Quebec cupboard, $25,000.

$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.