TOYS FOR ROYALTY.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 150, 25 June 1904, Page 13

TOYS FOR ROYALTY.

Since Uihl Octobor (said Tmth iccenlly) a maker of dolls' furuiluro has been busy executing an order from M. Loubel. The articles ordered were submitted lo him and tho Presidente on their return tho other day from Mnzenc, thoir placo in Iho Drome, and met with their fullest approbation. They aro for the youthful daughters of tho King and Queon of Italy. Tho Princess Yolaudo. is lo ro-' coiv-o an ancient Rouen dining-room in carved oak, old, liaid-grnincd, und exquisitely carved with a 1 projecting mantel ovev tho wide fncplnce. Tho tables, chairs, and bahuts are of the same pciiod (early fifteenth century) an the room, and not less finely carved. One of the ha huts — or miusMVU dining-room Drowses, that in tho old time preceded tho buffet— is filled with table linen, tanktuds, and ewcia in silver, and a few knives and two-pronged forks, which began to creep into Franco from Milan and Venice in the lime of Valentino- Visconti, Duchess of Orleans. Knighla then cut their food with^ daggers, and if they dined in tho company of ladies, cut theiis also to oblige them, and they used bread to sop up gravy aud take up bits of meat, to the mouth. Table napkins, in strong linen, resembling lino canvas, havo openwork hems. The delft dinner service i« imitated from tho old Rouen at the Chmy Muslim. Red loses that would b&ir examination under the magnifying glass form the principal decoration. By the way, did tho rose ol the Iloum of Lancaster come, not from (he Tcnijile Garden, but from Normandy? The oiient window of tho toy dining-room is in colotuecl yluss, and is a. poem. The Princess Yolauda, a bright, precocious, complex littlo thing who hyu down (he law to Jier father, will bo pleased at this piesent. The Anjou princess after whom »ho is called married a Duke of Savoy in the period the Rouen diningroom represents. The gift for the Princess Mafalda — a thorough Savoy Carignun, to judge fiom tho photo jiuil sent to M. and Mine. Loubet by the Fronoh Ambassador to tho Quirinal — is a peasant woman of Yvetot in the costume of the district. She rides to market on a care-fully-made horse on wheels, and sits behind panniers filled with all csorls of toys. Mme. Loubet, m her fear the baby Princess might swallow some apples on a branch, had them taken out, nnd begged M. Loubet to warn tho governess not to let her put them in hor mouth.