boulle marquetry
lt was duringthe reign of louis xiv that andre'-charles boulle perfected the technique that bears his name marquetry in brass and tortoiseshell.the technique was brought to france by ltalian craftsman in the service of mariade' medici and consisted of gluing together a sheet of brass and a sheet of tortoiseshell and then sawing out a shape to a predetermined desing. the sheets were then separated and fitted together so that the convex and concave curves matched perfectly.in this way two effects were produced premiere partie in which the brighter brass shape stands out against the dark tortoiseshell background and achieve evenmore impressive effects' would dye the tortoiseshell or combine it with inlays of tin' mother-of-pearl and horn dyed red' green or bbule.boulle himself tried further variations' for exsmple by laminating brass silver tortoiseshell or other materials and cutting ont the patterns thus creating a troisieme effet.