Marquetry

According to the Marquetry Society of Canada, marquetry is the “art of assembling veneers from hundreds of species of wood, sometimes interspersed with gems, ivory, mother of pearl, etc. to collectively form a picture or design. It was practiced by the Egyptians over 3000 years ago, and priceless boxes, panels and furniture enriched with designs in colourful woods were left in the pyramids.”

This work is now generally called inlay because it involves involves recessed areas into which small cut pieces of colourful wood are inset or inlaid. The term marquetry refers to cut pieces of native and exotic woods, sliced into veneer thickness, assembled as a design into a single sheet and then glued to a solid surface, usually wood, hardboard or particle board.

The 14th and 15th centuries saw dramatic changes in marquetry methods. Schools of marquetry were set up, the most famous being in Florence. The veneers of this period were very thick and were shaped with a chisel. From here marquetry spread all over Europe and France further developed the art in the 17th and 18th centuries.

As better methods were devised for cutting the wood and better tools were developed for sawing the veneers into delicate shapes in order to make intricate designs, the practice of marquetry has flourished. For marquetry, the highest art form in wood, the current period is one of vitalized revival.

Dutch craftsmen developed beautiful and complex patterns in marquetry in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. From around 1665 they became very popular in England. Marquetry skills and designs were copied and adapted by English craftsmen for cabinets, chests of drawers and clock cases. There are some fine examples in the Holburne Museum.

The basic structure of the cabinet (seen below) is made of oak and pine, but the intricate decoration is composed in a variety of woods, creating a pictorial surface of birds, flowers, masks and leaves which relate to Dutch flower-painting and textiles of the same period. Originally the timbers would have been much brighter in colour as some minerals were used to stain or heighten the natural hues.

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