Neither does Chippendale scruple to avail himself of one of Meissonier’s trophies consisting of a hunting-horn, stag’s head, gun and net, designed for the King’s portrait and the Royal Hunt; and Meissonier’s _Livre de Légumes and Livre d’Ornements_ have been attentively studied for the shell-work, fountains, balconies, balustrades, swags of bell-flowers and laurel, colonnades, flowers, acanthus leaves, fruits, animals, birds, human beings, dripping water, cascades, feathers, flags, scrolls, musical instruments, fragmentary peristyle effects, implements, weapons, vegetables, icicles and spiky effects. The japanning and lacquering that Chippendale so frequently recommends is doubtless inspired by the Vernis Martin; and all the gilded ornaments, handles, shoes for legs of his pieces, from the French _or moulu_ work. Let us first examine the beds. We find “Dome Beds,” “Canopy Beds,” “Gothic beds,” “Chinese Beds,” “Field” and “Tent Beds,” and “Couch” and “Sofa Beds,” besides numerous designs for “Bed Posts” and “Cornices.” His four-post bedsteads are, as a rule, 7 feet, 6 inches high; 6 feet, 4 inches high; and 5 feet wide. The canopy is generally surmounted by a carved cornice furnished with an intricate arrangement of laths and pulleys by which the curtains are drawn up. As the curtains and valances are sometimes required to fall in symmetrical festoons and loops when drawn up, the mechanical devices require detailed description. In one “Gothic Bed with a drapery curtain,” the four posts of which are “made into eight cants and indented,” has pullies fixed at each corner to draw up the curtains. This bed appears as No. 2 on Plate XXXVIII. No. 3 on Plate XLVIII. is a favourite with Chippendale. It appears in his first edition as Plate XXXI. and in his third as Plate XXI. This is more than 6 feet high, over 6 feet long, and 5 feet, 6 inches wide. He says this “is a dome bed, the side of the dome and the cornice I have form’d into an elliptical form, to take off the seeming weight which a bed of this kind has when the cornice runs straight. There are four dragons going up from each corner; the curtains and vallens are all in drapery. The head-board has a small Chinese Temple with a joss, or Chinese God; on each side is a Chinese man at worship; the outside of the dome is intended to be japan’d and Mosaic work drawn upon it; the other ornaments to be gilt; but that is left to the will of those who shall please to have it executed.” [Illustration: PLATE XXXIX]