Napoleon III Blackened Wood Base In Marquetry In The Taste Of Boulle

This rectangular, curved base in blackened wood was made in the second half of the 19th century. It was most certainly a pendulum bottom. It is adorned on its front face with a brass mascaron of the god Bacchus and in its lower curved part with two flowers also in brass marking the heart of the volutes. These ornaments are positioned around a decoration featuring the famous Boulle marquetry. This marquetry technique combining wood and metal to produce interlacing and arabesque designs takes its name from André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), master cabinetmaker to King Louis XIV, who made it famous. Very fashionable at the end of the 17th century, it experienced a revival under the Second Empire, a period during which many cabinetmakers created a variety of furniture using this marquetry technique. The sides of the base are much more sober and simply adorned with brass elements showing a face in an intermingling of ribbon and acanthus leaves framed by a brass net.