André-Charles Boulle

André-Charles Boulle (born Nov. 11, 1642, Paris, France—died Feb. 28, 1732, Paris) was one of France’s leading cabinetmakers, whose fashion of inlaying, called boulle, or buhl, work, swept Europe and was heavily imitated during the 18th and 19th centuries. Multitalented, Boulle practiced as an architect, worked in bronze and mosaic, and designed elaborate monograms.

As a young man, Boulle studied drawing, painting, and sculpture; his fame as the most skillful furniture designer in Paris led to his being chosen, in 1672, by Louis XIV to succeed Jean Macé as royal cabinetmaker at Versailles. Boulle created much of Versailles’s furniture. His masterpiece, however, was his decoration of the dauphin’s private study with flooring in wood mosaic and extraordinarily detailed paneling and marquetry (1681–83; now destroyed). Allowed to execute private commissions, he included among his patrons such eminent royalty as King Philip V of Spain, the duke of Bourbon, and the electors of Bavaria and Cologne.

Boulle’s style is characterized by elaborate adornment with brass (occasionally engraved) and tortoiseshell marquetry. Although the technique of marquetry was originally used by 16th-century Italian craftsmen, Boulle developed it to a fine art. He incorporated exotic woods from India and South America. His personal collection of master drawings, prints, and paintings, from which he extracted much of his inspiration, included works by the 15th–16th-century Italian artist Raphael, the 17th-century Flemish artist Rubens, and the 17th-century Italian engraver Stefano della Bella.

On retirement Boulle left his studio to his four sons, among whom were the notable cabinetmakers André-Charles Boulle II (died 1745) and Charles-Joseph Boulle (died 1754). His enormous art collection was destroyed by fire in 1720; his account of his loss reveals that he possessed thousands of works, not counting the pieces that had already gone to other collections. He returned to his studio, directing it until his death. In 1754 Charles-Joseph hired the brilliant German furniture designer Jean-François Oeben, from whom the Boulle tradition was inherited by Jean-Henri Riesener. His style continued with tremendous success in France during the 18th century and under Napoleon III. Such was its popularity that any piece with some copper inlay on a black or red ground came to be described as buhl.