A Louis XIV Boulle marquetry duets table

Rare, center table in Boulle marquetry inlaid witth brass on ebony background.
Of rectangular shape, it stand on four legs, surmounted of balusters and united by H shape stretcher.
It opens with two drawers hidden in the frieze on each siade. The top is framed with ebony inlays, comporting four spaces adorned with black leather, the two fo them serving as reclining lectern, the other two are compartements openings with flaps.
All sides, crossbars, stretchers, legs are entirely inlaid with ebony and brass inlays with geometrical pattern.

Interior inlaid in walnut, structure in pine.

Very fine condition.

Louis XIV period, Parisian work, circa 1660-1680

Dimensions:

Height: 72.5 cm; Width: 105 cm; Depth: 65.5 cm

Our opinion :

Very few of Louis XIV period furniture has reached us because the very elaborate furniture was reserved at that time for an elite, the common people being content with chests, tables and benches.
The arrival, in the years 1640-1650, of new artisans from Flanders will change the situation.
While the furniture was previously made of natural wood, they will bring a new fashion which consists in veneering the furniture with ebony.
This is the birth of Parisian cabinetmaking, which the Sun King will exalt, develop and spread throughout the world, until its peak in the 18th century.
If this ebony veneer is rare, the table we present is even more so.
It served as a music table, which was extremely rare during the reign of Louis XIV.
Like his father, Louis XIV benefited from training that gave pride of place to dance and music: he mastered spruce, guitar, lute, enjoyed knowing Lully's composition work as a connoisseur, and participated in multiple recruitments of musicians from the royal household.
Dance, a noble activity par excellence like arms and horse riding, also occupies a lot of its days.
As in many fields of arts and sciences, the king will wish to develop this activity and will found a royal academy of music in 1669.
The two lecterns from our centern table allow two musicians to be seated, face to face, while reading musical notes, and the two lockers, one of which is slightly narrower than the other, were probably used to store the instruments .
Was it oboe, an instrument particularly appreciated by Lully and very much taught during the reign of Louis XIV?
Was it a table reserved for a teacher and his student, or on the contrary for two very experienced duettists?
We cannot answer them with certainty but it is obvious that the cost of manufacturing such a piece of furniture and its use at that time, required a lot of means and a culture that only a very restricted circle of people could have.