Boulle was an artist of great excellence as a sculptor and chaser of metals; his mountings of foliage and masks which decorated his works are spirited in design and are skilfully chased and finished (Fig. 243). He executed a great number of costly pieces of his famous marquetry for Louis XIV. and the Dauphin of France, many of which found their way to England a century later. Examples of Boulle work fetch great prices when, as on rare occasions, they make their appearance in a sale. For instance, two armoires, or large cabinets, were sold at the sale of the Duke of Hamilton’s Collection in 1882 for the sum of £12,075. The armoire (Fig. 244) now in the Jones Collection at South Kensington, is perhaps the finest piece of Boulle furniture in England. It is much finer and better designed than the Hamilton cabinets, and would probably, if now sold, fetch the above sum, or more, that was paid for these cabinets. It appears likely, from the style of the ornament, that it was designed by Berain. After the death of Boulle his four sons carried on the making of this celebrated marquetry, but in a coarser and feebler style of design and of inferior workmanship. Other ébénistes tried to imitate Boulle work, but their efforts were not very successful, and were only inferior imitations. In Germany in the seventeenth century, the most prominent names as designers and makers of furniture are Philip Heinhofer, Baumgartner, and Hans Schwanhard. The former was the maker of the celebrated Pomeranian Cabinet (1611-1617) which is now in the Royal Museum at Berlin. [Illustration: Fig. 243.—Boulle Cabinet. (S.K.M.)] In this century, in Italy, Andrea Brustolone (1670-1732) was noted as a carver, gilder, and cabinet-maker who worked in the extravagant style of the Louis Quinze (Louis XV.), and in the first half of the eighteenth century (1700-77) Pifetti, a Piedmontese cabinet-maker, was honoured by the Italian Court, for which he executed many works in ivory carving and marquetry work in the style of Boulle. Many other cabinet-makers and carvers were employed to make furniture and to decorate the queen’s palace at Turin, among whom may be mentioned the names of Galleti, the successor of Pifetti, and Maggiolino of Milan, who chiefly made a kind of marquetry in light woods. We are indebted to Mr. J. H. Pollen’s handbook on furniture for some of these names, and a list of many others will be found at the end of his useful book. [Illustration: Fig. 244.—Boulle Cabinet or Armoire. (S.K.M.)]