Pierre Gouthiere had a complete mastery over his technique. The estimation with which his work is regarded has made furniture which he mounted bring extraordinary prices. In 1882, at the dispersal of the celebrated Hamilton Palace Collection, three specimens with his workmanship realised L30,000. The Vernis-Martin panels were decorated by Watteau and Pater. The age of artificialities with its _fetes-galantes_ in the royal gardens of the Luxembourg and in the pleasure parks of the Court, with the ill-starred Marie Antoinette playing at shepherds and shepherdesses, had its influence upon art. Watteau employed his brush to daintily paint the attitudes of _Le Lorgneur_ upon a fan-mount, or to depict elegantly dressed noblemen and ladies of the Court dancing elaborate minuets in satin shoes, or feasting from exquisite Sevres porcelain dishes in the damp corner of some park or old chateau. [Illustration: LOUIS XVI. JEWEL CABINET. Inlaid in rose and sycamore woods. Stamped "J. H. Riesener." Chased Ormolu mountings by Gouthiere. (_Jones Bequest. Victoria and Albert Museum._)] The artificial pretence at Arcadian simplicity adopted by the Queen, in the intervals between her attendance at public _bals-masque_, when she almost wantonly outraged the susceptibilities of the French people by her frivolities, found a more permanent form in interior decorations. Riesener and David designed a great deal of furniture for her. Dainty work-tables and writing-tables and other furniture of an elegant description are preserved in the national collection in the Louvre and at Fontainebleau, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Jones Bequest, and in the Wallace Collection. Tables of this nature are most eagerly sought after. A small table with plaques of porcelain in the side panels, which is said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, was sold at Christie's for L6,000 (Hamilton Collection). There is a similar writing-table in the Jones Collection, given by Marie Antoinette to Mrs. Eden, afterwards Lady Auckland. During the period under Louis Seize, when Fragonard and Natoire deftly painted the panels of rooms and filled ceilings with flying cupids and chains of roses, when Boucher was Director of the Academy, the interior of rooms assumed a boudoir-like appearance. The walls were decorated in a scheme of colour. Handsome fluted pillars with fine classic feeling were the framework of panelling painted in delicate and subdued tones. Oval mirrors, avoiding all massive construction, lightened the effect, and mantelpieces of white marble, and furniture evidently designed for use, completed the interiors of the homes of the _grands seigneurs_. Sometimes the walls were painted, giving a lustrous appearance resembling silk, and this style is the forerunner of the modern abomination known as wall-paper.