During the reigns of Louis XIV. and XV. the principal merit of carved design, i.e. its appropriateness and suitability, gradually disappeared. Furniture was often carved in a way hardly legitimate. The legs, the rails of tables and chairs, the frames of cabinets, of looking-glasses, instead of being first made fcr construction and strength. and then decorated, were first designed to carry cherubs heads and rococo (i.e. rock and shell ornament), quite regardless of utility or convenience. A wealth of such mistaken design was also applied to state carriages, to say nothing of bedsteads and other furniture. However, the wall paneling of the mansions of the rich, and sometimes the paneling of furniture, was decorated with rococo design in its least illegitimate form. The main part of the wood surface would be left plain, while the center would be carved with a medallion surrounded by foliage, vases or trophies of torches and musical instruments, etc., or perhaps the upper part of the panel would be thus treated. France led the fashion, which was more or less followed all over Europe. In England gilt chairs in the style of Louis XV. were made in some quantities. But Thomas Chippendale, Ince and Mayhew, Sheraton, Johnson, Heppelwhite and other cabinet-makers did not as a rule use much carving in their designs. Scrolls, shells, ribbon, ears of corn, etc., in very fine relief, were, however, used in the embellishment of chairs, etc., and the claw and ball foot was employed as a termination to the cabriole legs of cabinets and other furniture.