$5.5
Million Bid for Boulle Armoire in New York Takes a Third Place
Price for French Furniture
NEW YORK CITY - Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg sold a Louis
XIV Armoire for $5,502,500, December 5. The price is the second
highest ever achieved at auction for a piece of furniture by
Andre-Charles Boulle and the third highest for any place of
French furniture.
Boulle was cabinetmaker to King Louis XIV. The armoire was bought
by an anonymous private collector.
Although the armoire is not listed in any palace inventory, it
may have been made for Louis XIV or the French royal family. Its
pair, formerly in the collection of French couturier Hubert de
Givenchy, is now in a private collection in New York.
Comparable examples of the ormolu-mounted, tortoiseshell, brass
and tin marquetry armoire are in several major museums including
The Louvre, The Wallace Collection and the English Royal
Collection. This Boulle armoire, one of the last of its type in
private hands, was consigned by a European collector.
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