This video was created for LaunchPad, a program of digital interpretive materials that supplement the viewing of works of art on display in the Art Institute of Chicago's galleries.
Contemporary marquetry artist Patrick Edwards employs traditional tools and techniques to create works worthy of great artists of the past such as André-Charles Boulle. Boulle employed two kinds of marquetry—première-partie, in which the tortoiseshell serves as the background with inlaid brass, and contre-partie, with tortoiseshell inlaid on a brass ground—and sometimes made complementary pairs of furniture pieces, utilizing each technique.
In this video, Patrick Edwards perfectly reproduces the corner of a coffer by André-Charles Boulle in the Art Institute collection.
