The World of Interiors

NOWADAYS it is not uncommon for a

designer to be asked to decorate a private jet but how does this

21st-century-style luxury compare with that of the 19th for

say royal and imperial trains? In the archives of the Maison

Braquenié a model shows us in great detail how Napoleon

III’s bedchamber in one of his railway carriages might have

looked in 1868. At the height of the industrial boom when

Europe was showing off its wealth the railway represented a

revolution akin to the internet today. Trains were first used to

carry coal and then in Britain and France starting between

1825 and 1840 passengers.

In 1842 Queen Victoria sparked a craze by daring to travel

to Windsor by rail and from the 1860s onwards royals across

Europe were gripped by loco-mania. Ludwig II of Bavaria

Leopold II of Belgium and Alexander II of Russia all tried to

outdo each other with their upholstered carriages – in pearl

grey coral or peacock blue – resplendent with mirrored doors

neo-Louis XV gilded woodwork decorated with carved foliage

or putti and heavy fringed velvet curtains.

Like all monarchs Napoleon III had his toys: three trains

for three different destinations. The first dating to 1855 was

used by the emperor and Empress Eugénie to travel to the

Château de Compiègne with their guests. Financed by the

Nord Railway the train was sent to pick up Queen Victoria

and Prince Albert while they were visiting France; it com-

prised a terrace-coach with picture windows that allowed the

occupants both to be seen and applauded – and to admire

the scenery. They loved to while away the long journey by

playing the mechanical piano in the drawing room. In 1856

Napoleon III acquired another train one bankrolled by the

Paris to Orléans Railway Company. The royal family used

it to travel to Biarritz in the summertime and it once bore

the Queen of Holland to the Château de Fontainebleau. Dark

red and ultramarine and embellished with faux gilded col-

umns it was decorated in a surprisingly modern style by

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc the architect famous for designing

the interior of the Statue of Liberty. In 1857 they acquired a

third train financed by the Est Company for the sole pur-

pose of visiting the barracks in Châlons.

Made 12 years after the first 3D rendering the small blue

model seen here (and in the book Pierre Frey: Inspiring Interiors;

Frey having bought Braquenié in 1999) is a proposal for new

décor inside Napoleon’s imperial bedchamber of the train he

had acquired in 1856. The cell narrower and shorter than the

carriage itself comprises an open space with a recessed alcove

housing a bed faced by two large windows set into the far wall.

To the side is a door that would have opened onto a landing

leading to a bathroom and the empress’s chamber. The walls

and ceiling are painted with Neoclassical arabesques on eau-

de-Nil panels (the era of gold and padding was over). There

may have been some seats and pedestal tables but the style is

characterised primarily by textiles of three key types: carpets

lambrequins and bedspreads chosen by the country’s deco-

rator of the moment Félix-Alfred Ternisien.

Born in 1817 Ternisien was the son of an upholsterer who

had worked at the crown furniture store during the Bourbon

Restoration. He was therefore well versed in the customs of

the court and indeed it was he who advised Viollet-le-Duc

when the first train was decorated. Between 1850 and 1883

he placed no fewer than 260 orders with Maison Braquenié.

That fabric house was established in 1824 and Pierre Frey

recently relaunched the luxurious colourful carpets of the

period. Braquenié’s archives contain full details of the order

books including those relating to the emperor’s residences:

Saint-Cloud Compiègne the Tuileries Biarritz and Fontaine-

bleau and also the hunting lodges trains and railway stations

(since special carpets and hangings were needed when their

majesties and guests reached their destination).

With their ‘crimson velvet’ ‘jasper cameos’ ‘Byzantine or

Turkish velvet repp’ and ‘Pompadours’ or ‘Monte Christo’

velvet the orders bring to mind the splendour of fashion

houses. The model carriage measuring 36 × 21 × 21cm was

among all these papers. It was accompanied by a small file

entitled ‘Emperor’s carriage: change to the alcove’ which was

sent to Braquenié by Ternisien and illustrated by Paullet &

Trétel – as well as the original model of 1856 paid for by the

PLM Railway Company. There are several gouache pencil

and ink drawings with annotations written by the decorator

corresponding to the various elements. Beside a carpet design

slightly different from the one that appears on the small orig-

inal model Ternisien writes in lovely old-fashioned French:

‘Perhaps the cameos ought to be arranged with the head on

the side of the train window’. On the subject of the quilts he

mentions that ‘as I do not have the pattern I can only give an

approximate indication of the curve... if there are fringes a

ribbon border may be appropriate’. The torn and yellowed

pages of this collection also feature architectural plans giving

explanations of the corridors windows loos and landings.

Stems of wild white eglantine roses against a blue back-

ground friezes depicting bees weaving between pink ribbons

on blue upholstery silk... these were the things proposed prior

to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and Napoleon’s subse-

quent capture and exile. And there is no evidence that the new

décor was implemented despite the fact that all of the items

were indeed made and paid for by Ternisien having been

financed by the railway company. Perhaps the ‘Emperor’s

house’ preferred to keep Viollet-le-Duc’s original scheme

even though after 12 years it had gone out of fashion.

Times were changing and luxury train travel was no longer

the preserve of monarchs. The Orient Express to Istanbul and

the Blue Train to the Côte d’Azur soon banished royal frippery.

In keeping with the move to a republic came a different style of

décor one predicated less on social rank – in this new world of

glamour what counted above all else were fame and money.

However Victoria who had been the first monarch to as-

sociate herself with the railways would also be the last to do

so; she continued until 1899 aged 80 travelling across France

under the name of Lady Balmoral in her 110m-long train. Its

seven carriages and two wagons chuffed along at a speed of

50km per hour towards the Côte d’Azur where a red carpet

and a specially decorated station would await her.

It was likewise in his imperial train lined with goatskin that

Nicholas II signed his abdication on the way from Moscow to

Tsarskoye Selo amid the vast expanses of white snow – snow

that would soon be ploughed through by the armoured train

that brought Lenin back to Russia from Switzerland. Nothing

is known about that train’s interior décor $

‘Pierre Frey: Inspiring Interiors – A French Tradition of Luxury’ by

Serge Gleizes Philippe Garcia and Caroline Levesque is published

by Stewart Tabori & Chang rrp £ 32

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