Side Drawer for Cabinet (c. 1690): Art, History and Details

Side Drawer for Cabinet (c. 1690) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is André-Charles Boulle (French, 1642–1732).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Appointed cabinetmaker to King Louis XIV in 1672, André-Charles Boulle became a master of furniture making in France during the late 1600s until his death in 1732. Known primarily for his use of marquetry, in which metal patterns are inlaid into tortoiseshell then applied within the veneered surface of the furniture, Boulle established a level of quality and craftsmanship few others could achieve. As a result, his work found favor at the royal court and among other aristocrats and diplomats eager to impress the king. The inclusion of a medallion depicting Louis XIV within the bronze decoration of this chest would have identified the owner with the royal court. Often exhibiting stout architectural proportions with elegant groups of inlaid motifs such as the parrot on the central panel of this chest, Boulle’s designs are an example of the intellectual fashion for contrasting ideas, materials, and motifs.

Object facts

• Title: Side Drawer for Cabinet
• Date: c. 1690
• Creator attribution: André-Charles Boulle (French, 1642–1732)
• Culture: France, late 17th Century
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: ebony, marquetry in metal and tortoise shell
• Dimensions: Overall: 12.7 x 28.1 x 42.5 cm (5 x 11 1/16 x 16 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1949.539.k

A detail from the museum

Originally designed to sit atop an elaborate tall stand, this chest was likely altered in the late 1700s to reduce its scale and height.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “A Boulle Cabinet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 1 (January 1951): 6–10.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.