Rambouillet

(left photo: Thomas, Ingrid. The Shell: A World of Decoration and Ornament. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2007, 170. right photo: Boyer, Marie-France. "The Princess' Folly." World of Interiors 28, no. 3 (Mar. 2008), 170-177.)

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Rambouillet estate, a 14th century castle located outside of Paris. The castle, which has been the official French presidential summer residence since the 19th century, is certainly beautiful, but the most fantastic building on the grounds is the tiny cottage in the English landscape garden. This little cottage was one of those follies so popular in the 18th century and had been built in 1779 for the princess of Lamballe (As a friend of Marie Antoinette, the princess lost her head during the French Revolution. Revolutionaries put the head of the princess on a stake, did her hair, and waved it in the jail cell window of Marie Antoinette to taunt her.)

Back to the cottage. Fairy tales were extremely popular in the 18th century, and those fashionable aristocrats loved to create their own. So in princess of Lamballe’s little rustic thatched-roof cottage, the surprise was a fantasy of shells, which encrusted the walls of entire room. The cottage was called the Chaumièr aux Coquillages, and as you can see in the top right photograph, there is even a polished mother-of pearl overmantel “mirror” framed by two ionic columns. The World of Interiors magazine did an in-depth feature on the little shell cottage with lovely photographs by Alexandre Bailhache.

Ingrid Thomas’ “The Shell: A World of Decoration and Ornament” elaborates on the use of the shell in decoration. She contextualizes the princess of Lamballe’s shell cottage with the fashion for grottoes, which began in the 16th century. The book is filled with photographs from an illustrated glossary of shells to shell jewelry and shells in art. It is definitely worth a look, but if you can’t make it to the Library to peruse this book, there are some lovely shell illustrations on the Digital Gallery. I’ve posted some of my favorites below. They would make lovely John Derian-style paperweights. Perhaps a hostess gift for that trip to the seashore?