buhl (bol)

[Short for buhl - work, orig. Boulle work or Boule - work. Buhl is a German-looking Buhl.- Commode executed by Roule, in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris. (From "L'Art pour Tous.") spelling of Boule or Boulle, the name of a French artist (André Charles Boule, 1642-1732), who brought this kind of work to high perfection.] A style of inlaid decoration in cabinet-work practised by Boule, a celebrated designer under Louis XIV.; also, the articles so decorated. Buhl is of wood richly inlaid with a kind of mosaic, composed especially of tortoise-shell and line or figure-work in metal, both gold-colored and white. - Buhl and counter, a technical term for buhl decoration when two patterns are obtained by one sawing from a sheet of metal, viz., the decorative strip or scroll which is used in one place, and an open pattern of the same which is used elsewhere.