MARQUETRY and PARQUETRY, are two names for modes of grouping small pieces of wood into ornamental devices; the ono for pro ducing pictures and small decorative works, and the other for floors. During the middle ages, the specimens produced were generally alter nations of black and white ; but in the 15th century the Italians began to stain the pieces of wood in various colours, so as to afford facilities for much diversity of pattern. Afterwards, many of the beautiful woods of America were brought into use ; and a method of represent ing shadows was devised, by scorching or singeing portions of the sur face. In some examples the pieces of wood employed were so small, and the colours so selected, as to admit of the representation of land scapes and other pictorial subjects, in a certain rude way. Most marquetry work is a delicate kind of veneering. The ground-work is of well-dried oak or fir, secured from warping. The coloured woods are sawn into very thin plates and dyed or otherwise prepared. Sup posing a flower in white wood on a black ground is to be produced by marquetry, there are three different modes adopted for cutting out the veneers to the proper shape. In the first method, a drawing or engrav ing of the device is cut into pieces ; the pieces are pasted in proper position tin two slabs of black and white veneer ; and a very delicate saw, worked by a treadle, cuts the wood into tho requisite shapes. in the second method the whole design is 'welted on the black veneer ; the leaves are cut out separately in white veneer, each white piece is pasted to the proper part of the paper, the black veneer is then cut through by a saw following the contour of the white pieces, the wood is sepa rated from the paper. and lastly the white pieces aro let into the holes cut in the black. In the third method a sheet of paper is pasted on the black veneer, upon this is placed a sheet of blackened or carbonised paper, and upon this again another sheet of white paper ; the pieces of white veneer, properly cut, being pasted in proper position on the upper most sheet of paper, a smart pressure or rolling will transfer a blackened device to the lowest sheet of paper sufficient to guide the sawing of the black veneer. The production of many-coloured marquetry will easily be understood from this description of the modes of cutting the veneers to produce black and white specimens. When the Italian and French marquetriers produce pictures instead of mere geometrical or fancy patterns, the work la frequently called larria-work. Numerous kinds of wood are employed, and much staining and scorching are resorted to. Holly la • favourite wood, because it is nearly white, and
receives staining or dyeing very readily. M. Crimer, a French marque trier, has in recent years produced many beautiful specimens, made of bite of veneer which had previously been dyed by Boucherie's process— that of causing the living tree to absorb saline and colour-producing solutions. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, many remarkable speci mens of marquetry were shown--such as M. Iliseo's table from Genoa, with a zodiac device on the top ; M. Claude's table from Nice, with four celebrated battlei depicted In marquetry ; an octagonal library table, made of 14,000 plocee of wood ; and, most curious of ell, the Spanish table made by M. Perez, of Barcelona, which was said to com prise no less than 3,000,000 minute pieces of wood.
Parquetry or Parquetage is a plainer kind of marquetry, little varied by colours, and applied as a flooring. The simpler varieties are said to have had their origin iu a desire to avoid the warping of long narrow boards, by employing boards only three or four feet long by as many inches in width, and arranging them in various patterns. It rarely happens that there are more than two colours employed. Many old baronial halls exhibit flooring in which a smooth plain ground is adopted to show off a differently coloured wood cut into geometrical devices. Wood of ono kind and colour is capable of yielding delicate patterns, something like that of a damask table-cloth, by placing tho grain of the wood in different directions in different pieces. At Windsor Castle, the Royal Exchange, and other places, parquetry floors have been laid down in recent years. lu some kinds the thin layers or veneers are fitted in stout oak frames formed into compartments comprising squares, diamonds, polygons, or any other desired shape the oak frames are rather more than an inch in thickness, and the thick veneer is from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch thick. In other kinds no thin veneers are employed; the wood itself, not being costly, is used in pieces thick enough to be put together in a more expedi tious and less costly way. There is a ' patent solid parquetry' now made in Loudon for the flooring of mansions and public buildings, saleable at 1*. per square foot, for an inch in thickness.
The points of difference between small piece-meal productions in wood, metal, glees, enamel, and marble, will be understood by com paring the present article with INLAnNo and Mosaic.