Pierre Golle

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Pierre Golle^[1] (ca 1620, Bergen, North Holland — 27 November 1684, Paris) was a Parisian ébéniste, of Dutch extraction, born at Bergen in the Dutch Republic. He moved to Paris at an early age, and married the widow of his master, assuming the workshop. Golle was the originator of marquetry of tortoiseshell and brass]], named for his son-in-law, André-Charles Boulle, as "Boulle marquetry". The Boulle dynasty of royal and Parisian cabinet-makers endured to the mid-eighteenth century. Golle had been employed by Cardinal Mazarin before he was taken under royal protection; from 1656 onward Golle is described in documents describe him as maître menuisier en ébène ordinaire du roi ("master ebony furniture maker-in-ordinary to the King"). From 1662 he supplied marquetry cabinets for the use of the King and the Grand Dauphin at Versailles and other royal châteaux, the most expensive of which were several cabinets delivered over a span of years at the outstanding sum of 6000 livres apiece.^[2]

His designs influenced Gerrit Jensen who worked in London, supplying marquetry furniture in the latest Parisian taste to the court of William and Mary.