the work of St. Eloi, 7th century; back and arms added by the Abbe Suger
in 12th century. There is an electrotype reproduction in the South
Kensington Museum.]

Turning from Venice. During the latter end of the eighth century the star
of Charlemagne was in the ascendant, and though we have no authentic
specimen, and scarcely a picture of any wooden furniture of this reign, we
know that, in appropriating the property of the Gallo-Romans, the Frank
Emperor King and his chiefs were in some degree educating themselves to
higher notions of luxury and civilisation. Paul Lacroix, in "Manners,
Customs, and Dress of the Middle Ages," tells us that the trichorium or
dining room was generally the largest hall in the palace: two rows of
columns divided it into three parts: one for the royal family, one for the
officers of the household, and the third for the guests, who were always
very numerous. No person of rank who visited the King could leave without
sitting at his table or at least draining a cup to his health. The King's
hospitality was magnificent, especially on great religious festivals, such
as Christmas and Easter.

In other portions of this work of reference we read of "boxes" to hold
articles of value, and of rich hangings, but beyond such allusions little
can be gleaned of any furniture besides. The celebrated chair of Dagobert
(illustrated on p. 21), now in the Louvre, and of which there is a cast in
the South Kensington Museum, dates from some 150 years before Charlemagne,
and is probably the only specimen of furniture belonging to this period
which has been handed down to us. It is made of gilt bronze, and is said
to be the work of a monk.

For the designs of furniture of the tenth to the fourteenth centuries we
are in a great measure dependent upon old illuminations and missals of