Carlton Hobbs 9222

Term of the Day: Premiere-partie 11/23/09

Detail of one of a pair of premiere-partie center tables after the model by Andre-Charles Boulle.

These tables feature premiere-partie decoration. This is a kind of marquetry seen in Boulle furniture, in which a design is created from tortoiseshell and brass veneers, the tortoiseshell typically forming the background for intricate flourishes in brass. The process of creating these veneers usually involved placing a sheet of brass and a sheet of tortoiseshell together and cutting through both, so that the designs in the two materials would fit together perfectly: often the discarded portions of brass and tortoishell would be used to make a contre-partie veneer (brass background with tortoiseshell designs) for an identical piece of furniture.

To see more of this pair of tables, visit: www.carltonhobbs.com/viewDetail.asp?strReference=9222