A decorative furniture technique using contrasting woods and inlays, created as a variation or opposite pattern of the traditional Boulle method.
From counter- (opposite) + Boulle (named after André-Charles Boulle, a 17th-century French furniture maker). The term describes a reversal of the tortoiseshell and brass marquetry pattern.
Boulle and counterboulle work like a woodworking yin-yang—when you cut tortoiseshell with brass inlay, you get two mirror-image pieces; Boulle uses one, counterboulle uses the other, and no material gets wasted.
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