COMMISSION’S FOR VERSAILLES
From 1670 to 1680 Gole was almost entirely concerned with works for Versailles, which was in the process of becoming the King’s principal residence. They were mainly tables in walnut or floral marquetry. The six tables delivered in 1679, as well as the twenty-three others delivered in 1682 at the time of the King’s move to Versailles, were decorated on the top with a central motif of a vase or bouquet of flowers on an ebony or cedar ground. The legs, generally columnar, were also square and tapered or with terms of carved and gilded wood.
At the same time Gole also produced parquetry floors, as did Mace and Sommer. In 1673. he constructed the platform for the Queen's State Bedchamber. and then a second one for the same apartment. In 1682 he was paid 7.550 livres 'for the parquet he made for the mezzanine of the cabinet of Monseigneur the Dauphin’, the design for which is preserved in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.
Gole's last commissions coincided with the first important works by Boulle for the Crown, particularly the work for the Dauphin, with its astonishing decoration. He died on 27 November 1684. His son Corneille was not able to succeed him. As a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he was forced to leave France in the following year, settling first in the Hague, and then in 1689 in London.
