The Louis XIV style

The aegis of Charles Le Brun, who decorated the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, and Colbert, who purchased, on behalf of the Crown, the Gobelins factory in 1662, and organized there, under the name Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne, the production of furniture intended for the royal households.

Boulle's work testifies to the excellence of craftsmanship and cabinetmaking during the reign of Louis XIV. By adopting Le Brun's ideal style and drawing on the classical repertoire, he created furniture imbued with the grandeur that characterized the French 17th century.

This famous craftsman also gave his name to the technique he developed, namely a particular type of marquetry composed of brass tortoise shell, enamels and ivory. The play of light on the surface, combined with the great variety of shapes and curves of the furniture produced using this technique, allows the richness of the materials used to be admirably highlighted. Cabinets, wardrobes, flat desks, wedding chests on legs – from which the jewelry holder derives –, chests of drawers, clocks, sheaths and mirrors, are the usual supports of the Boulle technique, considered the most perfect expression of the Louis XIV style.

The admirable unity existing between the gilded bronzes and the marquetry has never been surpassed. At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, Boulle compositions were often imbued with the style of the great ornamentalist Jean Bérain who, together with Pierre Lepautre, brought a new liveliness to the decorative arts, freeing them from the solemn classicism of Le Brun, and opened the way towards the Regency style.

No type of furniture better personifies the characteristics of Louis XIV and the period than the severe upholstered armchair, imposing in its still strength. Several elements contribute to the impression of grandeur that emerges from it, notably its rectangular backrest, slightly inclined, entirely covered in fabric and excessively high, its wide seat, its armrests ending in a volute and its legs solidly linked by a heavy H or Their four large uprights (poster bed) serve as support for the fabrics and the numerous curtains which are all guarantees against the cold and drafts.

Given that beds were considered the most important external sign of wealth, the choice of fabrics often bordered on extravagance. Under the reign of the Bourbons, consoles and other carved and gilded tables with their marble tops undoubtedly became the favored pieces of furniture in terms of decorative richness.

Large pedestal tables in finely carved and sometimes gilded wood, also called torchières, were often designed as a suite with gilded consoles and mirrors. The basic model consists of a circular top, a central shaft and a generally tripod base.

However, of all the pieces of furniture introduced at this time, it is the chest of drawers which is destined for the most brilliant career. Created in the 1690s, it is generally designed with three or two rows of drawers. The large Louis XIV cabinets, also rectangular in plan, equipped with two imposing leaves, are topped with a protruding cornice, almost always horizontal and presenting complex moldings.

In the last years of the 17th century, the Louis XIV style quickly ran out of steam and gave way to the germ of a new style, as evidenced by the work of ornamentalists like Jean Bérain under the influence of the nascent rococo, and which had already established itself considerably before the death of the great morque in 1715.