The 18th Century writer Savary des Brulons described marquetry as 'paintings in wood.' He refers to the process of creating a decorative image by applying thin pieces of wood over the surface of an object. This intricate process can transform a piece of furniture into a masterpiece.
The Italians were the first to use marquetry in the 13th Century, but the Dutch perfected and spread the art throughout Europe. The first English examples arrived in the Stuart period and it was in full swing by the late 17th Century. Over in France, Louis XIV was keen not to miss out on this new European trend, ordered a Marqueters Guild be set up in 1743.
In Britain, its popularity would ebb and flow but England's love affair with neoclassicism produced some particularly stunning examples. Thomas Chippendale, along with his force of about 50 artisans, was an undisputed master of marquetry.
He collaborated with Robert Adam on the interiors of Harewood House, which still holds brilliant examples of his furniture. Chippendale's Diana and Minerva commode is particularly famous and featured beautifully intricate marquetry on a satinwood ground. His marquetry writing desk, now housed at Temple Newsham, is perhaps one of the most important pieces in English furniture history.
Exquisite cabinet-making
Very thin layers were key, so craftsmen often used veneers or very thin sheets of material like hardwood. Having planned a design, they would then cut these layers into the necessary shapes and glue them to the surface. With painstaking care, this would bring the desired pattern to life. Most impressively, cabinet-makers carried out this complex and technical process by hand for centuries.
Using a variety of different woods was key to colour differentiation and creating a striking decorative effect. Cabinet-makers favoured maple, oak, mahogany, and satinwood for their rich and varied hues. Walnut often formed the background, because its richness allowed the lighter woods to stand out.
Marquetry created a range of imagery, from foliate borders to whimsical pastoral scenes. Generally, floral marquetry represents an earlier period and arabesque a later period. Floral involves acanthus foliate decoration, vines, flowers, and sometimes birds. Arabesque, or seaweed marquetry, generally only used two kinds of wood- holly for the decoration and walnut for the background. This method relied not so much on colour but on extremely fine scrollwork and other controlled decoration.
There is sometimes confusion between 'marquetry,' 'inlay,' and 'boulle.' The results can look very similar, but marquetry does not rely at all on the surface to form the desired image. Inlays use a recess in the surface to input another material, such as bone.
Andre-Charles Boulle, a prolific cabinet-maker in the court of Louis XIV, created 'boulle marquetry.' This technique achieved even more elaborate decoration out of brass, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, and other inlays.
Marquetry naturally evolved as more materials and tools became available, but its decorative power has never truly fallen from fashion. Today, carpenters and furniture designers draw on legendary examples from the likes of Chippendale to create modern masterpieces.
View some fine marquetry pieces from our collection here.