Louis XV Style Boulle Marquetry Writing Desk

• Ormolu - Ormolu was popular with French craftsmen in the 18th and 19th century for ornamental fittings for furniture, clocks and other decorative items. True ormolu is gilt bronze, that is bronze that has been coated with gold using a mercury amalgam. Due to the health risks associated with using mercury, this method of creating ormolu was discontinued in France in the 1830s. A substitute was developed consisting of about 75% copper and 25% zinc, however it was inferior to the bronze version. It was often lacquered to prevent it tarnishing.
• Marquetry - In marquetry inlay, contrasting woods, and other materials such as ivory, shell and metal are inlaid either as panels or in a single continuous sheet over the surface of the piece. The design may be straightforward, such as a shell pattern or a basket of flowers, or it may be infinitely complex, with swirling tendrils of leaves, flowers and foliage, such as one finds, for example, in the "seaweed" patterns on longcase clocks of the William and Mary and Queen Anne periods.
• Scrolls - Serpentine-shaped forms, used in cabinet construction and decoration for centuries. The scroll appears in legs, feet, as carving in chair brackets, chair rails and arms. The deeper and more spontaneous the carving is, the earlier the piece is likely to be. The Regency or 'Thomas Hope' scroll, used on pediments and sideboard backs, consists of two scrolls on the horizontal plane, placed back to back in a mirror image, and sometimes decorated with a variety of carved and/or applied ornament, such as shells, foliate and other motifs. Chippendale-style furniture is often distinguished by two corresponding scrolls in the form of a 'C' in the upper splat or where chair legs join the seat rail.
• Cabriole Leg - The cabriole leg evolved from an elongated scroll, curving out at the knee which may or may not be carved, and forming a serpentine shape as it descends to the foot.
  
  First introduced into English furniture in the late 17th century, cabriole legs were widely used during the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods, where they frequently terminated in a pad foot or ball and claw foot. The style has had many imitators since then. The cabriole leg was re-introduced in the mid-19th century, and is commonly associated with the balloon-back dining or drawing-room chairs made in walnut, mahogany or, in Australia, cedar. The Victorian cabriole leg, on the whole, was rather more slender than the earlier form, following the French style, which emphasized the delicacy and daintiness of the chairs they were designed to support. Cabriole legs are sometimes found on windsor chairs, especially those made during the 18th century.
• Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
• Provenance - A term used to describe the provable history of an antique or work of art, and thus an additional aid to verifying its authenticity. Provenance can have an inflating effect on the price of an item, particularly if the provenance relates to the early settlement of Australia, a famous person, or royalty. Less significant are previous sales of the item through an auction house or dealer.
• Acanthus - A stylized leaf motif, one of the primary decorative elements of classical Greek and Roman architecture, derived from the genus of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Mediterranean area. It is a common element in classical Greek and Roman design, and is often seen in Corinthian and Composite order columns and used as a decorative element in English, European and Australian furniture, particularly on the curve of a leg, and as decoration for a corbel.
• Boulle - Boulle work is the name given to tortoiseshell and metal inlay using brass and sometimes silver, found on furniture and smaller wooden objects. It originated in Italy but was developed by Frenchman Andre Charles Boulle (1642 - 1732) under Louis XIV.
  
  Boulle was appointed Royal Cainet Maker to Louis XIV and designed furniture and clockcases for the monarch.
  
  In preparation, the tortoiseshell and metal were cut together following a design, using a fine fret saw.
  
  In the application of the Boulle, the carcase of piece of furniture was covered with the tortoiseshell which in turn was inlaid with the matched designs in metal, which in turn was elaborately engraved.
  
  The use of Boulle work furniture continued mainly in France until the 19th century.
• Serpentine - Resembling a serpent, in the form of an elongated 'S'. A serpentine front is similar to a bow front, except that the curve is shallow at each end, swelling towards the middle. The term presumably derives from its similarity to a moving snake or serpent. Serpentine fronts are usually veneered, with the carcase either being cut and shaped from a solid piece of timber, or built in the 'brick' method.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Boulle - furniture, desk and tables 68
• desks, style or type - bureaux plat 97