(French; rock work)
In Western architecture and decorative arts, an 18th-century style featuring elaborately stylized shell-like, rocklike, flower, fern, and scroll motifs.
Originally designating the fanciful shellwork of artificial grottoes, rocaille came to be synonymous with Louis XV style . It is most often found in small pieces of furniture and such personal articles as snuffboxes. The term "Rococo" combines "rocaille" and "barocco" (Baroque).