Chamber of the Golden Plates

Madame Adélaïde used this particular room as her interior cabinet and was a part of the so-called Petite Galerie that had previously occupied this room. The room still has traces of the original décor used to decorate the Petite Galerie. The cornice and the pilasters are examples of the these traces - there was applied new woodwork to the window frames between 1753-1767. Madame Adélaïde's personal taste shines through in the décor done by Verbeckt who decorated the panels with trophies of musical instruments and gardening tools.

This room has witnessed many exciting events. Madame Adélaïde would study Italian and practised her harpsichord here with her personal tutor. It is almost completely certain that the royal family received a private performance from Mozart here when he visited Versailles in December 1763. The room takes its name from the purpose it served during Louis XV. He would drink his coffee in this room (you have to remember that coffee was far more of a luxury then than it is now) and he used this room to display his golden plates - hence the name. A bust of Louis XV on the mantelpiece serves as a reminder of the King. Louis XVI added a mahogany cabinet with ebony details to this room. The beautiful cabinet is decorated with patterns of bird feathers and butterfly wings. Louis XVI also owned the two Sèvres plaques now exhibited in the room but the King used to keep these plaques in his interior cabinet.

Ebony/mahogany cabinet of Louis XVI - the drawers are decorated with porcelain plates
with butterfly wings and bird feathers