Marquetry

Since ancient times there has been a fascination with the appearence and colour of wood. Certain exotic woods look so great that some cabinet makers will go the extra mile to get their hands on them. Egyptians also could'nt resist them. These woods being so rare, they invented a way to save on them by gluing thin slices to lesser valued woods, thus veneer was born. It was'nt long before someone figured to make drawings out of the smaller leftover pieces, thus marquetry was born. Little by little this costly craft was almost forgotten, until the end of the dark ages, in Italy's renaissance, when fortunate monarchs permitted it's reinsertion. Marquetry's heyday can surely be dated at the time of the renaissance, specially under the Louis kings of France, and it slowly disappeared at the beginning of the modern industrial age. Today, thanks to new tools and adhesives, marquetry is reborn from it's ashes. As a matter of fact, in Québec, marquetry is only now beeing differenciated from parquetry, with which it has long been confused. With the advent of lasers marquetry is taking a new dimension, but at La Boissellerie we still cut our veneers by hand, because we believe that the richness of the wood's grain, is only better seved by the eye of the craftsman.