THE ARMCHAIRS AND THE CLOCK OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY

The armchairs disappeared for five years. They were replaced after the decision was made to keep them for special sessions. We do not know what became of them. We also do not know where the clock offered by Louis XIV in 1725 was kept.

The present year of 1925 marks the second centenary of a double furniture event, which, judging by the numerous and detailed notes that we have found in its archives, greatly moved the Academy.

It was in 1725, in fact, that the illustrious Company recovered its armchairs, which had been taken from it five years previously and received, on the other hand, from the young King Louis XV the gift of a magnificent clock intended to mark the hours of the sessions and its work.

On November 7, 1720, the excellent permanent secretary André Dacier, to whom La Bruyère would have preferred "Madame sa femme", the most famous Hellenist of his time, if "persons of her sex" had been admitted to the Academy, sadly announced to his colleagues that "Mr. Nevo, keeper of the furniture of the crown, had come, by order of H.R.H. Monseigneur the Regent, to ask him for the armchairs of the Academy to send them to Cambrai for the congress which is to be held there and that he had assured him, on behalf of His Royal Highness that, when the congress is over, these armchairs would be brought back to him; that he had asked Mr. Nevo to go and communicate the order to Mr. the bishop of Fréjus (Fleury), director of the Company, that Mr. Nevo had gone there, and that the armchairs had been taken away the same day!" this
This news caused, among the Forty, already worried at having found in their room only chairs, a general consternation, which would have bordered on despair if the Immortals had been able to foresee the long deprivation of which they were going to be victims.

The Congress of Cambrai, whose principal object was to end the disputes of the Emperor and England with Spain, had in fact been indicated as early as this month of July 1720; but, alas! it did not actually open until January 26, 1724, and it was not until a year and a half later, on July 26, 1725, that another permanent secretary, the Abbé du Bos, who had succeeded Dacier, joyfully recorded in his register this memorable fact: "Today, the armchairs were brought back from the furniture storeroom." Their absence had lasted nearly five years!

As the journey to Cambrai had somewhat tired them, it was thought appropriate to have them restored by the king's upholsterers before returning them to the Academy.

The latter was very fond of them. They had been given to it by Louis XIV in 1713, and M. de Pontchartrain, Secretary of State, had addressed this strange letter to the Academy on their subject:
"I have not failed to report to the King the letter that you were kind enough to write me and that of M. Cardinal d'Estrées.
His Majesty fully approves the changes that have been proposed by the French Academy for the armchairs, provided that there is nothing contrary in the statutes and regulations. I am delighted in my own name that this expedient, which seems very suitable, provides the Academy with the satisfaction of enjoying what it has most illustrious (the cardinals, who had refused to sit in anything other than armchairs, a refusal which had motivated the sending of armchairs to all the academicians, so that academic equality would be respected), and you would like me to rejoice with you.
Please do me the justice of always being well convinced that I am more faithfully acquired to you than anyone in the world for the whole of my life."
PONTCHARTRAIN.

Before these armchairs were sent, the Academy had sat, as it does today, on more or less padded chairs.
These seats, already venerable at the time of the Cambrai trip, were kept by the Academy until the reign of Louis XVI.

On August 23, 1775, new armchairs and curtains were brought to the Academy on behalf of the King. But the Company thought it appropriate to "keep the old armchairs for private sessions, the new ones which are narrower (the Louis XVI style had replaced that of the grand siècle) being reserved for public sessions or general assemblies, where they will take up less space." What happened to these armchairs of the Academy, those given to it by Louis XIV and those given to it by Louis XVI? In any case, these armchairs of 1713 and 1775 were the only ones that the Academy possessed. Since the founding of the Institute in 1795 it has sat, like its sisters of the illustrious body, on chairs. Those that it uses today, in mahogany and green velvet, date from Louis-Philippe.

And what happened to the clock?

Because there was also a clock that King Louis XV offered to the Academy in 1725, the day after the return of the armchairs that had traveled to Cambrai. As early as March of that year, the king had taken 1,500 livres from his treasury for this clock, the design of which was decided by Valincourt and which was ordered from the clockmaker Martinot. It was to Cardinal de Fleury that the Academy owed the suggestion to the king of this present which was, it seems, magnificent. Also, the Company had this inscription engraved on the clock:
In 1725. King Louis XV, prosecutor of the Academy, gave it this clock as a gift for the good offices of André-Hercule de Fleury. one of the forty, former bishop of Fréjus, tutor to this prince and since then one of his principal ministers.

The clock, like the armchairs, has disappeared. The one that marks the hours of the Academy today dates back about a hundred years. It is decorated with a figure of an antique warrior and placed on the fireplace in the session room between the marble busts of Victor Hugo and Lamartine, below a copy of the portrait of Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne.