Louis IX. represented in his Regal Chair
Louis IX. represented in his Regal Chair, tapestried in fleurs-de-lis, from a Miniature of the Fourteenth Century. (MS. de la Bibl. Imp. de Paris.). It is noteworthy that from the time of St. Louis these same chairs and seats, carved, covered with the richest stuffs, inlaid with precious stones, and engraved with the armorial bearings of great houses, issued for the most part from the workshops of Parisian artisans. Those artisans, carpenters, manufacturers of coffers and carved chests, and furniture-makers, were so celebrated for works of this description, that in inventories and appraisements of furniture great care was taken to specify that such and such articles among them were of Parisian manufacture; ex operagio Parisiensi.
Chair of the Ninth or Tenth Century
Chair of the Ninth or Tenth Century, taken from a Miniature of that period (MS. de la Bibl. Imp. de Paris). The chairs or seats of the Romanesque period exhibit an attempt to revive in the interior of the buildings, where they were used, the architectural style of contemporary monuments. They were large and massive, and were raised on clusters of columns expanding at the back in three semicircular rows.
The Curule Chair
The Curule Chair called the “Fauteuil de Dagobert,” in gilt bronze, now in the Musée des Souverains. The chair ascribed to St. Eloi, and known as the Fauteuil de Dagobert, is an antique consular chair, which originally was only a folding one; the Abbé Suger, in the twelfth century, added to it the back and arms.
Round Table of King Artus of Brittany
The form of table was commonly long and straight, but on occasions of state it was semicircular, or like a horse-shoe in form, recalling the Romanesque round table of King Artus of Brittany.