Cabinetmakers During the Reign of French King Louis XIV

Calin Demetrescu's, former curator of the Bucharest Museums, great merit lies in his temerity. His boldness in tackling the thorny subject of attribution in the 17th century when no stamps existed, and his boldness in studying a huge corpus of over a hundred pieces of furniture and objets d'art— which lead to substantial results. The book looks set to be an incontestable benchmark: a view shared by Frédéric Dassas, Chief Curator of the Louvre's Objets d'Art Department: "For several years now, many curators and experts have considered it unreasonable to make attributions, but they carry on doing so. The internationally famous specialist, Calin Demetrescu, explores the attribution issue in terms of how, why and to whom, factoring in every aspect of an enormously diverse body of material." This material, rigorously woven like a backdrop, is crucial and forms the essence of this meticulous study, enabling the author to clarify milestones that lend convincing weight to his conclusions and fresh attributions, presented in the second part of the book. His focus on various players, closely linked with the way guilds functioned under Louis XIV, brings to light a cultural,…