royal court, and their use was strictly regulated by the hierarchical dictates of court etiquette, whereby courtiers were required to be seated on stools in the presence of the King or Queen, who alone was permitted a chair with arms, emblematic of the power of the throne. Thus the inventory of Louis XIV's mobilier listed no fewer than 1,323 stools at Versailles, and the tradition extended right to the end of monarchical rule in France, as even Marie Antoinette, so keen to decorate her private apartments in the latest fashions, furnished her Grand Appartement with pliants and tabourets.