Furniture with Boulle marquetry' has a thin, veneer-like surface in a combination of materials (tin, brass, tortoise-shell, ebony, palisander). Unequal shrinkage of the carcase wood damages the surface, whose components also react in different ways. The conservation of four typical items is described: the pedestal of an equestrian statue (Paris), a bureau and side table (Paris), a top bureau (Antwerp) and a writing cabinet (Munich).