Boulle marquetry is a form of decorative veneer in which sheets of tortoiseshell and brass, sometimes with pewter, horn or other materials, are cut together into intricate patterns and inlaid into one another. It takes its name from André-Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker to Louis XIV, who brought the technique to its highest level of refinement in Paris in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
In the technique, a sheet of brass and a sheet of tortoiseshell are clamped together and the design is cut through both at once. This produces two sets of panels: première partie, with brass designs on a tortoiseshell ground, and contre-partie, with tortoiseshell on brass, often used as matching pairs. The shell was frequently backed with red or other coloured pigment to enrich its colour, and pieces were finished with gilt-bronze mounts. Boulle work was revived in France and England in the Regency and especially during the nineteenth century, when much was produced for the luxury market. Collectors examine the quality of cutting and engraving, the condition of lifting brass, and the originality of mounts. Restoration is specialised and demanding, and trade in tortoiseshell is restricted by CITES regulations, which affects export and sale.
