BOULLE furniture belongs to a de luxe category which seems by definition to defy the notion that more than one piece from the same model could exist. However, as soon as one realises how expensive and time-consuming it must have been to develop a successful type of furniture, such as the commode, it becomes apparent that the production of replicas or variant models must have been much more common than one likes to admit today. But it is still difficult to form an exact picture of the scale of the production of copies or series. Indeed such a question has hardly been posed for the furniture production of the ancien régime, whereas serial production and its implications for design in the era of industrial production have become standard objects of study. Other related issues are: how long was the same piece of furniture kept in production? and to what extent did fashion affect the production of furniture? Basic types of furniture are likely to change less rapidly than ornamental detail, whether in marquetry, sculpted- wood or applied gilt-bronze. In order to demonstrate the continuity of production throughout the eighteenth cen- tury one can compare the chronological development of furniture types with that of their ornamentation, a good case being the architectural details and bronze mounts of commodes, tables and cabinets from the Boulle workshop. In this complex area it is open to investigation whether the furniture maker was by definition the designer. In this article I shall address some problems related to the design of Boulle furniture, including the involvement of designers from outside the workshop, putting forward several new drawings, without, however, claiming to be able to answer all the questions they raise.

, whereas serial production and its implications for design in the era of industrial production have become standard objects of study. Other related issues are: how long was the same piece of furniture kept in production? and to what extent did fashion affect the production of furniture? Basic types of furniture are likely to change less rapidly than ornamental detail, whether in marquetry, sculpted- wood or applied gilt-bronze. In order to demonstrate the continuity of production throughout the eighteenth cen- tury one can compare the chronological development of furniture types with that of their ornamentation, a good case being the architectural details and bronze mounts of commodes, tables and cabinets from the Boulle workshop. In this complex area it is open to investigation whether the furniture maker was by definition the designer. In this article I shall address some problems related to the design of Boulle furniture, including the involvement of designers from outside the workshop, putting forward several new drawings, without, however, claiming to be able to answer all the questions they raise.

THE eighteenth-century market for Boulle furniture has been approached in two principal ways. First, the market early in the century for objects documented as from (or attributed to) the Boulle workshops has been discussed. Secondly, furniture historians have begun more recently to investigate the antique market for Boulle furniture during the second half of the eighteenth century, an activity recorded in the sale catalogues of the period. Both approaches are based on the notion of the original or authentic object and its place either as an innovation in terms of style or form (in the development of the commode, for example) or as a collector's object within the context of a revival in taste for Boulle under Louis XVI.

IN 1969 the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto was bequeathed a mahogany case of silver gilt (Fig.19) by D. Lorne Pratt. Its significance became fully apparent only after Mrs Pratt relinquished her life interest in it in 1988, when it entered the Museum's European Department (Accession no.969.367.1.1-76). Almost every piece in the case is meticulously engraved with the ciphers of George IV and Elizabeth, Marchioness of Conyngham, as is a silver gilt plaque inlaid into the top of the case itself, which was specifically designed for the silver and still retains its original velvet lining and gold tufting. There can be no doubt that it must have been a gift from the king to the Marchioness.

AMONG the masterpieces of sixteenth-century Italian maiolica in the Robert Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is an apothecary jar decorated with an image and inscrip- tion that have long defied explanation (Fig.32). The form of . , the jar is an albarello, a tall vessel with concave walls and a flanged top. Introduced into Italy from the Near East by the ' thirteenth century, albarelli were typically produced in sets as containers for various medicines and confections dispensed in - ' the pharmacy. The Lehman albarello belongs to a group that includes numerous surviving albarelli and spouted jars now dispersed in various collections throughout the world. These ! vessels are of a ware thought by some scholars to be Sienese, though it has also been attributed to the nearby town of Deruta - in Umbria; recent scholarship has accepted both cities, whose wares were closely related, as possible sites of origin. The dating of the Lehman albarello and its companions presents no " . - such problem. Several pieces bear the inscribed date 1507, and - it is undoubtedly around that year that the Lehman albarello - -i lF was created.

IN 1985 The Bowes Museum received an important addition its collections in the form of a small porcelain-mounted writing- table of the type known as a bonheur du jour (Fig.37). It was
cated to the museum after being accepted by H.M. Treasury lieu of Capital Taxes on the estate of the 7th Duke of Portland and is a very welcome addition, enhancing both the furniture and the ceramic collections. Although the museum shows a large and important collection of Sevres porcelain, it had previously owned no eighteenth-century plaques of the type used on furni- ture, nor any complete piece with this form of decoration.

cated to the museum after being accepted by H.M. Treasury lieu of Capital Taxes on the estate of the 7th Duke of Portland and is a very welcome addition, enhancing both the furniture and the ceramic collections. Although the museum shows a large and important collection of Sevres porcelain, it had previously owned no eighteenth-century plaques of the type used on furni- ture, nor any complete piece with this form of decoration.

THE exhibition of armour and tapestries from the Patrimonio Nacional, recently shown in New York and Barcelona, and due to be seen at the Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid, in September, is an event of major significance in the study of renaissance tapestry making. The Patrimonio's collection of sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries is, along with that of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, one of the richest in the world, but it re- mains very difficult to see, arranged as it is in the Royal Palaces of Madrid and San Ildefonso, Segovia. The New York showing was the first time a significant number of these tapestries - eleven in all - had been assembled outside Spain, under very favourable viewing conditions. Direct comparison could be made between major tapestries from the workshops of the various weavers - Pieter van Aelst (two tapestries from Los Honores), Jan Gheteels (the Apocalypse) and Willem de Pannemakere (the Apocalypse, the Conquest of Tunis, the Giochi di putti and Vertumnus and Pomona), and examples from two sets by as yet unknown weavers were included (the History of Scipio and the Spheres).

), and examples from two sets by as yet unknown weavers were included (the History of Scipio and the Spheres).