Following
the Empire, the Restoration (1815-1830) prolongs the Neoclassical taste while clearing the decorative arts of imperial emblems and
rigidity. This style opposes delicacy and suppleness to the
ostentation and rigidity of the Directoire. Charles X especially
promotes continuity with the forms of the Ancien Regime.
Turned
in this way towards the past, the Restoration style brings back to
the taste of the day motifs of the Louis XVI style, but also Gothic and Renaissance forms. Within this wide variety of shapes, the
S-shaped doucine, the diamond, the palmettes, are often encountered.
The fine inlaid patterns on light woods, reminiscent of the Regency,
are also in vogue.
The Duchesse de Berry, a great patron
of the Restoration, is also an amateur of the Troubadour taste that
rises under Charles X. The Neo-Gothic style, destined to endure until
the end of the century, knows its first pieces of anthology such as
the Gothic Cabinet of the Countess of Osmond.
