Sene provided handmade furniture for the bedroom of Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau in 1787, which proved to be one of the last major royal commissions before the Revolution, after which he was employed in the production of office furniture for bureaucrats.
These were but a few of the many craftsmen working in the age of Louis XVI, producing most of the principal types of furniture current in the previous reign but modifying them to conform first with the highly decorated early Neoclassical style, and then with the plainer fashion which anticipated the Directoire. Some of them exploited all the succeeding fashions from the Rococo through Neoclassical to Empire. During the Louis XVI period , several types of fitted and non fitted furniture either appeared for the first time or came into much more general use.
Intimate dining rooms for small parties came to be furnished with circular tables on centre pedestals. Food was placed on a kind of open sideboard, the console desserte, supplemented by a 'dumb waiter' with two or three tiers, the serviteur fidele, from which diners helped themselves after the servants had been discreetly dismissed. The break-front commode of rectilinear form, which replaced the bombe version, sometimes had drawers or cupboard space concealed by sliding panels. For bow-fronted cabinets or roll-top desks, the tambour became a popular method of enclosure. It consisted of narrow fillets of wood laid closely together and glued onto a canvas backing which travelled within grooved guides. The secretaire-a-abattant (fall-front secretaire), although by no means a new invention, gained in popularity. The upper stage had a writing leaf which occupied a vertical position when the desk was closed. The lower stage was either a carcase with drawers or cupboard enclosed by doors, or was a table-like, open framework of legs and stretchers. Fine examples were produced in lacquer, marquetry or plain mahogany.
Bourgeois furniture followed closely the fashions set by the court, the elaboration of veneering and mounting in bronze being imitated in less costly forms. The regional furniture of the countryside - the armoires and commodes in fruitwood, oak and walnut - continued to be made much as before. Near the larger provincial towns, the commodes became more rectilinear, and the doors of armoires were sometimes carved with Neoclassical motifs - occasionally the whole area of the door was carved to represent an oval Greek shield. On the whole however, the Louis XV style continued to be used with only very minor modifications. Long, narrow tables were made in ever increasing numbers, standing on square taper legs, and with one or two drawers in the frieze. Occasionally there is an extension leaf at one end. Provided the frieze is not too deep, they made excellent dining tables, but many were made as side tables in farmhouse kitchens and are too low to sit at in comfort. The woods used were mainly from fruit trees and polished to a fine, warm colour, merisier (wild cherry) being especially attractive. Those meant to be sat at were originally provided with pairs of benches.
The more sophisticated, veneered furniture is usually constructed of oak, with drawer sides and bottoms of the same timber. In country furniture, the secondary wood is very often chestnut or poplar. Mortise-and-tenon joints on 18th century French furniture are normally secured with dowel pins and the heads of these are visible on the surface of most pieces that are not veneered.
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