{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O58571"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58571/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NF8778/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NF8778/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2022NF8778","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EH0341","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB1152","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB1044","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB1011","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB1009","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB1007","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EB0931","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM5719","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM5717","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FB6302","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JY2069","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O58571/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O58571","accessionNumber":"1025&2-1882","objectType":"Pedestal","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Furniture made for the grandest interiors in France in the years around 1700 was designed to impress rather than to be comfortable or necessarily useful. Large rooms were furnished with matching sets of tables and candlestands. One of the most fashionable forms of decoration for such furniture was boulle marquetry. In this work, the surface was veneered with ebony and with panels of scrolling marquetry in brass, tortoiseshell and sometimes other materials such as pewter or horn. The technique derived its name from André-Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker to Louis XIV. Although many other makers used this technique, it is possible that this pedestal and its pair (Museum no. 1025A-1882) were actually made in Boulle's workshop. \r\n\r\nWhen these pedestals were conserved in 1970, a small sheet of paper was found, used as packing under the top of one of them, which carried some words in French and the date 1693.","physicalDescription":"One of a pair of pedestals, with carcase of pine veneered with boulle marquetry of tortoiseshell, engraved brass and pewter, and horn set against a blue ground, the pedestals set with gilt bronze mounts. \r\n\r\nEach pedestal is of tapering, square-sectioned form, raised on a slightly larger, attached plinth, the sides and front of the plinth cut on the lower edge with an ogee arch, the front spandrels of the arches set with panels of scrolling boulle marquetry, and the lower edges of the arches resting on turned feet, the upper part of the feet wider and down-turned like mushrooms, the top surface reeded.  The top edge of the plinth is set with a gadrooned moulding in gilt bronze and the sides and front of the main shaft show sunk panels of boulle marquetry of symmetrical scrolls, edged with upright leaf moulding in gilt bronze. The tortoiseshell areas of the boulle marquetry are coated on the reverse with a dark brown pigment. At the top of the shaft the sides and front are set with a satyr mask in gilt bronze. An out-curving frieze section above is set with a trygliph mount in the centre of each side and the front, the boulle sections of these of horn over blue colouring, while the corners are set with upright acanthus leaf mounts.  Above this, the edge of the top is moulded in an ovolo section, outset from the frieze.  The top edge of the ovolo is veneered with brass and tortoiseshell in a pattern of repeating, upright leaves, the corners mounted with foliage mounts in gilt bronze.  The top of the plinth rises behind this moulding, as a shallow, ebonised plinth.\r\n\r\nThe boulle marquetry on this plinth and its pair, 1025a-1882, differ very slightly in detail.  For instance, the central rosette on the front on 1025-1882 is of brass, whereas on 1025a-1882 is of pewter, while the boulle marquetry on the ovolo edges is in <i>première partie</i> on 1025-1882 and in <i>contre partie</i> on 1025a-1882.  In places the marquetry is attached with brass pins, from older repairs.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Boulle, André-Charles","id":"A5344"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"},{"text":"tortoiseshell","id":"AAT11837"},{"text":"glass","id":"AAT10797"},{"text":"pewter","id":"AAT10979"},{"text":"horn","id":"AAT11826"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"},{"text":"ebony","id":"AAT12055"},{"text":"gilt bronze","id":"x35084"}],"techniques":[{"text":"cabinet-making","id":"AAT53607"},{"text":"veneered","id":"AAT53878"},{"text":"marquetry","id":"AAT53853"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carcase of pine; veneered with tortoiseshell, horn with blue pigment behind, engraved brass and pewter; gilt bronze mounts","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2022NF8778","2010EH0341","2010EB1152","2010EB1044","2010EB1011","2010EB1009","2010EB1007","2010EB0931","2006AM5719","2006AM5717","2011FB6302","2017JY2069"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"5","id":"THES49787"},"free":"","case":"PL5","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"5","id":"THES49787"},"free":"","case":"PL5","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Pedestal","id":""}],[{"text":"Frieze and top of pedestal","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1684","earliest":"1684-01-01","latest":"1684-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Almost certainly"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by John Jones","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1330","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"420","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"380","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'1693'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Under the top of 1025-1882 four fragments from the same small sheet of paper were discovered in  December 1969, used as packing in one of the holes in the under top.  On this were a sketch of a figure in ink, what look like some lines of poetry in French and the date 1693."}],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by John Jones with 1025A-1881: one of a 'Pair of Pedestals. Ebony, with Boulle inlay of brass, white metal and tortoiseshell, and heavy mounting of masks, bands and angle-pieces, in chased ormoulu. French. Period of Louis XIV. H. 4 ft. 3 1/3 in. - Top, 16 1/2 in. Square'","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"One of a pair of pedestals; carcase of pine veneered with tortoiseshell, horn with blue pigment behind, engraved brass & pewter; gilt bronze mounts; attributed to André Charles Boulle (1642 - 1732); Paris, France, probably 1684.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Elizabeth Miller and Hilary Young, eds., <i>The Arts of Living. Europe 1600-1815</i>. V&A Publishing, 2015. ISBN: 978 1 85177 807 2, illustrated p. 52.\n\r\n‘an extremely rare pedestal attributed to the Parisian cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle. Almost certainly from a set of nine made in 1684 for the mirrored cabinet (‘room’) at Versailles of the Grand Dauphin (heir to the throne), its decoration includes horn backed with blue pigment, in subtle allusion to the blue associated with royalty.’\n\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Călin Demetrescu, <i>Les ébénistes de la Couronne sous le règne de Louis XIV</i> (Lausanne, 2021), p. 194-5, n. 884\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mathieu Deldicque (ed.), <i>André Charles Boulle</i>, (exhibition organised by the musée Condé (château de Chantilly), San-Rémy-en-l’Eau, 2024), p.140"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Pair of pedestals\r\n\t1684\r\n\r\n\tThese pedestals are extremely rare  survivals, probably from a set of  nine made for a mirrored room at  Versailles. They would have been  placed at intervals round the walls  of the room, with vases or bronzes  displayed on top. The room was  decorated for the king's heir, the  Grand Dauphin, and the blue in the  pedestals is a subtle allusion to the  blue associated with royalty.\r\n\tFrance (Paris)\r\n\tProbably by André-Charles Boulle\r\n\tSoftwood with walnut and oak,  veneered with ebony; marquetry in  turtle shell, inlaid with brass,  pewter and blue-coloured horn;  gilded copper alloy mounts","date":{"text":"2015","earliest":"2015-01-01","latest":"2015-12-31"}},{"text":"[Label text by Peter Thornton]\r\nPair of Pedestals\r\nFrench (Paris); about 1690\r\n\r\nPine veneered with tortoiseshell, and engraved brass and pewter.  Gilt bronze mounts.  The channels at the top are filled with 'clear' tortoiseshell backed with blue pigment.  The masks are modern reproductions copied from originals still on a similar pair of pedestals.  \r\n\r\nWhen these were restored in 1970, some torn pieces of paper were discovered used as packing under the glued-down top.  On the paper was part of a drawing, some unintelligible writing, and the date 1693.\r\n\r\nJones Collection\r\nMuseum No. 1025-1882","date":{"text":"ca. 1980","earliest":"1975-01-01","latest":"1984-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["1025-1882","1025:2-1882"],"accessionNumberNum":"1025","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1882,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN1723","2019LN7955","2019LT5793","2019LU7807","2019LW9789"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-04-27","availableToBook":false}}