One of the distinctive styles of furniture at this period is that made by André Charles Boulle (also written Boule and Bühl). He was the son of Jean and the nephew of Pierre Boulle, both of whom were “_menuisiers du roi_” and lived in the Louvre. Our Boulle, born in 1642, also lived in the Louvre from 1672 until his death in 1732, and when Louis XIV. established his manufactory at the Gobelins he was made “_ébéniste, ciseleur, et marqueteur ordinaire du Roi_.” Boulle’s furniture is exclusively _de luxe_, or _apparat_, and only harmonizes with rich surroundings. It consists almost exclusively of consoles, _armoires_, commodes, cabinets, tables, desks and clock cases,—forms that present large surfaces for the decoration that he carried to such perfection. His designs are very heavy. Occasionally they take the curved, or _bombé_ forms. This swelling curve is especially found in the _commodes tombeaux_ (tomb-commodes) and _commodes à panse_ (paunch chests). Boulle’s furniture was an excuse for decoration, which was carried so far that even the joinings of the panels were lost beneath the clever designs of foliage, flower, or scroll. Many pieces still exist that were merely intended for show (_apparat_). Yet nothing could be richer than Boulle’s work, with its marquetry of exotic woods, its incrustations of tortoise-shell, its threads of copper or pewter beautifully engraved, its scarlet lines and its splendid gilt mascarons, handles, and bas-reliefs that form a sort of frame for the beautiful marquetry-work. Particularly handsome are the console-tables, upon whose marble slabs should stand rich vases of goldsmith work, jasper or porphyry, perhaps, with gilt mouldings and garlands; and, when these are reflected back by numerous mirrors, the effect is dazzling. “No one would refuse to admit,” says Havard, “that the architecture is the least remarkable part of the creations of this celebrated artist. His great merit independently of the perfection of the work of his _ébénisterie_, must be sought elsewhere. Boulle is a colourist in his art more than a designer. The contours of his furniture are often heavy, and he added nothing new. You may find all the elements in the immense work of Le Brun, the great master of decorative art under Louis XIV. The superiority and the originality of this cabinet-maker consists in the admirable combination of the bronze and the copper with the background of the furniture which he understood how to vary infinitely by the multiplicity of incrustations and mosaics upon the groundwork of oak and chestnut. This was his palette, from which he drew his surprising effects and on which he played with his consummate virtuosity; it is to this that he owes his legitimate renown, greater even in England that it is in France.”