Versailles Bedroom Etiquette

 The Royal State Bed at Versailles

Bedroom Etiquette in the Time of Louis XV

The following illustration is given of etiquette in the time of Louis XV: In the Queen's apartment there were two chambers. One day the Queen saw a speck of dust on her bed and showed it to the Madame de Luynes, her maid of honor. The latter sent for the valet de chambre, bed-maker to the Queen, that he might show it to the valet de chambre, bed-maker to the King. 

The latter arrived at the end of an hour, but said that the dust was none of his business, because the bed-makers of the King made the common bed of the Queen, but were forbidden to touch the State Bed. Consequently the dust must be removed by the Officers of the Household. The Queen gave orders that they should be sent for, and every day for two months she asked if the dust had been brushed off, but they had not yet found out whose duty it was to remove the speck. 

Finally, the Queen took up a feather duster and brushed it off. Great was the scandal thereof, but no one dreamed of blaming the absence of the officers. They only found that the Queen had been wanting in etiquette. –The Daily Alta, 1872

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