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BOULLE, ANDRE CHARLES (1642–1732)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 323 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOULLE, See also:ANDRE See also:CHARLES (1642–1732) , See also:French See also:cabinet-maker, who gave his name to a See also:fashion of See also:inlaying known as Boulle or Buhl See also:work. The son of See also:Jean Boulle, a member of a See also:family of ebenistes who had already achieved distinction—Pierre Boulle, who died c. 1636, was for many years See also:tourneur et menuisier du See also:roy See also:des cabinets d'ebene,—he became the most famous of his name and was, indeed, the second cabinet-maker—the first was Jean Mace—who has acquired individual renown. That must have begun at a comparatively See also:early See also:age, for at See also:thirty he had already been granted one of those lodgings in the galleries of the Louvre which had been set apart by See also:Henry IV. for the use of the II most talented of the artists employed by the See also:crown. To be admitted to these galleries was not only to receive a See also:signal See also:mark of royal favour, but to enjoy the important See also:privilege of freedom from the trammels of the See also:trade See also:gilds. Boulle was given the deceased Jean See also:Mace's own lodging in 1672 by See also:Louis XIV. upon the recommendation of See also:Colbert, who described him as " le plus ha bile ebeniste de See also:Paris," but in the patent conferring this privilege he is described also as " chaser, See also:gilder and maker of marqueterie." Boulle appears to have been originally a painter, since the first See also:payment to him by the crown of which there is any See also:record (1669) specifies " ouvrages de peinture." He was employed for many years at See also:Versailles, where the mirrored walls, the floors of " See also:wood See also:mosaic,'•' the inlaid panelling and the pieces in marqueterie in the Cabinet du Dauphin were regarded as his most remarkable work. These rooms were See also:long since dismantled and their contents dispersed, but Boulle's drawings for the work are in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. His royal commissions were, indeed, innumerable, as we learn both from the Comptes des bdtiments and from the See also:correspondence of See also:Louvois. Not only the most magnificent of French monarchs, but See also:foreign princes and the See also:great nobles and financiers of his own See also:country crowded him with commissions, and the mot of the See also:abbe de Marolles, "Boulle y tourne en ovale," has become a stock See also:quotation in the literature of French cabinet-making. Yet despite his distinction, the facility with which he worked, the high prices he obtained, and his workshops full of See also:clever craftsmen, Boulle appears to have been constantly See also:short of See also:money. He did not always pay his workmen, clients who had made considerable advances failed to obtain the See also:fine things they had ordered, more than one application was made for permission to See also:arrest him for See also:debt under orders of the courts within the See also:asylum of the Louvre, and in 1704 we find the See also:king giving him six months' See also:protection from his creditors on See also:condition that he used the See also:time to regulate his affairs or " ce sera la derniere See also:grace que sa majeste lui fera la-dessus." Twenty years later one of his sons was arrested at See also:Fontainebleau and kept in See also:prison for debt until the king had him released. In 1720 his finances were still further embarrassed by a See also:fire which, beginning in another atelier, extended to his twenty workshops and destroyed most of the seasoned materials, appliances, See also:models and finished work of which they were full.

The See also:

salvage was sold and a See also:petition for pecuniary help was sent to the See also:regent, the result of which does not appetr. It would seem that Boulle was never a See also:good See also:man of business, but, according to his friend See also:Mariette, many of his pecuniary difficulties were caused by his See also:passion for See also:collecting pictures, engravings and other See also:objects of art—the See also:inventory of his losses in the fire, which exceeded £40,000 in amount, enumerates many old masters, including See also:forty-eight drawings by See also:Raphael and the See also:manuscript See also:journal kept by See also:Rubens in See also:Italy. He attended every See also:sale of drawings and engravings, borrowed at high See also:interest to pay for his purchases, and when the next sale took See also:place, fresh expedients were devised for obtaining more money. Collecting was to Boulle a See also:mania of which, says his friend, it was impossible to cure him. Thu's he died in 1732, full of fame, years and debts. He See also:left four sons who followed in his footsteps in more senses than one—Jean Philippe (See also:born before 169o, dead before 1745), See also:Pierre See also:Benoit (d. 1741), Charles Andre (1685–1749) and Charles See also:Joseph (1688–1954). Their affairs were embarrassed throughout their lives, and the three last are known to have died in debt. All greatness is the product of its opportunities, and.the See also:elder Boulle was made by the happy circumstances of his time. He was born into a See also:France which was just entering upon the most brilliant See also:period of sumptuary magnificence which any nation has known in See also:modern times. Louis XIV., so avid of the delights of the See also:eye, by the reckless extravagance of his example turned the thoughts of his courtiers to domestic splendours which had hitherto been rare. The spacious palaces which arose in his time needed See also:rich embellishment, and Boulle, who had not only inherited the rather flamboyant See also:Italian traditions of the See also:late See also:Renaissance, but had ebenisterie in his See also:blood, arose, as some such man invariably does arise, to gratify tastes in which See also:personal See also:pride and love of See also:art were not unequally intermingled.

He wasby no means the first Frenchman to practise the delightful art of marqueterie, nor was he quite the inventor of the See also:

peculiar type of inlay which is chiefly associated with his name; but no artist, before or since, has used these motives with such astonishing skill, courage and See also:surety. He produced pieces of monumental solidity blazing with harmonious See also:colour, or gleaming with the sober and dignified reticence of See also:ebony, See also:ivory and See also:white See also:metal. The Renaissance artists chiefly employed wood in making See also:furniture, ornamenting it with See also:gilding and See also:painting, and inlaying it with See also:agate, cornelian, lapis-lazuli, See also:marble of various tints, ivory, See also:tortoise-See also:shell, See also:mother-of-See also:pearl and various See also:woods. Boulle improved upon this by inlaying See also:brass devices into wood or tortoise-shell, which last he greatly used according to the See also:design he had immediately in view, whether See also:flowers, scenes, scrolls, &c.; to these he sometimes added enamelled metal. Indeed the use of tortoise-shell became so characteristic that any furniture, however cheap and See also:common, which has a reddish fond that might by the ignorant be mistaken for inlay, is now described as " Buhl "—the name is the invention of the See also:British auctioneer and furniture-maker. In this See also:process the brass is thin, and, like the ornamental wood or tortoise-shell, forms a See also:veneer. In the first instance the See also:production of his work was costly, owing to the quantity of valuable material that was cut away and wasted, and, in addition, the labour lost in separately cutting for each See also:article or copy of a See also:pattern. By a subsequent improvement Boulle effected an See also:economy by gluing together various sheets of material and sawing through the whole, so that an equal number of figures and matrices were produced at one operation. Boulle adopted from time to time various plans for the improvement of his designs. He placed See also:gold-See also:leaf or other suitable material under the tortoise-shell to produce such effect as he required; he chased the brass-work with a graver for a like purpose, and, when the metal required to be fastened down with brass pins or nails, these were hammered See also:flat and disguised by ornamental See also:chasing. He also adopted, in See also:relief or in the See also:round, brass feet, brackets, edgings, and other ornaments of appropriate design, partly to protect the corners and edges of his work, and partly for decoration. He subsequently used other brass mountings, such as claw-feet to pedestals, or figures in high or See also:low relief, according to the effect he desired to produce.

These mounts in the pieces that undoubtedly come from Boulle's atelier are nearly always of the greatest excellence. They were See also:

cast in the rough—the tools of the chaser gave them their sharpness, their See also:minute finish, their See also:jewel-like smoothness. Unhappily it is by no means easy, even for the See also:expert, to declare the authenticity of a commode, a See also:bureau, or a table in the manner of Boulle and to all See also:appearance from his workshops. His sons unquestionably carried on the traditions for some years after his See also:death, and his imitators were many and capable. A few of the more magnificent See also:pedigree-pieces are among the See also:world's mobiliary treasures. There are, for instance, the two famous armoires, which fetched £52,075 at the See also:Hamilton See also:Palace sale; the marqueterie commodes, enriched with See also:bronze mounts, in the Bibliotheque Mazarine; various cabinets and commodes and tables in the Louvre, the Musee See also:Cluny and the Mobilier See also:National; the See also:marriage coffers of the dauphin which were in the See also:San Donato collection. There are several fine authenticated pieces in the See also:Wallace collection at See also:Hertford See also:House, together with others consummately imitated, probably in the Louis Seize period. On the rare occasions when a pedigree example comes into the See also:auction-See also:room, it invariably commands a high See also: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. The truth is that this wonderful work, with its engraved or inlaid designs of See also:Berain; its myriads of tiny pieces of ivory and See also:copper, ebony and tortoise-shell, all kept together with See also:glue and tiny chased nails, and applied very often to a rather soft, white wood, is not meet to withstand the ravages of time and the See also:variations of the See also:atmosphere. Alternate See also:heat and humidity are even greater enemies of inlaid furniture than time and wear—such delicate things are rarely much used, and are protected from See also:ordinary chances of deterioration. There is consequently See also:reason to rejoice when a piece of real artistry in furniture finds its final See also:home in a museum, where a degree of warmth is maintained which, however distressing it may be to the visitor, at least preserves the contents from one of the worst enemies of the See also:collector. (J.

End of Article: BOULLE, ANDRE CHARLES (1642–1732)

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