French marquetry

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2001 by Miriam Kramer

The decorative technique of marquetry was first devised in the fifteenth century and has changed little since then. Wood, ivory bone, metal, or other materials are inlaid into a sheet of veneer that is in turn fixed to the surface of a piece of furniture. The vogue for marquetry on furniture originated in post-Renaissance Italy and reached its apogee in mid-eighteenth-century France.

Andre Charles Boulle, the principal ebeniste to Louis XIV, perfected the brass and tortoiseshell marquetry that came to bear his name. Boulle marquety was incorporated in work produced by the leading French cabinetmakers Jean Francois Oeben, Jean Francois Leleu, and Jean Henri Riesener. With the advent of factory-made furniture in the nineteenth century marquetry suffered a precipitous decline. In the twentieth century, however, craftsmen returned to this technique, again providing furniture for the wealthiest patrons.

The Wallace Collection in London has rich holdings of French paintings and decorative arts, including many pieces of eighteenth-century French furniture. An exhibition on view at the collection from October 4 until December 30 sheds light on the subject of marquetry. Entitled Pictures in Wood: The Hidden Colours of French Furniture, it uses mainly objects from the collection, augmented by a number of loans. In addition, works by modern practitioners such as David Linley and Louis Cane have been installed to illustrate the modem interpretation of marquetry. Informative labels treat the history of the technique; there is a reconstruction of Oeben's workshop, and occasional demonstrations of marquetry making are given.

The accompanying catalogue is written by Yannick Chastang, the curator of the exhibition