Secrets of The Wallace - Armoire by andré - Charles boulle, late 17th to early 18th - Century
Tip: Highlight text to annotate itX
Hi I'm Kyle, and I'm Emma, and today we are going to be talking about a cabinet
created by André-Charles Boulle, who was the cabinet-maker for Louis XIV.
How are the colours on the front panels achieved?
The colours on Boulle marquetry are achieved by applying the colour onto the back of the turtle shell.
So what you are looking at is real turtle shell, the colour of turtle shell is either brown or transparent.
The most expensive turtle shell was the one that was completely transparent.
You would only use the transparent areas and apply the colour onto the back.
so from the front you may see red, yellow or brown turtle shell
even though the colour is on the back
The light just travels through the shell and reflects the colour.
That's why you achieve a brown background, which used to be black, and the blue, which
imitates azurite, so you get the different colours.
It is interesting that turtle shell is like a modern plastic, thermoplastic, so you can
shape and form it into anything you like, and even make big sheets out of it.
Why use gold leaf instead of pure gold?
Because gold is very expensive so they would only use very thin layers of gold
either in a process called mercury gilding or just as a leaf, applying it in different techniques.
But gold is too expensive so they would apply it as very thin leaves.
Where would this cabinet have been before the Wallace Collection, and who would have used it?
We don't know, they must be very wealthy people to commission something like this.
We do know that Queen Victoria used it as a wardrobe on one occasion at least.
Hopefully from this podcast you have been inspired to visit the Wallace Collection
to see this artefact in real life.
If you'd like to find out more information, check out the rest of the series on YouTube.
Thank you.
