SUMMARY OF THE CHRONOLOGICAL. GUIDELINES TO BOULLE’S WORKS
1688. Purchase by the Prince de Cond£ of 'two marquetry toilet coffers for the wedding of Mile dc Bourbon to the Prince de Conti, at the price of 1.260L’. Before 1689. (Coffer for the Grand Dauphin mentioned in his inventory of 1689; possibly supplied in 1684 (14].
1700. 'Declaration somptuaire’ of Boulle’s workshop. mentioning four low armoircs.
1701. Delivery of the tables for the Menagerie at Versailles [ 15].
1701. Date of the drawing in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs made as a study for the armoires (31 ].
1702. Two chests by Boulle mentioned in an inventory of his client Etienne Moulle.
After 1707. Publication of the engraved folio by Boulle.
1707- 08. Purchase of the long-case clock with Saturn’s head by the Prince de Conde. probably the model shown at [58] for the price of 2.000L.
1708- 09. Two commodes supplied to the Trianon (17]. no. 566.
1710. Two cabinets with stands mentioned in the inventory of Pierre Thome, one of Boulle's clients.
1711. 'A small casket on a base all in marquetry made by Boulle' cited in an inventory of Jean Pheli - peaux.
1712. Date on the clock by Thuret in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, the base for which was designed by Oppenord.
1715. Deed of gift where mention is made of the armoire [13]. the oval commodes (20] and various clocks. Numerous bureaux and commodes arc mentioned.
1720. Fire in the workshop. The report cites the commissions for the Due de Bourlxin among which were the low bookcases (19] and 'a desk six pieds
long — a serre-papiers with a clock'.
1732. Inventory taken after Boulle’s death where the casts of the gilt-bronze mounts still in use are mentioned; those no longer in fashion are classed as 'old', of which there were only a few.
Even allowing for the fact that the prototype of a piece of furniture would have been made before the engraved plate depicting it. it is doubtful whether Mariette would have published pieces which had lx;en designed more than a decade previously under the title of‘nouveaux desseins'. Likewise, the great number of bureaux plats between five and six pieds long described in the 1715 inventory (41) and that of 1720 (21) reveal that it was at this period that Boulle’s bureau plat in its final form was being made. The same conclusion applies to the large number of commodes listed in 1715 and 1720. On the other hand, cabinets were beginning to go out of fashion; twenty of them were listed after the fire, all described as 'old'. Glancing through these chronological notes, it is clear that most of the furniture identified today as being by Boulle does not coincide with the main period of Louis XIV's reign (covering only the last fifteen years of it) but rather with the period of the Regence.
