André-Charles Boulle

André-Charles Boulle (11 November 1642 – 29 February 1732),[1] le joailler du meuble (the "furniture jeweller"),[2] became the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry,[3] also known as "inlay".

[5] Jean-Baptiste Colbert (29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) recommended him to Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King" (r. 1643–1715), as "the most skilled craftsman in his profession".

The first is that foreign artists flocking to the Sun King's Court were keen to be naturalised French subjects to 'fit in' and would, like Jean-Baptiste Lully the Royal Musician (28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687), have changed their names.

Within the context of the times, it is natural to expect that as well as ensuring his father's Catholic name was recorded for posterity, André-Charles Boulle 'tidied' up his own place and date of birth.

André-Charles Boulle's Protestant family environment was a rich and artistic milieu totally consistent with the genius of the Art he was to produce in later years.

[20] There is virtually nothing on André-Charles Boulle's youth, upbringing or training apart from a solitary Notarial Act dated 19 July 1666 (when he was supposedly 24 years old) agreeing a 5-year apprentice's contract for a 17-year-old nephew, François Delaleau, Master Carpenter from L'Abbaye des Celestins de Marcoussis in Paris.

[22] In 1672, by the age of 30, Boulle had already been granted lodgings in the galleries of the Louvre which Louis XIV had set apart for the use of the most favoured among the artists employed by the Crown.

This may explain a sense of 'missed vocation' and resultant 'passion' and utter dedication to the collection of prints and paintings, which nearly ruined him…[25] The first payment on record to him by the crown (1669) specifies ouvrages de peinture and Boulle was employed for years on end at the Versailles, where the mirrored walls, floors of wood mosaic, inlaid paneling and marquetry in the Cabinet du Dauphin (1682–1686) came to be regarded by such as Jean-Aimar Piganiol de La Force ( 21 September 1669 – 10 January 1753 )[26] as his most remarkable work.

[27] Boulle carried out numerous royal commissions for the "Sun King", as can be seen from the records of the Bâtiments du Roi and correspondence of the marquis de Louvois.

Williams writes, "There was no limit to the prices a reckless and profligate court was willing to pay for luxurious beauty during the sumptuous, extravagant reign of Louis the Magnificent of France.

"[28] Boulle's output from, at one time, three workshops included commodes, bureaux, armoires, pedestals, clockcases and lighting-fixtures, richly mounted with gilt-bronze that he modelled himself.

Living beyond his means seems to have been a family trait as history repeated itself, twenty years later, when one of his sons was arrested at Fontainebleau and actually imprisoned until King Louis XV had him released.

[23] In 1720, Boulle's shaky finances were dealt a further blow by a fire which began in an adjoining atelier and spread to his workshop in the Place du Louvre (one of three he maintained[24]), completely destroying twenty workbenches and the various tools of eighteen ébénistes, two menuisiers as well as most of the precious seasoned wood, appliances, models, and finished works of art.

According to Boulle's friend, Pierre-Jean Mariette, many of his pecuniary problems were indeed as a direct result of his obsession for collecting and hoarding pictures, engravings, and other art objects.

The inventory of his losses in this fire exceeded 40,000 livres, included many old Masters, not to mention 48 drawings by Raphael, wax models by Michelangelo and the manuscript journal kept by Rubens in Italy.

The initial processing of tortoiseshell involves separating the layers of the scutes from the animal's carapace by heating, and softening the plates by boiling them, in salt water, and thereafter flattening them under a press.

[34][35] Henri IV established the privileged status for the artists in 1608 in a lettre patente (royal decree) in which he stated his express purpose of encouraging the flourishing of the arts in France through a sort of cross-pollenisation and co-operation.

The system was very important to André Charles Boulle who was granted the prestige of a workshop in 1672, the same year he was named ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur du roi (cabinet maker, chaser, gilder to the King) by Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche (1638–1683), Louis XIV's wife and Queen.

(Jean Nérée Ronfort, exhibition catalogue) In addition, the lack of guild control allowed Boulle, who was also trained as a sculptor, to create and cast his own gilt bronze mounts for his furniture.

Boulle also created objects purely in gilt-bronze such as chandeliers, clocks, firedogs, wall lights among others, which contributed greatly to his fame.

Unhappily it is by no means easy, even for the expert, to declare the authenticity of a commode, a bureau, or a table in the manner of Boulle and to all appearance from his workshops.

Had Boulle used the royal wardrobe, the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne to identify and record his output, things might have turned out differently.

[38] Of his many Royal commissions, only a pair of commodes delivered in 1708 and 1709 to the King at the Grand Trianon can be securely linked to any sort of documentation to confirm provenance.

On the rare occasions when a pedigree example comes into the auction room, it invariably commands a high price; but there can be little doubt that the most splendid and sumptuous specimens of Boulle are diminishing in number, while the second and third classes of his work are perhaps becoming more numerous.

"[42] The design proved to be popular, although criticized for being awkward meaning, particularly because four extra spiral legs that were required to support the weight of the bronze and marble.

However, due to the volume of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century imitations, as well as the fact that Boulle did not sign his work, it can be difficult to definitively credit pieces to the maker.