French cabinetmaker. René Dubois followed his father Jacques Dubois, becoming a master ébéniste when he was only eighteen years old. He continued to work for his father, using his father's stamp of I DUBOIS, and directed the family workshop with his mother after Jacques's death in 1763. Nine years later Dubois's mother relinquished control of the workshop, selling the existing stock to her son, who agreed to pay her an annuity. An inventory of the shop taken in 1772 reveals a prosperous business with about eighty pieces of furniture either finished or unfinished, including gaming tables, writing desks, screens, bookcases, and corner cupboards. Like his father, René continued to produce lacquer furniture, but he specialized in furniture painted with beige scenes on a green ground. About 1790, with the market for luxury products interrupted by the French Revolution, he stopped making furniture and was forced to concentrate on selling. He died in poverty in 1799. //