The _drageoir_ was one of the most valued and popular presents during the Middle Ages. In the inventory of Margaret of Austria occurs a beautiful and large silver-gilt _drageoir_, fluted, presented to Madame by the gentlemen of the town of Brussels for her New Year, 1520. Aliénor de Poitiers also says there should always be in the lady’s room a chair with a back near the bolster of the bed; and that this chair should be covered with silk or velvet, for “velvet is the most honourable covering, no matter what colour”; and “near the chair should be placed a little bench, or stool, covered with a _banquier_ and some silk cushions for visitors to sit on when they call to see the invalid.” The little stool or bench, called _escarbeau_, was very low and without back or arms. Sometimes it was triangular in form. Sometimes it served for a low table. Rich people often threw over these _bancs_ a piece of tapestry or silk, known as _banquiers_. The memory of the vast majority of the artists of this period has perished, but a few names have survived. When Philip the Bold built a second St. Denis for his race at Dijon (1390), his art and craftsmen were all drawn from the Low Countries. Nicholas Sluter was in charge; and under his direction the Chartreuse became a veritable Flemish museum of carving. He sent for his nephew, Nicholas van de Werve, and paid him from six to seven shillings per week. Other Flemish workmen in his employ were: Jehan Malouel, Hennequin van Prindale, Roger Westerhen, Peter Linkerk, John Hulst, John de Marville, John de Beaumetz and Williken Smout. The coloured windows were made at Mechlin, by Henry Glusomack. The oak retables with their numerous figurines, were the work of a Flemish carver named Baerze of Termonde. In fact, the only Frenchman who had any part in the work was Berthelot Héliot, “_varlet de Monseigneur_,” an ivory-carver. The two _retables_ carved by Jacques de Baerze in 1391 for the Chartreuse are now in the Dijon Museum. One was made for the Duke’s chapel at Termonde (Dendermonde), and the other for the Abbey of Billoche, near Ghent. These were painted and gilded by Jehan Malouel and Melchior Broederlam, who had been engaged by the Counts of Flanders; and worked in Hesdin and Ypres before becoming court-painters to Philip the Bold. The same Museum contains three cylindrical boxes of beautiful workmanship of the same period. Two of these are ornamented with arabesques and birds painted and gilded; the third is decorated with polychromatic bas-reliefs, and a round boss representing scenes from the New Testament. These boxes are supposed to have belonged to the toilet-tables of the Duchesses of Burgundy. Two _retables_, ornamented with bas-reliefs in the Cluny Museum are called “_oratoires des Duchesses de Bourgogne_.” These were bought from Berthelot Héliot, “_valet de chambre_” of Philip the Bold; and it is thought that they came from Italy.