Table in Boulle style

Boulle is a decorative furniture style named after the French master André-Charles Boulle.The technique of decorating furniture facades by means of inlay was known earlier (it was widely used by Dutch craftsmen), but it was Boulle who brought it to absolute perfection. Boulles cabinets and dressers with the richest inlaid facades of brass, gilded bronze, turtle shell plates, horns, etc., corresponded to the tastes of the era of the French king Louis XIV.André Charles Boulle is the man who became the founder of one of the most widespread and lavish furniture design styles. By origin, this man was a Flemish, who inherited the craft of his father and achieved quite good results in his business. André lived from 1642 to 1732, and during this time he became known as one of the best blackwoods in France of all time. It is worth noting that it was Boulle hundred who was the first to inlay furniture using the legendary pique technique.The Boulle technique involves the use of various exotic materials. Ivory, metal, tortoise shell, ebony. When creating the boule marquetry, a drawing was first created. The wood used for decoration, such as ebony, was cut into thin veneer planks as a decorative surface. The tortoiseshell was made flat. Usually the shell of the Hawkshill turtle was used, which softens in hot water and takes the desired shape under pressure. The turtle was then polished and sometimes tinted on the inside to give it some shade. All other materials were also first flattened according to the same principle, then cut into plates of the required size.Tortoiseshell plates were folded with a thin metal plate, usually brass or tin alloy, and placed between two sheets of wood like a sandwich. All layers were glued together. The pattern was applied to one side of the "sandwich", and the pattern was cut with a jigsaw through all layers of wood, metal and turtle.