Cabinet des Modes, 10e Cahier, 3e Planche


PLATE III.

ONE of our Poets, to mark the fashion of Pendulum clocks, which reigned twenty-five years ago, said, in a Play, which has been thus played:
One crowns with flowers the interpreter of time.
On a little gilded copper pedestal, or a colorized tin one, were raised little cartels,* in the form of barrels, wrapped with garlands of tin flowers, also colorized. What a difference! and as taste embellishes those of today! It is on the frontispiece of a Temple that one reads now the march of hours. It is Love, it is the God of Pleasure which traces it with one of the arrows. Happy Lovers, hasten to enjoy! If this God indicates the moments to you, with an impatient finger he presses them, he chases them, so to speak.

Approach this Temple, that we could name justly the Palace of time. See its structure. It is simple, it is beautiful. There rises by degrees a marble white as snow. Four columns of a marble as white, positioned on matte ormolu bases, support a Dome composed of four semi-circles of marble, decorated with matte ormolu garlands. This Dome is held also on a superbly decorated cornice.

On top of the Dome is raised a white marble globe, around which turns horizontally the circle of hours, that Love, armed with a torch, marks with one of his shafts.

Look into the enclosure of the Temple. See in the middle the chaste Diana, made in antique green, and placed on a base of white marble, decorated with garlands of matte ormolu. Mortals, respect! she bears on her head a basket full of flowers; happy symbol of the pleasures that a wifely-employed time produces. Behind her, on the floor of the Temple, is a column of white marble, matching the four which form the façade, and which serves to round out the enclosure of the Temple.

We ask you: a Temple this rich and elegant, must it not well decorate the mantel of a salon? could it be more to your delicate taste? of torches which light the Temple? On the two sides, put the girandoles. They hold two branches of matte ormolu, with oak leaves. The two figures which carry these branches are in antique green, and they are posed on two white marble plinths, decorated with matte ormolu garlands.

If this is not enough decoration, (in fact, it is not complete) add the two censers of Turquin blue marble,** trimmed with matte ormolu, and posed on two plinths of white marble.

This Temple and this beautiful mantel Decoration are sold at the Little Dunkirk, at the bottom of the Pont-Neuf, in the shop of M. Grancher, who has a very great quantity of Decorations as beautiful as this. Everyone knows his rich Shop.

* decorations around the face of a clock
** a dark blue marble exported from Mauritania
---

If we have the right to take Verses on Fashion, wherever we find them, because they justly belong to us; we have no less right to take them on Novelty, and to let our Subscribers enjoy them. It is a true gift that the pretty Fable we present to them! It is extracted from the Miscellany of M. Hoffman, a young Poet full of talent.

NOVELTY, Fable.

In the place where Folly reigns,
One day Novelty appeared:
Immediately each man ran;
Each said: How pretty she is!

Ah! Madame Novelty,
Stay in our Homeland;
More than Spirit and Beauty,
You were always dear here.

So the Goddess, to all these Fools,
Responded: Sirs, I will stay here;
And gave them rendez-vous,
For the next day, at the same time.

The day came. She showed herself
As brilliant as before:
The first who met her,
Cried: Gods! how old she is!

---

A Fashion which just disappeared, to the regrets of many young People, is that of large black Plumes for men's hats. Time has destroyed them. People of quality, when they dress, no longer wear their hat with white feathers.

The Hats à l'Androsmane are still fashionable. M. Donnet, Merchant Hatmaker, rue Saint-Honoré, near that of l'Echelle, continues to furnish them to the satisfaction of the Public.

Comments

  1. These Georgian decorations look amazing in person. How is it that the illustrations manage to make them look so tacky?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know! The patina of age, I suppose? Or perhaps the illustrations are over-bright.

      Delete

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