Sanson, left most room of the ground floor of the main house
Sources :
-Z_1j_1045, Archives Nationales de France.
-Carbonnier, Youri, "Les maisons des ponts parisiens à la fin du XVIIIe siècle : étude d'un phénomène architectural et urbain particulier", Histoire, Économie et Société, année 1989, 17-4, pp. 711-723
For my artistic lisence parts, I will use the online collections of the musée Carnavalet, Musée du louvre and the Ermitage Museum of Saint-Petersburg for items such as tiles, furniture and what not, as well as what ever articles I can find online.
Plans :
For the floor tiles, I'll want some square ones for simplicity.
I found this neat memoir on Google Scholar :
Hamel, Deny, "Les modes de fabrication des terres cuites commune de production locale à Québec à la fin du XVIIème siècle", Département d'Histoire et Lettres de l'Université de Laval, Québec, 2007,
According to Diderot's "Encyclopédie", the smaller version of it used in rooms was about 4 inches (pouce de Paris), so about 10.8 cm on each side (although, I think he talked about the hexagonal ones). Most extent ones in online antique shops are somewhat bigger, at around 12-16 cm. Still, one the small side. Which means I should keep them SMOL as I keep in mind proportions. Since these floor tiles would have been relatively new at the time, like, not centuries old, they would have rather bright terracotta color with some variation but not too much. I will keep them square for my sanity.
This room is said to have a chipped marble chimney with framing and an iron-cast plaque at the end of the hearth, as well as having two windows overlooking the garden. Near the chimney is a large closet with a vertical opening, and another one is near the door. I will draw the part near the chimney, since it's probably the most visually interesting anyway.
Here's a few examples of chimney stuff from the early XVIIIth centurie :
For these, only the bare bones of the chimney will be drawn, so the design will be simplified, as anything that isn't strictly chimney won't figure in the "strictly sourced" version, but I will keep the shape and silhouette. For the ornated parts on the sides, they do have a roman collumn motif, so I will have to ensure to keep that, and I must ensure a usable tablette since it's what described in the document. No plaque at the hearth, because the document doesn't describe one. I will have to make sure to add suit staining though.
For the closet/armoire :
The one in the document is described as lacking locks, and it's unlikey to be glassed, but the silhouette is here.
We are definitly looking at painted or polished wood and ornate handles, all with perhaps a royal or mythological motif. Since it's unlikely they had these precise ones, we can play with the pattern to have an easter egg. How about we have mandrake motifs, since they do have some floral patterns ? Yeah, mandrakes it is. Also, mandrake is an analgesic, so they could have comissioned a thing covered in motifs of analgesic plants. They could afford it. On this note, let's end the strictly-document part, shall we ?
bunniesandbeheadings
