marquetry
Marquetry , like marquetry , inlay work made of wood or other materials. Even though the term inlay is more common, the two terms should not be confused: while in the inlay technique thin material plates are worked into solid wood, the artisan in marquetry only joins thin materials, mostly veneers .
history
Marquetry, originally the French meaning for marquetry, was used centuries ago to decorate valuable furniture or wall coverings. There are first examples from the 15th century in Italy. For the technique, which was further developed and popular in the 17th century, expensive, exotic woods were often used. In contrast to the inlay , the marquetry is completely prefabricated and glued onto the inexpensive blind wood . It is therefore not an inlay made of wood, tortoise shell , metal or the like, as is the case with inlay , but a veneer technique.
Parquet flooring (= Tarsia Geometrica ) is the oldest and technically simplest of the decorative veneer techniques, where geometrically identical pieces of contrasting veneer are processed in the form of a mosaic. Boulle Marquetry , Tarsia a Incastro , later named after André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), is a further development that gained in importance with the introduction of the " fretwork ". In general, a distinction must be made between two design techniques, the marquetry of the contre-partie and the première-partie .
The approximately 3 mm thick veneers that could be produced at that time were ideally suited for the production of marquetry and inlays, which were cut using the sawing technique (a kind of fretwork). In the 17th and 18th centuries, this craftsmanship reached a particularly high level in the Baroque and Rococo epochs .
Nowadays exotic woods in many types and colors are imported and processed into very thin veneers (up to about 1 mm thick), from which marquetry can be cut with a knife as well as with a fretsaw.
Marquetry technology
Knife technology is mostly used today. Marketing work always begins with the often very complex design of a motif, which must be aligned with the types, colors and structures of the available veneers. To do this, the craftsman needs a large supply of veneer sheets with as many different colors as possible. He processes both veneers from simply grown woods, as well as those with a pronounced grain, such as. B. can be cut from the root areas of a tree trunk.
The motifs can be cut directly with the knife according to the drawing, whereby the color and grain can be individually assigned to each other. The newly cut individual parts are always put together in the same way and fixed with special adhesive tape, the so-called joint tape. At this stage, the reverse side of the image can be seen on the back. Small mistakes can now be corrected. The marquetry is then placed on an appropriately prepared carrier plate, e.g. B. chipboard, blockboard or plywood, glued with the adhesive strip side up.
After the glue has hardened, the adhesive strips are sanded off. To do this, you need a certain instinct so that the thin veneer layer is not sanded through. Finally, the carefully and finely sanded surfaces are given a surface treatment that enlivens the colors and structures of the woods. The specialist calls this “cheering”. Polishing with shellac polish , a solution of shellac and high-percentage alcohol , is particularly suitable for this .
