Coudes, panier à

Fr: coudes=elbows

A kind of panier of (oval) dome shape, high enoough at the sides that the wearer could rest her elbows on it (maybe not literally, but at least figuratively). It was introduced around 1730, had its high time in the 1740s and stuck around for highly formal wear until the 1770s. Some sources describe the panier à coudes as having pads on top of the sides to raise them even higher than the hoops alone would. I've never seen either painted or extant garment that would suggest the use of such additional pads underneath before the time of Marie Antoinette, and then only for court wear.