Category: FRENCH FURNITURE MAKERS

BOULLE S CLIENTS

In the only two legal documents to have survived con­cerning Boulle’s workshop (the deed of gift, or ‘acle dc delaissement’ to his sons and the inventory taken after his death in 1732) the various items described are linked to the names of those who ordered them, thus enabling us to distinguish his principal clients. These […]

BOULLE

1642-1732; EBENISTE. CISELEUR. IX)REUR ETSCULPTEUR DU ROI 1672-1732 B orn in Paris in 1642. Andre-Charles Boulle was a member of a family originally from Guelder – land in the Netherlands. His father, who for a long time signed his name ‘Jean Bolt’, was himself a ‘menuisier en ebene’ who settled in about 1653 on the […]

OPPENORDT

c. 1639-1715: ЁВЁЫЕГГЕ ORDINAIRE DU ROI B orn in the Netherlands in 1639, Oppenordt was the son of Henri Oppen Oordt and Marie Tendart. He established himself in Paris at the beginning of Louis XIV’s reign and worked in the privileged quarter of the Temple, the area where ebenistes not yet become master could practise […]

CUCCPS ASSISTANTS

In his guide to Paris of 1706. Germain Brice writes of the pietra-dura workshop at the Gobelins: ‘In the great courtyard close to the silversmiths’ workshops are to be found the workshops formerly run by Branchier and Ferdinand de Meliori who were brought from Italy to work on marquetry which demands much time and expense.’ […]

GUCCI

BEFORE 1640-1705; EBENISTE AND CASTER IN THE SERVICE OF THE KING; ACTIVE 1660-98 T he name was written in a number of ways; Gucci. Cuccy. de Cussy. Cussi or Cucy. Orig­inally from Todi near Rome. Gucci is known to have received his training as an ebeniste in Italy before coming to Paris where he is […]

FURNISHING OF THE GRANDS CABINETS FOR THE CROWN AND COLLABORATION AT THE GOBELINS

In 1663 Gole completed two sumptuous cabinets ordered by Mazarin in his will as a present worthy of the King, and which give the measure of Gole’s reputation. These cabinets, designed in ebony and gilt bronze, after drawings by Le Brun, incorporated five niches with allegorical figures separated by columns of polychrome marble, and surmounted […]