Metropolitan Museum

This commode is of the same design and construction as the pair that was made by Boulle for the bedchamber of Louis XIV at the Grand Trianon in 1708. Although this model was copied a number of times during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this example appears to be an early version made in Boulle's own workshop. Appointed to the ébéniste du roi (royal cabinetmaker) in 1672, Boulle did not invent but perfected the marquetry technique of brass and tortoiseshell that has been named for him. So-called Boulle work is created by glueing together sheets of tortoiseshell and brass which are then cut according to the desired design. Once cut, the layers can be combined to form either a tortoiseshell ground inlaid with engraved brass or a brass ground inlaid with tortoiseshell, known as first part and counterpart respectively.

The eight-day, spring-wound movement originally had a shorter bob pendulum (now a Brocot-type replacement of the late nineteenth century) and hour and quarter rack striking (now mostly missing). Although it is the product of a member of a distinguished family of Parisian clockmakers, this clock is more important for its case and pedestal. Both the inlay and mounts of the case are thought to have been made in André-Charles Boulle's workshop. Boulle was by far the best known cabinetmaker of the Louis XIV period, and he benefited greatly from the king's patronage. Like the Thurets, he was granted the use of a royal workshop in the Louvre. This clock and pedestal are part of a small series that derive from an original model that Boulle supplied the marquis de Louvois (d. 1690), the French king's minister of war and the arts, and it may have been one of those offered as a prize in a lottery organized in Paris by Isaac Thuret in May 1691.