Régence

The French Régence period covers just eight years (1715–1723), but the transitional style it produced was enormously influential and continued to be made — in 'Régence style' — well into the 19th and 20th centuries. With the death of Louis XIV, the court left Versailles and Parisian aristocratic life resumed, bringing with it a new taste for lighter, more domestic furniture. The heavy straight lines and massed ornament of the Louis XIV Baroque began to loosen: the cabriole leg appeared, the serpentine front began to emerge, and the grotesque and arabesque ornament of Bérain and Watteau replaced the classical grandeur of Le Brun — but the transition was gradual, and Régence furniture retains much of the architectural weight of the Louis XIV style even as it introduces the curves that would define the Louis XV Rococo. The most characteristic Régence forms are the commode with three ranks of drawers and a beginning serpentine profile, the bureau plat (flat-topped writing table with ormolu edge mounts and three frieze drawers), and the early bombé forms that would be fully developed in the Louis XV period. Ormolu mounts are prominent — cartouche mounts on the knees of commodes, edge banding on bureau plats — and the quality of the gilded bronze is high. Régence chairs retain the high back of the Louis XIV period but introduce the curved back rail and beginning of the cartouche back that would become fully articulated in the Louis XV fauteuil. A note on spelling: 'Régence' (French) refers specifically to this French transitional period. 'Regency' (English) refers to the English Regency period of 1800–1830 — a completely different style characterized by dark mahogany, sabre legs, and Egyptian motifs. If you see 'Régence style' in an Austin Auction Gallery lot description, it refers to this French period.