BUHL FURNITURE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 22

BUHL FURNITURE

THE "SHERATON'’ OF FRANCE

Underlying several of the famous furniture styles are to be found stories of tragedy. The life and death of Thomas Sheraton find a parallel in the story of one of France’s greatest furniture designers, Andre Charles Boulle, whose work is generally known as Bulil furniture.

Boulle has been called the Sheraton of France on account of the similarity of theii experiences, if not of their work. He was one of the most prominent men of furniture in the reign of Louis XIV, and was a contemporary of such great furniture designers as Charles Le Brun, Jean Berain, Jean Le Pautre. and Daniel Marot. Indeed, both Berain and Marot were employed by the great Andre Charles Boulle at the Royal Furniture Factory at Gobelins founded by Louis XIV, and which has given the name of Gobelins to a famous type of tapestry. Boulle, like Thomas Sheraton, ended his'' days in the direst of poverty. Indeed, so great was his need that he was forced to adopt the shadiest tactics in order to obtain the necessary money for his living expenses. His misfortune was, to a certain extent, due to the act of an incendiary, who burned down Boulle’s workshops and storerooms, in which were lying a vast amount of the most valuable and ar. tistic furniture. Boulle himself, writing of this disastrous fire says: “All that could be done was to bear away the few things closest to hand, leaving all else to be destroyed.” He died at a very old age, “having,” as the records state, “exhausted the patience of his patrons and suffered every indignity of tlie insolvent.”

This tragic history is all the mote surprising since, like Sheraton once more, he gave to the world some of the finest and most artistic furniture that it has ever known The fact that Boulle, or Buhl, furniture is so greatly appreciated to-day and fetches such vast sums of money in the salerooms speaks for itself The greatest feature of his work was the introduction of valuable materials for the purpose of decoration. The

Buhl style, which was continued after Boulle’s' death by his sons, was not a newly patented process, but was rather an old mode brought to complete perfection. Tortoiseshell, and copper were used in the decoration ot ebony cabinet work, and although this treatment was evolved many years before the time of Boulle, yet it was he who perfected the scheme and made it famous throughout the world. The Boulle method ot making marquetry was to glue together two or three thicknesses of copper, ebony and tortoiseshell and saw them through in the desired pattern. Molinier states that “when the sheets are detached one has >n hand, should cojTpcr and inlaving tortoiseshell have been employed, two decorative patterns and two ground’s for inlaying—that is to say, the sheets of shell or copper out of which the patterns have been cut. The next step is to insert the copper pattern in the shell ground .and the shell pattern in the copper ground. Two panels arc thus obtained, totally different in aspect, absolutely alike in pattern.” The two parts are called the “boulle” and the “counter.” They are wellknown features of the Buhl cabinet work, and some very fine examples are still in existence. The marquetry inlay work, however, is very perishable in nature, and therefore the existing specimens cannot to-day ■ be seen in perfection. There are many examples of Buhl work to be seen to-day which are not, however, executed by Andre Charles Boulle himself. They are the work of imitators, who have copied Boulle’s work so cleverly that experts have often been deceived. Among the finest efforts of Boulle are the specimens that are to be seen in the Palace of Versailles. This great work was completed towards the end of the reign-of Louis XIV, and it naturally opened great opportunities for rhe master cabinetmakers and upholsterers of that time. Even in its present form of galleries some of the work is still to be seen.—L. Lin the “Manchester Guardian.”