BUGULMA, a town of European Russia, in the govern ment of Samara, 243 miles from the city of that name, on the small river Bugulminka, a sub-tributary of the Volga, in 54 32 N". lat. and 52 47 E. long. The town rose into existence about 1741-5, and was peopled by soldiers, exiles, and peasants. .During the Pugacheff insurrection it was vainly besieged by the rebels. In 1781 it was made a town of the Ufa government; in 1806 it was transferred to Orenburg, and in 1851 to Samara. Its principal importance is derived from its situation at the junction of two great roads from Ufa and Orenburg, by which it maintains an extensive transit trade. A great annual fair is held from 14th to 21st of September (o. s.). Population in 1867, 5455.
BUGURUSLAN, a town of European Russia in the government of Samara, situated at the junction of the rivers Kinell and Tarkhanka, 177 miles E.N.E. of Samara, in 53 39 N. lat. and 52 25 E. long. It dates from about 1748, and in the time of the Pugacheff revolt was the scene of the outrages of Karpoff s band. Its changes from government to government coincide with those of Bugulma. The principal buildings are two or three churches, a monastery, a hospital, and a caravanserai. It manufactures leather, wax, potash, and beer, and carries on a pretty extensive trade. There are two annual fairs. Population in 1867, 7450.
BUHLE, Johann Gottlieb (1763-1821), distinguished as a scholar and an historian of philosophy, was born at Brunswick, and graduated at the university of Gottingen, where he obtained a chair at a very early age. Thence he was called to the professorship of ancient languages at Moscow. After his return to Brunswick he was appointed to the chair of natural law, which he held till his death in 1821. Buhle s activity was great, and the productions of his pen are numerous. He edited Aratus and part of Aristotle (the Bipontine edition, 5 vols.), the first volume of which is a masterly survey of Aristotelian literature. His fame, however, is principally derived from his labours on the history of philosophy. The Geschichte der philos. Vernunft, 1793, was suspended after the first volume, but the Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophic, 8 vols. 1796-1804, is a very complete and valuable work. More important than either of these is the Geschichte der neuern Philosophic, forming one of the great series of histories of the sciences from the Renaissance. It is a work of much learning, and is well written ; its faults are general weakness in critical appreciation and want of due sense of proportion. The History of Modern Philosophy has been translated into French, 6 vols. 1806.
BUHL-WORK, otherwise Bool, Boule, or Boulle-work, is a kind of inlaying and ornamentation of cabinet-work, so named after the inventor André Charles Boule, a celebrated French cabinetmaker (1642-1732) By a happy selection of different woods from India and Brazil, arranged with great taste, and the use of brass, ivory, gold, tortoise- shell, &c., Boule produced upon his furniture arabesques and pictures, representing a variety of animals, flowers, and fruits; and he finally succeeded in producing historical scenes, as battles and hunts, landscapes, and other artistic effects. Louis XIV. appreciated his abilities, gave him lodgings in the Louvre, and, in 1672, appointed him engraver in ordi nary of the royal seals. In the patent authorizing this he received also the designations of " architect, painter, carver in mosaic, artist in cabinet-work, chaser, inlayer, and de signer of figures." His skill was great in all these branches, and he carried them to a high degree of artistic perfection in timepieces, screens, furniture, and other articles. He worked for the royal residences and for foreign princes, and attained fortune and position.
The beginnings of art in carving are found amongst the relics of prehistoric races, and when it arrived at the degree of perfection it afterwards attained in the East, inlaying was a natural result. We find this to have been practised by the ancient Egyptain and other Asiatic races. Its attendant, veneering, was also employed by them, workmen applying the veneer with glue being represented on the Egyptian monuments. As civiliza tion advanced westward, the Greeks and Romans followed in the art, the latter race inlaying their furniture with marquetry or tarsia-work, using ivory, ebony, box, palm, bird s-eye maple, beech, and other woods. Their bronze articles they damascened with ornaments of the precious metals and metallic amalgams. The spirit of the Middle Ages was adverse to the development of this art, and but few traces of it are found. In the South Kensington Museum is a coffer of cypress, with flat surface imagery filled in with coloured wax composition, that dates from the 14th century. The Venetians derived their marquetry from Persia and India, as is indicated by the geometric pat terns inlaid with ivory, metal, and woods, stained of various colours. Florence took a prominent place in this manufac ture in the 15th century. Certosina-work was the result ; it was so called from the great Certosa, Charterhouse, or Carthusian monastery, between Milan and Pavia, in the choir-fittings of which this kind of ornament, ivory inlaid into solid cypress and walnut wood, is employed. Work in the Persian style, with its geometric figures, still reaches us from Bombay, the present great seat of the Parsees.
The Renaissance artists chiefly employed wood in making furniture, ornamenting it with gilding and painting, and inlaying it with agate, carnelian, lapis-lazuli, marble of various tints, ivory, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, and various woods. Boule improved upon this by inlaying brass devices into wood or tortoise-shell, which last he greatly used according to the design he had immediately in view, whether flowers, scenes, scrolls, &c. ; to these he sometimes added enamelled metal. In this process the brass is thin, and, like the ornamental wood or tortoise-shell, forms a veneer. In the first instance the production of his work was costly, owing to the quantity of valuable material that was cut away and wasted, and, in addition, the labour lost in separately cutting for each article or copy of a pattern. By a subsequent improvement Boule effected an economy by gluing together various sheets of material and sawing through the whole, so that an equal number of figures and matrices were produced at one operation. Boule adopted from time to time various plans for the improvement of his designs. He placed gold-leaf or other suitable material under the tortoise-shell to produce such effect as he required ; he chased the brass-work with a graver for a like purpose, and, when the metal required to be fastened down with brass pins or nails, these were hammered flat and disguised by orna mental chasing. He also adopted, in relief or in the round, brass feet, brackets, edgings, and other ornaments of appropriate design, partly to protect the corners and edges of his work, and partly for decoration. He subsequently used other brass mountings, such as claw-feet to altars and pedestals, or figures in high or low relief, according to the effect he desired to produce. Boule s contemporary, Reisner, a German, used a variety of woods, tulip-wood more espe cially, in the production of flowers and other ornamental designs, contrasting the dark with the light kinds, crossing the grain, and employing other ingenious devices. After him this particular style was called Reisner-work. The Spaniards of the 16th century used silver for inlaying.
See Grande Didionnaire Universcl du XIX* sttde; Pierer s Uni- vcrsal-Lexikon, Altenberg, 1868; Encycloptdie des Gens du Monde ; Bemrose s Buhl-work and Marquetry, a very useful manual ; Pollen s Furniture and Wood-icorTc.
