In the illustration (p. 159) it will be seen that the chair of the period of Louis Treize differed in no great respects from the furniture under the early Stuarts in this country. This design is by the celebrated Crispin de Passe, and the date is when Charles I. raised his standard at Nottingham, a year prior to the birth of Louis XIV. [Illustration: CHAIR OF PERIOD OF LOUIS XIII. DESIGNED BY CRISPIN DE PASSE, 1642.] During the reign of Louis XIV., tables, armoires, and cabinets were designed on architectural principles. Under the guiding influence of Colbert, Minister of Finance, architects and cabinetmakers were selected to design furniture for the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Fontainebleau. In the early years of the reign furniture was made with severe lines, but gradually it became the practice to fashion larger pieces. Immense tables with sumptuous decoration, on gilded claw-feet, and having tops inlaid with _pietra-dura_ intended to carry bronze groups and porphyry vases, were made at the Gobelins factory, under the direction of the celebrated Le Brun. This artist loved grandeur and gorgeousness in decoration, and in accord with the personal ideas of Louis XIV., who had an inordinate love for perfect symmetry, huge pieces of furniture were built in magnificent manner to please the taste of the _Grande Monarque_. Men of genius were employed in the manufacture of tapestries, of furniture, and of metal mountings, and the interior decorations of the palaces were designed in harmony with the furniture intended for use therein. The most illustrious among the cabinetmakers was Andre Charles Boule, who was made, in 1673, by letters patent, _Premier ebeniste de la maison royale_. The work of this artist in wood has attained a worldwide celebrity, and his name even has been corrupted into "buhl" to denote a particular class of work which he perfected. His most notable productions are the finely chased ormolu, in which he was an accomplished worker, and the inlay of tortoiseshell and brass, sometimes varied with ebony or silver, which have remained the wonder of succeeding generations. Boule was born in 1642, and lived till 1732. The first Boule, termed "_Le Pere_," he was succeeded by no less than four sons and nephews of the same name, in addition to his pupils who carried on his traditions at the Boule _atelier_, and a crowd of later imitators, even up to the present day, have followed his style in lavish decoration without being possessed of his skill. In Italy and in France marquetry of considerable delicacy and of fine effect had been produced long before the epoch of Louis XIV., but it was Boule who introduced a novelty into marquetry by his veneered work, which rapidly grew into favour till it developed into cruder colouring in inlays and unbridled licence in ornamentation, to which its originator would never have given countenance.