The best modern copies of Renaissance furniture are not to be found in every shop and are usually in the special order class. There are some makers in America, however, who make extraordinarily fine copies, and there is the supply from Europe of fine copies and "faked" originals--a guaranteed original is a very rare and expensive thing. The period of Louis XIV in France was another "magnificent" period and should not be used in small or simple houses. Louis XIV furniture was large and massive, lavish in gilding and carving and ornament, but had dignity as well as splendor. The Gobelin and Beauvais Tapestry Works produced their wonderful series of tapestries, and Boulle inlay of brass and tortoise shell was lavished on furniture, and the ormolu mounts were beautiful and elaborate. All workmanship was of the highest. During the early part of the period the legs of chairs and tables were straight and square in shape, sometimes tapering, and much carved, and had underframing. Later they were curved and carved, a kind of elaborate cabriole leg, and had carved underframing. Toward the end of the period the curved leg and underframing became much simpler, some of the furniture having no underframing, and slowly the style merged into that of the Regency and Louis XV. The illustrations for the long chapter on Louis XIV show some very fine examples of both the grand and simple form of chair, and also show that comfort was becoming more of a fact. The materials used for upholstery were brocades of large pattern, tapestries, and splendid velvets. Tables, chests, armoires, desks, console tables, mirrors, screens, all were carved or painted or inlaid, gilded and mounted with wonderful metal mounts. There is great danger, in buying furniture for both this period and the Renaissance, that the reproductions chosen may be too florid, the gilding too bright, the carving too ornate, with an indescribable vulgarity of line in place of the beauty of line which the best originals have. Some of the best makers are, however, making some very fine reproductions of the simpler forms of this time which are beautiful to use in houses of fair size and importance.