Aside from furniture, my thesis research has prompted me to consider other types of furnishings and their role in the greater decorative schemes of the château Saint-Louis and the intendant's palace. Reflecting light and enhancing the size of rooms, mirrors were recognized for their combined decorative and utilitarian qualities. The use of mirrors in French interiors of the seventeenth century is well known, with the most famous example being the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles, completed between 1678 and 1684. Sheer quantities of glass continued to dazzle audiences into the eighteenth century. Philippe de Rigaud owned several gilt framed mirrors in the 1720s, and his son Pierre purchased two large ones for the château's salle in Paris in the 1750s. Pierre de Rigaud recorded their combined cost of 1100 livres.
Records from the estate of Intendant Claude-Thomas Dupuy offer tantalizing clues regarding his use of shiny surfaces in 1720s Québec.
Whether or not he arrived in New France with plans to outshine everyone and everything is debatable (I think that he did). However, the quality of items taken from the palace to pay his debts in 1728 reveals careful taste and, above all, important investment in interior decoration. With respects to mirrors, a profusion of giltwood and ebony frames are mentioned. I have yet to find a comparable period example, but I can only imagine what Dupuy's frame "worked with wreaths and medallions representing the signs of the Zodiac" looked like.
Whether or not he arrived in New France with plans to outshine everyone and everything is debatable (I think that he did). However, the quality of items taken from the palace to pay his debts in 1728 reveals careful taste and, above all, important investment in interior decoration. With respects to mirrors, a profusion of giltwood and ebony frames are mentioned. I have yet to find a comparable period example, but I can only imagine what Dupuy's frame "worked with wreaths and medallions representing the signs of the Zodiac" looked like.
Most incredibly, 91 pieces of mirror glass, still in their cases, were among the items confiscated from the palace in 1728. What Dupuy intended to do with these is unknown. However, nearly all the pieces were measured, some over five feet in length and 3 feet in width. This excerpt from the list of Dupuy's goods seized in 1728 inventories the nineteen pieces of mirror glass in case A. Although a few pieces were broken, the fact that Dupuy thought it feasible or worth transporting such a large number of glass to New France still floors me. It was such a risk and representation a monumental amount of money.
In his two years as intendant, Dupuy’s modifications to the palace décor were extensive. Royal engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry had labored to make the 1726 palace fireproof after the series of fires that had consumed its predecessors. Much to his chagrin, documented renovations during Dupuy's tenure as intendant include the replacement of intentionally fireproof plaster cornices and mantelpieces with more fashionable-and flammable- wooden versions. To Dupuy, nothing but wood was considered suitable, and he shared this sentiment with his metropolitan counterparts in Paris. Many of these wooden elements were removed after his recall.
The 1726 floorplan for the new palace, completed in time for Dupuy's arrival from Paris in September of that year, features a Grand Cabinet in the northwest corner overlooking the expansive formal garden. Given the amount of mirror glass that he brought with him, I wonder if he intended to create a cabinet des glaces in this room. Born in 1678, Claude-Thomas Dupuy grew up in an era that celebrated mirrors for their ostentatious decorative qualities, and cabinets des glaces replicated the more celebrated Hall of Mirrors, albeit on a smaller scale. Such mirror-covered rooms existed in Paris and at the château de Meudon, a property owned by Louis XIV's son the Grand dauphin. At Meudon, both the king and the princesse de Conti occupied suites of rooms embellished by the presence of mirrored cabinets that stood at various angles of their apartments.
In his two years as intendant, Dupuy’s modifications to the palace décor were extensive. Royal engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry had labored to make the 1726 palace fireproof after the series of fires that had consumed its predecessors. Much to his chagrin, documented renovations during Dupuy's tenure as intendant include the replacement of intentionally fireproof plaster cornices and mantelpieces with more fashionable-and flammable- wooden versions. To Dupuy, nothing but wood was considered suitable, and he shared this sentiment with his metropolitan counterparts in Paris. Many of these wooden elements were removed after his recall.
The 1726 floorplan for the new palace, completed in time for Dupuy's arrival from Paris in September of that year, features a Grand Cabinet in the northwest corner overlooking the expansive formal garden. Given the amount of mirror glass that he brought with him, I wonder if he intended to create a cabinet des glaces in this room. Born in 1678, Claude-Thomas Dupuy grew up in an era that celebrated mirrors for their ostentatious decorative qualities, and cabinets des glaces replicated the more celebrated Hall of Mirrors, albeit on a smaller scale. Such mirror-covered rooms existed in Paris and at the château de Meudon, a property owned by Louis XIV's son the Grand dauphin. At Meudon, both the king and the princesse de Conti occupied suites of rooms embellished by the presence of mirrored cabinets that stood at various angles of their apartments.
With respects to the existence of a cabinet des glaces at the intendant's palace, the record is silent. Given Dupuy's track record in reconfiguring and furnishing his apartments, however, I don't think that it is an unlikely hypothesis. 91 pieces of mirror glass had to go somewhere, and period design sources, such as the Décoration intérieure et jardins de Versailles, illustrate how mirrors were integrated within interior architecture alongside framed art, lighting fixtures, and hung mirrors.