The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

Marquetry-work

This was a later development of true inlay or intarsia-work, and the rendering was always much freer with scrolls, bunches of flowers, etc. covering the ground/substrate. Veneers or materials in veneer thickness are used, the pattern cut out, assembled and laid as a single sheet on a suitable ground. Professional cutters have evolved their own methods for the work is highly specialized, and while a good general craftsman could no doubt easily master the techniques of cutting and laying, the art lies in the preparation of the design and the selection, matching and shading of the veneers.

Cutting and laying marquetry-work

A full-size drawing of the design is necessary, done with a continuous fine line and coloured to represent the actual veneers used. Working copies of the drawing can be prepared either by tracing through with carbon paper, or more accurately by the traditional method of closely pricking through the lines with a fine needle. Several copies can be pricked at the same time, or the design can be printed through the perforations with a pounce-bag filled with finely powdered asphaltum which must then be heated to fuse the deposited powder, or rubbed through with a pad soaked with heelball and methylated spirit. If the design allows of it, two or more sheets of the materials to be used can be pinned or glued together with a waste sheet of veneer under to take the rag of the saw, and the printed design pasted on the top sheet. The whole of the pattern can then be cut out either on a marquetry-cutter's donkey or with the usual form of fret-saw, working on a V-notched table fixed to the bench. The finest jeweller's piercing saws with from 40 to 80 teeth to the inch (25 mm) according to the grade can be used, and wherever possible the saw cuts are made outside the line of the insets, and on the line of the background; the sheets are then separated and the complete pattern assembled on the master drawing, covered with a surface paper and laid in the usual manner. If, however, the design contains many separate pieces of different woods and differing grain directions, then each piece of veneer must be treated separately, the outline transferred to it, the piece sandwiched between waste veneer if there are delicate fibres to be supported, the piece cut, numbered and either taped to the surrounding pieces, or butt jointed with quick - setting Balsa cement or PVA glue. When the pattern is complete all traces of glue must be removed from the under face before laying, and some professional workers fill up slight gaps with a mixture of glue and veneer-dust. Local shading of the individual pieces to give chiaroscuro is achieved by scorching the wood in heated silver sand before they are assembled,
but it must be skilfully done to be effective. As the veneers are 1/16 in (1.5 mm) or less in thickness, the completed surface must be carefully scraped and sanded with a circular motion, and delicate insets may have to be protected from the coloured dust of other insets by coating with white french polish before sanding.

A superb example of modern marquetry - work which must surely equal the best examples of any previous age was to be seen in the reception hall and main entrance of Gallaher Ltd's former offices in London. Figure 303, kindly lent by Gallaher Ltd, can give only an approximation of the wonderful richness of this panel which is 16 ft (4.87 m) long and 3 ft (0.91 m) high and composed of 70 native and exotic timber species in 20,000 different pieces. The selection, matching and cutting of the veneers was carried out by Mr A. Dunn to sketch designs prepared by Mr George Ramon and drawn in detail by Mr F. Bellan. No staining of any kind was used, and local shading was done by the traditional hot-sand method.

Sand shading (marquetry-work)

The delicate shading often seen in traditional marquetry-work is done by scorching the veneer in a tray of hot sand. Each piece of veneer is dipped for a few seconds only, and the sand must be clean, sharp, fine silver sand (obtainable from pet shops), uniformly heated. For island shading within the body of the veneer the sand should be heated in an old spoon and poured on repeatedly from both sides, again for a few seconds each time. After shading the pieces should be moistened on the surfaces and dried under a weight.

Parquetry - work

Geometrical patterns, squares, rectangles, lozenges, etc., either inlaid, veneered or overlaid, are known as 'parquetry-work', typical examples of which are chessboards and parquet flooring. The treatment is the same as for any other inlay - or marquetry-work.

Boulle-work

Marquetry patterns comprising sheets of brass and tortoiseshell in elaborate scroll-work and foliage are known as Boulle-work (Buhl-work) after the celebrated French marquetry-cutter Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) who perfected the process. Thin sheets of tortoiseshell and brass or silver, or boxwood
and blackwood-veneers, were pinned together with a waste veneer under to take the rag of the saw; the design was then glued to the top sheet and the whole pack cut at one operation with a very fine saw in a marquetry-cutter's donkey. The sheets were then separated and the components fitted together. As all the cutting was done simultaneously the waste of one sheet could obviously fit the waste of another sheet; thus in a simple assembly of, say, boxwood ground/substrate and blackwood scroll-work there will be a complete sheet of boxwood ground and black scroll-work, and another of black ground and box scroll-work. Antique examples exist in which one side of the cabinet is black on white and the other side white on black, and this economic use of the waste was known as Boulle and counter Boulle, although it was never practised in the finest work. In fact, although Boulle carried this composite cutting to perfection, skilled marquetry-cutters considered it greatly inferior to the traditional method of cutting each piece separately whereby the grain direction could be varied at will.