Attributed to A.-C. Boulle

The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University,

Farmington, Connecticut, USA

 Conserved by Yannick Chastang, 2008

 

This coffer on stand, currently on display at the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, is almost certainly that which was owned by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill and was described in 1774 as “a trunk of tortoiseshell and bronze; by Boul, on a frame of the same”.

 

Detail of the lower panel of the stand showing the lifted marquetry before conservation

 

Typical examples of missing elements that were subsequently replaced during conservation

  

The study and conservation of this coffer on stand was made possible by a museum conservation grant from The Getty Foundation.  Prior to conservation, the coffer on stand and Yannick Chastang spent three weeks at the furniture conservation laboratory at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for an in-depth analytical study and comparison with the Getty‘s collection of Boulle furniture.

 For more details please visit http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/index.html