[3] It involves veneering furniture with tortoiseshell inlaid primarily with brass and pewter in elaborate designs, often incorporating arabesques.
[4][5] The first recorded payment to Boulle by the crown, from 1669, specifies ouvrages de peinture, suggesting that he was originally a painter.
[6] Boulle was awarded the title of master cabinetmaker around 1666; in 1672[7] he received the post of Premier ébéniste du Roi[8] and was admitted to a group of skilled artists maintained by Louis XIV, in the Louvre Palace.
In 1672 Boulle received a warrant signed by the queen, giving him the added title of bronzier as well as Ebeniste du Roi.
[9] Boulle's masterpieces are now mostly in museums and have come to represent the wealth, luxury and finesse of the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King.