#louis xvi desk

[martinworsterphotography]

Exquisite Louis XVI Roll Top Desk - French Bureau Du Roi

https://canonburyantiques.com/p/Louis-XVI-Desk-French-Bureau-Du-Roi-Roll-Top-1547807363/

[vivelareine]

The plan for Madame du Barry's apartments in 1770. Note that she had both a chaise room (for toilet facilities) and a bain/bathroom for bathing. Du Barry's bathroom had running plumbing, a feature which Louis XV, who was known for being very strict when approving plumbing construction for bathrooms, denied to his own daughters before approving for his mistress.

Courtiers who lived at Versailles who had the space for dedicated bathrooms (which at the time were for bathing only, as bathrooms were meant to be luxury spaces, not somewhere you'd put your commode!) had to apply to the king for the construction of running plumbing.

Under Louis XV, running plumbing appeals from courtiers were rejected on the basis that he only intended to approve this type of construction for royal apartments due to the expense--except in the case of his mistresse. And he didn't always approve such requests for members of the royal family (ie, his daughters).

Under Louis XVI, approval for plumbing was notably looser. We know that the apartments of Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Madame Elisabeth, the comte and comtesse de Provence, the three daughters of Louis XV (Mesdames); the comte and comtesse d'Artois; and select courtiers, including the queen's favorites, the princesse de Lamballe and duchesse de Polignac, and apartments reserved for certain ministers had running plumbing. (Although Marie Antoinette's Versailles apartments did not have running plumbing until 1788-1789, and it's unknown if she ever ended up using them.)

For residents, royal or otherwise, without running plumbing but who had large enough apartments to allot dedicated bathrooms, tub bathing would have been done with tubs that were brought into these rooms and filled by servants. This is how Marie Antoinette bathed when she took immersion baths:

Campan:

... a slipper bath was rolled into her room, and her bathers brought everything that was necessary for the bath. The Queen bathed in a large gown of English flannel buttoned down to the bottom; its sleeves throughout, as well as the collar, were lined with linen.

For residents of Versailles who didn't have enough rooms for a dedicated bathroom, tubs were rolled into their regular room(s) and filled by servants.

For servants who had tiny apartments that were basically just small rooms often big enough for a bed, a desk and a drawer, they would have used wash basins for regular washing, as everyone (including aristocrats) did for daily hygiene.

Image: A well-to-do woman being washed by a servant using a wash basin.

I don't think it would have been impossible for some servants to have had standing rolling tubs that they might have split among others, as people of modest means outside of Versailles would have done. But since documentation of 'lower servant' life at Versailles is limited, it's hard to say. They could have also gone to nearby rivers or lakes to bathe if they wanted full immersion baths. Louis XIV was known for bathing in rivers, especially after the hunt.

People, particularly aristocratic women who could afford specialized pieces like this, would have also used bidets to regularly clean their private parts.

Oops I just meant to add the note about Du Barry getting running plumbing when Louis XV rejected his own daughters' requests for running plumbing, but have this other information too.

I am slowly working on a proper article about the myriad of popular culture myths about Versailles and hygiene, hopefully I will be able to sit down and force myself to finish it soon. Working on this particular article has definitely forced me to re-evaluate the general lack of solid historiography on the subject, even from historians that ought to be trusted to analyze and vet sources more seriously.

[deluxewhump]

The Scry

Ch 14: Your High Table

Prev

CW: noncon drugging, captivity, whumpee with powers, forced to use powers, vomiting and illness, fasting, creepy comfort and carewhumping

Then began a time he forgot himself, a time he can remember only in bits and pieces. Because it was done so skillfully, so relentlessly, it took him a long time to realize on any conscious articulate level that he was being drugged.

Hazy late summer mornings, long evenings, sunlight on golden floors and a gilded Louis XVI desk, moving slowly as the eternal hands of the clock. He didn’t have his laptop anymore, or a phone. It didn’t matter. He couldn’t focus. Once, he remembered trying to find a landline in the sprawling brick house, but found only a vintage candlestick phone in an office, not in any type of working condition. He held the old round receiver to his ear, cool and silent, and closed his eyes.

He thought he heard voices on the other end, but it was just the beginning of a dream. He came back to consciousness hearing their echo. Even if the phone worked, who would he call? He couldn’t remember Max’s cell. Emergency services would take him, probably, but they would figure out what he was and give him back to Spartan. Or worse. He might be in trouble with the government now, for all he knew. Running away was certainly a breach of contract.

He looked for his phone, but guessed it was in the safe in Erik’s office the size of a vending machine, like you’d find in an old bank. The front and back doors of the house would not unlock. There was a mechanism of some kind preventing it that he could only guess was controlled by an app on Dr Holstrom’s phone or a device like a key fob. Max would’ve pointed it out as a fire hazard. For some reason that thought made him laugh. The first floor windows didn’t open, either. So curious. He didn’t have the energy to entertain breaking one. That seemed absurd, and violent. He was very tired, and mostly just testing his surroundings like one tongues at a sore spot on the roof of one’s mouth.

These ventures exhausted him to the point of delirium, and he could not scry for two days afterward. Dr Holstrom didn’t interrogate him for the reason behind this, probably because the house was full of surveillance cameras and he already knew, but tended to him until he was well enough to work again. 

The cycle was unending. Erik would bring him to his office to scry. Carlo’s senses were heightened. He could smell the bourbon on the doctor’s breath, the mechanical warm smell coming off the computer on his desk, the late summer foliage outside, ripe going to rot. He closed his eyes and listened to an old voicemail recording of Clara Holstrom, trying to focus on her voice instead of the way the magnolia leaves outside the window clicked together like the green carapaces of beetles. Clara was thirty, wherever she was, a Smith graduate with tightly curly brown hair, brown eyes, and a knowing smile, so subtle in most of her pictures it was like she was asking him what he was doing looking for her. 

Clara was hard to find. For weeks he feared she might be dead, and then what would happen to him? He’d never tried to scry anything about the dead, he didn’t know if it could be done. It was like an intricate network of telephone wires, or a web of mycelium under the earth, and he just had to pick through the threads that lit up when he touched them, a map to what it was he wanted. The dead were no longer a part of the network. Sometimes the information he sought came to him like an image, a clip of a movie, a word, a number, a phrase. Sometimes it was a strong emotion, hitting him with full force. That made him sickest. With Clara he got nothing but anger again and again. It felt almost good. Righteous. He shared it with her. But when he came back to the study with Erik Holstrom, he needed to throw up, and his head was pounding like there was an axe in it. 

Dr Holstom pushed him harder than Max during these sessions. “Once more,” he’d say, maddeningly gentle but firm. He’d place his hand on the back of Carlo’s hot neck once he was done vomiting stomach bile into a plastic bag. “Once more for me, now. I know. It’ll be over soon.” And he’d replay the cursed voicemail. He heard Clara’s voice in his dreams. 

But Dr Holstrom looked after him afterward, which was more than Martin Olsen ever did. He’d lay him on the green chaise in his study, covering him with blankets or angling a fan toward him, depending on if he was shivering or burning up. He’d give him sugary juice through a straw, pain medicine that Carlo was afraid to ask what it was but took it anyway, because it worked, and not like Tylenol.

One night Erik brought out an IV pole with a bag of clear fluid and put a needle in the back of Carlo’s hand. He’d whimpered in weak dread as his vein burned with the influx of fluid but stopped a moment later when a delicious, giddy peace washed over him. He no longer felt the throbbing pain in his head, or his churning stomach, or the anxiety of his situation. Later he would remember thanking Erik with an unbridled rush of disgust for himself, but in the moment Erik was inevitable as a god, all-powerful and luckily—by chance— merciful. Someone who cared about him when he didn’t have to. Like Max. 

“Shh,” Erik had responded to his drugged thanks, brushing his hair gently back from his forehead. “I think we are closer to her than you think. I know we are. I so appreciate you and your gift. You are an angel, do you know that? A divine tool. Providence.” Erik kissed the back of his non-IV hand and Carlo had to close his eyes to ride the next euphoric, drugged wave that flooded his every physical sensation. 

One evening he woke up and it was already dark. He stared at the clock on the bedside table for a long time, trying to understand if it was morning or evening. Finally he realized it was evening, and that’s why he could smell food cooking downstairs. It was dark because the days were getting shorter. It was autumn. How long had he been here?

He sat up, doing an inventory of his body and finding he was only a little achy, but not in pain. He felt clearer than he’d felt in weeks and weeks, and it was then he was sure he’d been being drugged. Of course he had. Well, and consistently. But how? He knew there were drugs in the IV Erik gave him when he was done scrying, but it was more than that. He’d wake up midmornings and be unable to keep his eyes open, fall back asleep til afternoon. He’d sit at the table at night and placidly fork whatever food was put in front of him into his mouth. He’d shower in cool water for twenty minutes at a time, getting lost in the way the rivulets came together and separated again on the frosted glass of the door. 

Tonight he dressed and went downstairs to dinner, but this time did not eat. When the doctor  asked him why he wouldn’t touch his food, he answered, “because I need to figure out how you’re drugging me. And because if I fast, I’ll get better results from scrying.”

Erik looked mildly perturbed rather than surprised. He set down his fork and took a sip of his white wine. “Is that so?”

“If I’m fasted, and clear headed, I can probably find her. You really haven’t been doing yourself any favors keeping me fucked up like that.”

“Mind your tongue at my table, child.”

Carlo took a sip of ice water. He was angry, and the little reprimand didn’t sting as much as it would otherwise. “If you compared notes with Martin Olsen, you’d have known that weeks ago. Or if you’d asked me before doping me up so bad I couldn’t remember where I was.”

“I thought I was doing you a favor.” Erik remained polite and composed, but Carlo could tell by now when there was a stiffness in his shoulders, irritation in his jaw. “I didn’t realize how painful your ability is for you to use. My goal was simply to keep you out of pain.”

Your goal was to incapacitate me. “I’ll be fine. I need to fast for a day or two, and then I’ll look for Clara. I don’t think she wants to be spied on. But I don’t really care at this point. If I find her, will you still hold up your end of the deal?”

Erik resumed eating, not bothered enough by Carlo���s antics to miss enjoying a meal. “Of course. I gave you my word.”

Carlo took another sip of water. His stomach growled. Good, he thought. Yes. 

[mypepemateossus]

Desk of Louis XVI in Versailles, France.

Louis XVI of Bourbon or Louis XVI of Bourbon, born in Versailles in 1754 and executed in Paris on January 21, 1793, was king of France.

[maratsbathtub]

so i was talking with my mom (a historian) about the afterlife and how historical figures having to share apartments would be hilarious. And then i brought up the frenchies, and what they would be doing after death.

I present to you, my mom's thoughts on the matter:

They would be running a spa. All of them. Lavoisier and his wife would be running the cafe (are there cafes at spas??? I don't know??? I was too busy dying inside to ask). Fouche runs finances. Robespierre does hairdressing stuff and danton does pedicures. Herault would be the (female?) waitress and fabre is the apothecary?? I guess? (I think my mom meant he runs the front desk) Louis XVI would be the janitor and marie Antoinette takes care of pets.

And i vetoed charlotte corday to ever be there. That was all i got to say.

And napoleon is just there to help

[frenchantiques]

A fine quality 1940s French Ebonised Desk in the Louis XVI Taste

[writer59january13]

Fretfully aching to feel fit as a fiddle

After experiencing a severe, albeit violent near lethal bout

of irritable bowel syndrome (yesterday night August 30th, 2023)

triggered courtesy dulcolax caplets plus

healthy portion of lentils, I (a beatle browed, foo fighting,

night ranger needing nirvana)

imperiled me to twist and shout as a whirling dervish analogous

to F5 tornado bread a deep purple to kiss earth, wind and fire hopscotching across terrestrial plain.

Irritable bowel syndrome

in my pinion wracked

lower abdominal area (mine) bubbled, gurgled and ballooned

sub stomach gastrointestinal tract

vis a vis flatulence crooned in tandem with subsequent expulsion

explosively eliminated fecal waste witnessed this scribe forcibly

zipping, sprinting, jetting to bathroom,

self propulsion (a race against time)

nsync with contraction of sphincter muscles'

spasmodically, desperately braced

body electric of mine hurled

at light speed across the universe

courtesy unpleasant symptoms

that mimicked anxiety/ panic attack,

which tortuousness, odorousness, insidiousness,

horrendousness, gaseousness, arduousness... played mean game of (gastrointestinal

knick knack paddywhack havoc.

Ofttimes in the past

irritable bowel syndrome

affrighted, afflicted, and affected me,

hence yours truly no stranger

to making light of offal plight and even managing to craft poem

else my alias not mister rhyme stir,

who found himself held hostage self barricaded in the water closet, where thoughts about mooning

did not crack a smile,

more explicitly baring derriere

tubby more exact humor did little to cheer me up -

matter of fact

no source of laughter manifested, (despite usual presence of chuckles

from this fan of good humor) hijacked for what seemed a maternity leave

from all mothers tub be

thus envision, a bevy of pregnant gals

aching with cramps heave

ving (times square of the hippopotamus)

with cervix fully dilated key

ping alert, when mother nature ready

to pull out all stops (via umbilical cord) to deliver bundle of joy followed

in quick succession with after birth re:

placental sack, hence

said effort to expel newborn

the closest scenario

experienced ill suited

to Saint Vitus dance afflicting this anxiety prone

lovely bones, an all expense paid (seat of the pants)

accursed bane of proletariat grants no truce to attend

found me pampered doubled over stance.

Modus operandi to distract against acute pain crisis yielded impossible mission

exhibited courtesy haphazard poem

awaiting unsolicited feedback across rock of ages woke beguiling ghostly busty spectre courtesy Marie-Antoinette, (i.e. bride of France's arty choke King Louis XVI) bespoke

let him eat cake, and (sic) send back the bloody bloke,

aye suddenly begot idea rye Jack Corner of zee desk didst impale and provoke moderately painful injury right side rib cage

analogous to intriguing unfortunate circumstance mysterious secret shrouded

as dagger and cloak

(think Alfred E. Neuman, viz MAD Magazine), yes no joke

lovely bones of me body electric,

(particularly right side rib cage)

severely traumatized, nailed, injured...

crucified oft told umteen times,

yet omitting key mirrors and smoke,

significant Dorian Gray parallel,

when former antique,

viz secrétaire looking glass reflection, spider hairline fractures radiated

resembled bay of pigs in a poke

ham handedly oinked, quaked, shattered... broke

into bajillion pieces deafening, exploding, glowering thunder stroke jagged shrapnel size shards

unleashed cosmic force

lacerated, gnashed, beribboned...

impeaching flesh with one engulfed masterstroke,

no rhyme nor reason aiming to choke

off promising poet (ha) of corpse

resembling scrambled egg yolk posthumous fame besmoke

salvaged mine besmirched reputation courtesy humble cartoon character

bugs bunny and kinfolk spoke

daffy fully goofily

eulogizing humor did evoke.

[living400lbs]

"The room’s furniture was the traditional country house hotchpotch of styles. The aristocracy didn’t really go in for buying furniture; they inherited most of it, and bought only the individual items they felt they lacked. So the bed (a monumental construction of carved mahogany) didn’t match the wardrobe (delicate and fussy with an inlaid flower motif), which didn’t match the writing desk and chair (Louis XVI with fiddly gold bits). The tallboy looked newer, and the washstand might have been bought that year. Somehow, though, when it was all set against the wonderful green wallpaper, it didn’t seem at all wrong."

From Death Around The Bend by TE Kinsey

[acatbyanyothername9]

This was a great read and a very interesting meta. However I have a couple of historical nitpicks.

Regarding the size of Cinderella's house you say it's too small to be a Castle though you know there are some small castles in France. I guess this is a case of YMMV. Yes indeed castles at first meant "A large, prestigious building with towers or turrets, surrounded by parkland with gardens, water features, etc., used as a royal or seigneurial residence." but it came to mean "Large-scale manor house set in the middle of a vast estate" (source : Centre National des Ressources textuelles et lexicales) And honestly? Looking at some of France castle's and ground floor plans, Cinderella's house does seem to fit this definition.

We can take a look at the Château de Candé in Indre et Loire

It does look pretty similar to Cinderella's house no?

This is the ground floor plan for the Château de Candé taken from the french version of the article

The brown part is the Renaissance pavillon

The green part was constructed between 1854-1855

The blue part was constructed between 1864-1867

The red parts were added later between 1927-1930

Except for library, there's a lot of overlap with the rooms we see in Cinderella's house.

So in 1845, the Castle looked like this :

Source : wikipedia, french version of the article.

So to me this Castle is on the small side yes, but there's no denying it's indeed vast (there at least two whole floors of rooms we see) and it's surronded by a big estate with gardens and farmyard.

2. You say the outfit of the royals clearly evoque 19th France, except that you say "that at the time France was "a full democracy and republic, with presidents and prime ministers everywhere and not a trace of a king..." Which is correct but only for the later part of the century. The 3rd Republic only happened in 1870!

Actually France spent most of the 19th century as an Empire or a Kingdom.

The 1st Empire lasted from 1804 to 1815

The "Restauration" lasted from 1815 to 1830 when Louis XVI brothers came back on the throne after Napoleon was defeated

The July Monarchy lasted from 1830 to 1848 with Louis-Philippe of Orleans as the King of French. It was a  liberal constitutional monarchy but still a monarchy

The Second Republic lasted from 1848 to 1852

The Second Empire lasted from 1852 to 1870

So France spent 33 years as Monarchy, 29 years as an Empire and only spent the last 30 years of the century as the Third Republic. 19th century France was a very chaotic time (Revolution will do that to you).

3. You say that Rabelais was a "Great French writer of the Middle-Ages" which is technically incorrect. François Rabelais is a humanist, maybe the most famous 16th century french writer nowdays. And Rabelais is actually firmly a Renaissance man. He was a monk and a greek scholar which ties in nicely with the Illiad and Plato we see on the desk. I think putting Rabelais in the movie might be a nod to how the King might a bit like the giant Gargantua. He might be short but he's bursting with life/energy almost like a force of nature.

Speaking of the King, if i'm not mistaken he's wearing a moustache "à l'impérial", it's thick and bushy thick, extending from the upper lip to the cheeks, where it curls upwards. I don't know which emperor it refers to, but in France it was very popular during the Second Empire and Emperor Napoleon III.

Source : disney wiki

Here's an historical portrait of the Emperor Franz Joseph by Julius von Blaas, wearing an imperial mustache

Source : wikipedia

This is in no way a refutation of all you said in your post, which is fascinating! I agree with almost everything. I just wanted to add my two cents 😅

Disney fairytales: Cinderella (1)

After “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, the next big “Disney fairy tale” story is without a doubt “Cinderella”, the 1950 classic. (I don’t count Pinocchio because of the unclear classification of the primary material). Now the movie explicitely refers to itself as an adaptation of Charles Perrault’s fairytale “Cendrillon”, it is in the very title… But as I looked at the movie over I couldn’t help recognizing several details eerily similar to the Grimms’ “Aschenputtel”. Coincidence or a muddling of the sources? Let’s take a look.

# Already, by the credits, I have to stop. “Cinderella”, your LOVELY name? And later we are confirmed that Cinderella is the girl ACTUAL NAME? Now that’s fascinating - and without a doubt how Disney muddled a lot with popular culture’s reception of the fairytale. Because in Perrault’s original tale, Cinderella (Cendrillon) is NOT the girl’s real name. Rather it is the nickname given to her by her wicked step-family - because as their servant she keeps lying in the ashes near the chimneys and thus is covered in cinders… Hence the name, “Cinderella”. It is a derogatory nickname. Mind you Perrault never gives the actual name of the girl, and the story only ever calls her “Cinderella”, so to make it her name can be excused.

In fact, it is even more fascinating to look at how she got this name in the first place, because in the original story here is how it goes: due to the poor girl becoming all sooty and ashy from her hard work, her wicked stepfamily decides to give her a nasty new name… But her stepmother and the older stepsister call her “Cucendron”, which is a name formed of “cul” (ass) and “cendres” (ashes). So… “Ashened-ass” or “Ash-ass”. And it is specified that the youngest of the two stepsisters, which isn’t as malevolent as her elder sister, refuses to use this name but rather invents the softer (though still derogatory) nickname “Cendrillon”, “Cinderella”. 

I will also point out that the overpresence of birds and plants in those opening credits bring to mind the Grimms version, were birds and trees are central to the story.

# As with “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, we have the story being presented here as read directly from a book. See my notes about it in my previous Disney breakdown.

# So the story is here taking place in a “Tiny kingdom, peaceful, prosperous and rich in romance and tradition”. Overall the setting of the fairytale is very interesting as a sort of mish-mash of several European cultures: the main thing you’ll see everywhere is how the movie was influenced by 19th century France (I guess from the oufits of the royals and comments that Walt Disney thought is was “romantic”? But my sources are unclear so if you ever have more info…). Now there is very clearly France in there - the names of the maidens at the ball are all French, they adapted the French version of the fairytale, and the term “Mademoiselle” (French for “Miss”) is used several times in the movie. HOWEVER… Many people have pointed out that Spanish influences might be at play too. An argument is that all the names of the main female characters end in -a (Cinderella, Anastasia, Drizella). This argument doesn’t hold up especially since Cinderella is an English translation, Anastasia is Russian, and… I don’t know where Drizella comes from but it doesn’t feel Spanish. More interesting are the facts that 1) Anatasia seems to wear a “peineta”, a Spanish type of headress and 2) The Grand Duke, when trying to catch Cinderella, uses both “Mademoiselle” (French) and “Señorita” (Spanish). 

The outfits of the royal clearly evoke the “modern” France, in a stark contrast to the castle and “medieval” setting: the very design of the King evokes so many great men of the 19th century that had these big white mustaches… Even though it makes the whole thing even more jarring because 19th century France was a full democracy and republic, with presidents and prime ministers everywhere and not a trace of a king… Which leads me to another detail that slightly puzzled me through the movie. The King is always referred to as “Imperial Majesty”… Yet he is described as “living in a tiny kingdom”. A tiny kingdom still ruled by a king in “modern” kingly outfits, with French as a main language and imperial power? That’s obviously Belgium. Belgium which despite its small size was still one of the colonial empires (for the worst in fact…). 

Overall I don’t have enough knowledge here to make a clear answer to the question “Where the hell does this takes place?”, especially since this is clearly a fantasized and invented European country, but I do think a lot of elements should be taken into account. 

# Ah, the… “château”. So the house Cinderella lives in is constantly referred to as a “château”, which is the French word for “castle”. I’d… have to disagree? Because the house seems a bit too small for being a castle. Yes it is a big house certainly, a rich house, and it has things such as a tower - but I still wouldn’t call it a “château”, even though I know some French castles are really small, but still… It feels more like a manor, or just a big house. 

# In the Disney version, Cinderella’s original mother is not talked about: we only speak of her father, “kind and devoted” who gave his child “every luxury and comfort”, who married another woman to give Cinderella a “mother” and who then died… Quite an interesting change given that in Perrault’s story the father of Cinderella never dies - he is still alive, but explicitely stated to be entirely under the control of his new wife (in fact it is why Cinderella never complains to him about her mis-treatment, the narration explicitely says he would only side with his new wife and chastise Cinderella for bothering people). It is something the Brothers Grimm kept too: Disney was the one who seemingly invented the father’s death to excuse his inaction against the stepmother’s cruelty. In fact the death of the father seems to replace in Grimm’s version the death of Cinderella’s birth-mother, which was made a great deal of. On the other side, the beginning of the movie clearly sticks with Perrault’s tale, that opens with the father already a widow marrying another woman, no mention of the original mother except that Cinderella inherited her sweetness and kindness. 

# Speaking of the step-family. In the Disney movie it is said that the father married the step-mother because she was of “good family” and that he wanted to give his Cinderella a new mother ; she only “revealed her true nature” after the father’s death. She was “bitter and cruel”, and out of jealousy for “Cinderella’s charms and beauty”, she pushed forward her own daughters’ interest, abusing and humiliating Cinderella to servitude while her own daughters squandered their wealth due to their vanity making the “château” fall into “disrepair” (mind you the building doesn’t look THAT disrepaired in the movie but oh well). When compared to Perrault’s tale, things are slightly different: the main flaw of the stepmother isn’t described as being cruelty or jealousy, but rather pride. In fact she is said, alongside her daughters, to be the most arrogant and haughty woman of the kingdom ; and it is “after the wedding” that the stepmother let out “her bad temper” against Cinderella. But is isn’t the girl’s “beauty and charm” that irritates her - rather it is her “good qualities”. Because due to her kind and sweet nature, she makes her step-sisters look bad, and this is why the step-mother starts disliking her and then forces her to do all the chores in the house. 

Beyond that the movie does stick to the tale, from Cinderella sleeping “high into the attic” (here turned into a tower ; though instead of a comfortable bed Perrault has her sleep in hay) to the fact that even in rags Cinderella is still much prettier than her sisters (who are never actually said to be ugly, but even with all the most beautiful clothes they pale in comparison to Cinderella’s natural beauty). 

# Let’s talk briefly of designs here. Cinderella’s dresses, when she was a child, were pale blue - a color worn by other good people. That, coupled with her blond hair and blue eyes, clearly put her on the side of “good colors”, against the “bad colors” of her step-family. Her stepsisters are brown-haired and red-haired (two colors that were historically treated as “of lesser quality” than blond), and their dresses are green and pink - but one is a type of pale, sick, sometimes yellowish green evoking venom or disease, while the other is a type of pink that goes on the mauve, magenta, purple, almost liver for her corset, which makes it seem a “wrong” version of the color compared to the bright pink of Cinderella’s first dress. As for Lady Tremaine, what can we say? She seems to have originally had black hair, now turned into a dark gray (I’ll speak of it again), she only dresses in purples and dark reds (two negative colors in Disney’s code), and more importantly… She has green eyes. Green eyes highlighted by green jewels: this is no mistake that she was earlier said to be “jealous” of Cinderella. Green-eyed is the metaphorical designation for “envy”. Here, the flaw of Lady Tremaine is clearly show to be envy and jealousy. The same “evil colors” are found in the step-family pet, the cat Lucifer (with quite an evocative name), all in black, with yellow and green eyes. 

# Now, it is quite interesting to see that we have two messages with Cinderella. The first one, as outlined by the introduction, and which is the message of both Grimm and Perrault’s tales, is that Cinderella is a good person and has good things happening to her because she is sweet, kind and gentle. She is good-natured (it is even emphasized in Grimm’s tale due to this being her mother’s dying wish), and in the movie it is what helps her: by the kindness she shows everyone, she manages to gather enough friends that will help her in time of needs and provide her with what she wants. BUT there is a second message put there by Disney over-riding the first, and that is a clear recycling of “Snow White”: the importance of wishes, and believing in them, the importance of dreams and trusting them (because wishes and dreams are in Disney’s logic one and the same). We find back the entire “hope” message put forward by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, with one slight twist: the word used here is not “hope” but another Christian virtue, “faith”. Cinderella has “faith”, and there is also a recurrence of the word “believing”. Again, even more than kindness (which just helps you in hard cases), what Disney pushes forward here is hope and faith to obtain the happiness you want. 

# Another inheritance from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, even more obvious and even more detailled: the connection between the “princess” and the “animals”. Like Snow White, Cinderella is a friend of all living things, resulting in her being able to talk and command animals (even when we the audience don’t understand what they say, Cinderella can have a whole conversation with them) - and just like Snow White she is willing to believe in good in everyone, including in this case Lucifer the nasty cat. I should point out that Cinderella’s reliance on animals seems to heavily borrow from Grimm. Yes, there is actually a Perrault joke here, as the mice so needed for the transformation are here actually expanded upon and from a note of the story become side-characters… But the fact the mice help her through her chores and get out of hard situations, PLUS the fact these mice are coupled with BIRDS out of all things, smells a LOT like Grimm in which Cinderella’s main “power” was precisely a supernatural ability to control doves and white birds (well “controlling” is a bit of a harsh word but you get my meaning). The birds helped her in every thing, the same way the mice did there. With one small change: in the Grimm’s versions the birds help her for no particular reason, or rather they seem to be some sort of supernatural gift either by her dead mother or to reward either her sweet nature or her grieving of her deceased mother. In the Disney version, they wove together the “kindness and gentleness” message of the original story with the “friendly helpful animal sidekick” idea by having the animals be, truly, grateful friends rewarding Cinderella because she feeds them, and helps them out of traps, and… clothes them.

… Yeah to be fair I do question how “kind” it is in these olden days to save mice (which are actually a nuisance and could cause big damages) and put them into little clothes and help them grow families throughout the house. I know it is a Disney movie, but in real life, that would be REALLY questionable and the “disrepair” of the house might be due to Cinderella and not the step-sisters X) There’s a reason in Perrault’s tale Cinderella finds the mice in a trap. 

# Speaking of these mice, it is painfully obvious here that Disney wanted to recreate the “Seven Dwarfs” phenomenon, by taking non-developed side-characters (or here note-characters) from the original story and making them bubbly, funny sidekicks whose adventures fill a lot of the movie. The clothes of the mice are even almost identical to the ones of the dwarfs! In a similar way, the presence of Lucifer seems to be an expansion of the brief presence of the pet-raven of the wicked queen in Snow White. Of course, there is also a whole symbolic behind it: Cinderella’s friend are nice mice, small defenseless creatures at the mercy of Lady Tremaine’s pet, a big, nasty predatory cat. And the whole fight and flight between the mice and the cat, beyond just being here for cartoonish value and gag providing, seems to be a manifestation of the conflict between Cinderella and her step-family. A way to show the abuse and the fights inside the clan, without actually showing human abuse, but rejecting it on something “funnier” and “more kid friendly”: the cat and the mouse. 

# I quite like how Disney decided to prepare the ending of the story already by the beginning - what people would later call “foreshadowing”. It was really a nice trick back in the time to ease the ending into the story so it didn’t felt too abrupt: here with Cinderella explicitely expressing disdain and dislike of the clock’s constant measuring of time, and her losing a shoe in the staircase, showing that it is a regular habit of hers. In fact, it is quite interesting to see Cinderella lash out at the clock but not at her step-family, despite her reproach being the same thing for the two: bossing her around. You could almost say that Cinderella seems to project her frustration and dislike towards the clock rather than towards her step-family. 

# Ah, the king… we get to the king. A very interesting approach here, as Disney, who could have taken time to flesh out the character of the Prince (which is, again, not named “Charming” in any way, he doesn’t even have a name), instead focuses on his father the king. In Perrault’s story it is the prince himself that organizes the balls, and who gives the orders for the “shoe-hunt”, in fact despite being referred to as “the son of the king” throughout Perrault’s tale, the king himself never appears and the prince seems to do everything on his own. Here? It is the reverse. The King forces his son to marry, he organizes the ball, he is the one that later organizes the “foot-trial”… He becomes the driving force of it all. And it is quite interesting to see that the King is actually… a morally gray character. A nuanced one, halfway between good and evil, kind-hearted but flawed. He is seen to be a loving father - but too loving as he cherished and treasured his son so much when he was a child, he now can’t bear to be “alone” ow that he is a grown man, and desires to have grand-children to replace him. (In fact, in this way he seems like an inverted double of Cinderella’s own father). He is first dressed in black and red during his scenes, clearly evil colors, but later he takes the same beige and gold as the Prince, “good colors”. He is the one that does everything to make the marriage happen and as a result is technically the bringer of Cinderella’s happy ending… But he does so for selfish reasons, by tricking his own son. And of course, there is also the fact that the King is a childish figure prone to violent tantrums and destructive angers. In fact, you can understand that he would WANT children to play with him, because himself IS a child in mind ; which interestingly reverses the role as his son the young prince becomes suddenly a much more mature and reasonable figure, just by contrast.

Mature, reasonable… but completely unknown, as due to his father’s overbearing presence he completely disappears and we know nearly nothing about him. He just becomes a tool-character with no real depth. 

# It is actually quite interesting to see that this movie tries to explore a whole debate about “romance” and “romanticism”. The very introduction describes the country as “filled with romance”, and Cinderella’s character is about a girl pushed forward by dreams and wishes countradicted by the harsh reality around her. In the first dialogue between the King and the Grand-Duke we see that the King is actually against the “silly romantic ideas” of his son, who seeks to find “true” love: instead, pragmatic in his selfish desires, he wants an arranged marriage, an organized love. But later, during the ball scene, the roles will be flipped over as the Grand Duke will mock the King’s “romantic” project of a love at first sight and the prince meeting his wife during a grand ball, even outright claiming in a meta-consideration that this kind of thing is “only good for fairytales”. It is quite fascinating to see how the “anti-romantic” discourse gets thrown around from one character to another and that ultimately the anti-romantic project itself becomes derided as “too-romantic”, only for ALL the anti-romantic points of view to be proven wrong somehow… But overall giving a quite confusing message. Especially since we see the three main books on the King’s desk… “Homer”, the great Greek writer of the ancient epics The Iliad and The Odyssey. Plato, a great philosopher (who in fact had things to say about love and desire). And… Rabelais. Great French writer of the Middle-Ages, but while regarded as a “classic”, was actually a… very special type of writer for very special kinds of texts. This choice of books seems just as confusing to me, and there is so much to say I can’t cram everything in there. I will point out however a bitter irony: Charles Perrault was a “Modern”. During the 17th century there was a thing called “La Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes”, a fight between the “Ancients” and the “Moderns”. The Ancients were all the writers, artists, cultural elite that defended the concept of art as it was known in France back then: follow and imitate the models of the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans, they are the best that could ever be made of art and we must follow them. The “Moderns” rather defended the idea that new forms of art could be created taking inspiration from other sources, such as national sources (French material) or Middle-Ages tales - and moreover the Moderns tried to prove that creations of the 16th or 17th century could be as good if not better as works of Antiquity. Charles Perrault was one of the Moderns, and his “Contes”, his fairytales WERE created as a tool and example of “Modern literature” against the Ancient. So having Homer and Plato appear inside an adaptation of Perrault’s tale is always significant - but the degree of irony here should be taken into account compared to how you choose to interpret or see the King and his very ambiguous depiction.

# In Disney’s version, the King organizes a ball where “all eligible maidens” of the country have to be gathered. In Perrault’s story, the Prince rather organizes a ball where “all people of quality” are invited. In fact, the two step-sisters are invited there because they were well-known and renowned in the country. Another interesting change: Disney’s Cinderella actually wants to go to the ball, because she is an “eligible maiden” and part of the household like others. In Perrault’s tale, it is Cinderella herself that refuses to go to the ball when her sisters ask because she points out how lowly and dirty she is, only for the step-sisters to agree mockingly. In fact, Cinderella’s first behavior, when she refuses to go regretfully, before she discovers the dress her animal friends did for her, IS the behavior of the heroine from Perrault’s tale.

As for the step-mother’s “bargain” of Cinderella doing her chores to hope to go to the ball, it clearly was taken from Grimm’s version of the fairytale, in which the stepmother herself prevents Cinderella from going to the ball by throwing dishes of lentil over the floor and asking her to clean it up. 

# Cinderella singing beautifully while scrubbing the staircase, while her stepsisters sing horribly during their music lesson, is another manifestation (with sound this time instead of visuals) of the concept that the step-sisters, despite all their riches, are still less beautiful than Cinderella in her rags.

# In fact I want to point out something: the omnipresence and importance of the stepmother in “Cinderella” is another element taken from the Brothers Grimm. In Perrault’s tale, it is the step-sisters that are the most active and present characters, with the stepmother never getting any lines or any real action… As opposed to the Grimm verson where the stepmother not only has the “dish of lentils” episode but is also the one to cut off her daughter’s feet… So yes, despite their claim, Disney did take several pages out of the Grimms story.  

# No need to mention that the first dress-making comes from Disney exclusively, and is not found in either Perrault or Grimm - as a result, I will leave that aside, only mentionning that this element was clearly added for 1) bring more tension to the plot, another “Will she go or won’t she?” from those who didn’t know the story ; and 2) it is another way yet to show the cruelty of the stepfamily. Or rather, it is a way to show the pettiness and superficiality of the step-sisters, who are shown to be so bratty and selfish that they get enraged seeing Cinderella wearing their belongings… when a few hours before they threw them to the trash saying they were too old and ugly and they didn’t want them. 

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French Louis XVI Bureau Plat Desk - Elegant Writing Table

The timeless elegance of the French Louis XVI Bureau Plat Desk. Perfect for adding a touch of sophistication to your workspace with its classic design and fine craftsmanship.

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The French Louis XVI Bureau Plat Desk is a masterpiece of elegance and craftsmanship. This writing table features intricate detailing and a classic design that exudes sophistication. Perfect for any refined workspace, it combines functionality with timeless beauty. The high-quality materials and expert construction ensure it will be a cherished piece for years to come. Add a touch of French elegance to your home or office with this exquisite desk.

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Some of the picturesof the Sun King Set  ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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Desk Louis XVI. A furniture serie.

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A Louis XV-style blue-ground Parisian varnish secretaire en pent by Pierre IV Migeon (1696-1758)

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1940s French Ebonised Desk in the Louis XVI Taste

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S&V_Recreate history_Louis XVI Style Flat Desk Lacquered in Celadon

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