boulle marquetry
lt was duringthe reign of louis xiv that andre'-charles boulle perfected the technique that bears his name marquerry 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