Getty Museum
Pair of Gueridons
Creator
André-Charles BoulleFrench Artist · 1642–1732
All works by this person →Christened by his contemporaries as "the most skillful artisan in Paris," André-Charles Boulle's name is synonymous with the practice of veneering furniture with marquetry of tortoiseshell, pewter, and brass. Although he did not invent the technique, Boulle was its greatest practitioner and lent his name to its common name: boulle work. Boulle also specialized in floral marquetry in both stained a
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1680
- Medium
- Oak veneered with ebony, tortoise shell, blue painted horn, brass, and pewter, and set with gilt bronze mounts
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Decorative Arts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 50833bb8-7fe9-4e99-9cd7-0d4b5c4703ce
From the Getty Museum record
Standing on either side of a table or cabinet with matching ebony, tortoiseshell, pewter, and brass decoration, these stands, known as *gueridons* or *torchères,* would have supported candelabra. Many elements of the design, such as the gilt bronze ram's heads and masks, appear in both the drawings and engravings of the celebrated *ébéniste* André-Charles Boulle, who worked in the late 1600s in Paris. The 1777 sales catalogue of the French politician and financier Louis-Randon de Boisset describes stands of exactly the same height and unusual form. De Boisset's sale was one of the largest held in Paris in the 1700s. His collection, which included at least 230 paintings and fifty pieces of furniture by Boulle, sold for a record sum of 1,320,149 *livres.*
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