Voyeuse
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A voyeuse (also known as voyelle ) is one of the many French seating furniture types that were developed by the famous cabinet makers in the mid-18th century for very specific purposes, especially for the pastimes of court society. She was in the Louis XV (time of Louis XV. , French Rococo ) and especially in the Louis XVI (time Louis XVI. ) Is widely used, but also in the Empire can still be found. Their differentiation in the variety of shapes and refined adaptation to the purpose of use and the different sitting posture increased more and more over time.
This upholstered chair was used as a "conversation chair" or "game chair", so it was intended to be able to watch one of the card and gambling games in gaming salons that were extremely popular at the time ( voyeuse = the spectator ) or to have a conversation for two to drift.
You sat astride the voyeuse, facing the back of the chair, in a low sitting position, legs apart, and supported your elbows and crossed forearms on the thickly padded edge of the relatively high backrest. Sometimes the upholstery was designed as the lid of a wooden box attached underneath, in which accessories (in the Ponteuse variant, playing cards, tokens, dice, and in the Fumeuse variant, smoking utensils ) could be stored.
There was a similar version for women: Since sitting with legs apart was uncomfortable for women, the "sitting" position was made so low that you could kneel on it, similar to the posture of a person praying.
For use as a conversation chair, two Voyeusen backrest to backrest were placed against each other. The conducted “conversation” is said to have been quite frivolous in the courtly Rococo. The origin of the term “Voyeuse” is also interpreted differently. The lady sat on the lower, the gentleman on the higher chair. So he could look voyeuristically into the cleavage of his flirt partner .
Shape variants
- Voyeuse assise (seat voyeuse)
- Voyeuse à genoux (Knievoyeuse)
- Ponteuse ("bridging")
- The fumeuse was constructed in a similar way , but the feet were often shorter.
Manufacturer
Well-known manufacturers were z. B. Blanchard , Bovo , Delanois , Gourdin , Jacob , Pluvinet and Tillard .
literature
- Furniture. A typology for museums and collections. Munich [u. a.]: Dt. Kunstverl., 2005. ISBN 3-422-06512-1 (definition on p. 90, illustration on p. 92)
