Past and Present

2nd Scandinavian Symposium on Furniture Technology & Design Marquetry Past and Present May 2007 Vadstena Sweden Cover photo: Detail of ‘Scarab table’ by Rasmus Malbert. Photo taken by © Rasmus Malbert. This publication was made possible thanks to Carl Malmstens Hantverksstiftelse Editor Ulf Brunne Director of Studies Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies Linköping University Tel. +46 (0) 13 28 23 20 e-mail: [email protected] Layout Elise Andersson Furniture Conservator Tel. +31 (0) 686 15 27 06 / +46 (0) 704 68 04 97 e-mail: [email protected] Foreword The Marquetry Symposium in Vadstena 2007 was all over the world. The presentations covered a the second international symposium hosted by Carl multitude of aspects and were well inline with our Malmsten Centre of Wood Technology & Design ambition to include both historical, theoretical, at Linköping University. Since then we not only technical and design related aspects. changed our name, we also moved to new purpose- Even if the symposium, as intended, covered both built premises and above all, updated our programs historical and modern applications we conclude in order to meet future challenges. Carl Malmsten that presentations of contemporary works and Furniture Studies, which is our new name, is techniques were in minority. It is therefore with great satisfaction we during the past few years have Marquetry has since ancient times been used to registered a growing interest not only in traditional decoratedefinitely furniture back on track! and interiors. Starting with basic marquetry but also in the use of marquetry on but intricate geometric patterns in the Middle Ages, industrially manufactured design furniture. Inlayed the art of marquetry had its peak in the late 18th wood decorated surfaces can today be seen at every century when craftsmen like Riesner, Roentgen and Haupt produced highly elaborate and artistic inlays. At Malmsten’s we strongly believe that a better Even though the art and craft of marquetry has understandingmajor international of historical furniture aspectsfair! is crucial for gradually declined ever since the Art Deco-period the development of modern marquetry but we also encourage new and innovative techniques. Malmsten’s. Maybe the time is ripe for yet another symposium weConservation still find a most and livingrestoration tradition, projects not least confront here usat on marquetry, this time with focus on modern with problems where at least part of the solution is hidden in the actual craft procedure. However, We are very much aware that a number of technical documentation on historical techniques internationaltechniques and conferences contemporary on marquetry artistic expressions! and related and tools is scarce; so is research on timbers and other materials involved. Many of the presentations reasons references to these are not included in the articles.fields have been arranged since 2007 and for obvious showed ways to further deepen our knowledge I would like to conclude with a word of thanks to aboutin Vadstena the noble brought art of new marquetry. findings to light and also Elise Andersson and Johan Knutsson whose stamina, The aim of the symposium in 2007 was to bring dedicated work and expertise made it possible together both art historians, designers, craftsmen, conservators/restorers and conservation scientists. Scandinavian Symposium on Furniture Technology The interest in the symposium was far beyond our &to Design.finally publish these postprints from the 2nd expectations and gathered speakers from ten different countries and some hundred participants from Ulf Brunne Content Marquetry Technology and Aesthetics 8 – Historic Objects and personal Work Silas Kopf Craftmanship and Marquetry Works in the Nordic 32 Countries from 1560 to 1620 – Examples from Kalmar Castle and Fredriksborg Castle Stina Ekelund Style and Technique of the 16th Century Marquetries 40 on the Choir Stalls in the Elisabeth Church in Wroclaw Christine Cornet The ‘Amalia Cabinet’ 49 – A Masterpiece of 17th Century Dutch Cabinetmaking Angie Barth Marquetry made of mixed Materials 60 – The Conservation Project ‘Furniture in Boulle-technique’ at the Bavarian National Museum, Munich Roswitha Schwarz, Stefan Demeter UV/VIS-absorption spectrometry 76 – A non-destructive Method for Dyestuff Identification Heinrich Piening Marquetry Techniques in Paris during the second Half 83 of the 18th Century Yannick Chastang Chippendale’s Marquetry revealed 90 Jack Metcalfe The Marquetry Artist Georg Haupt 102 – Cabinetmaker by Royal Appointment Per Kortebäck Different Materials 110 – Visual Exactness, Treatments, Tools Ulli Freyer The Conservation of a late 17th Century Floral 118 Marquetry Cabinet attributed to Jan van Mekeren Iskander Breebaart, Paul van Duin From High Wycombe to Iran 133 – The Tale of a three legged Table Paul Tear, Research by Alan Jones Flowers from Holland 142 – Antique Dutch furniture with later added Marquetry from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries Jaap Boonstra, Maarten van Bommel, Pol Bruys New from old 162 – Discoveries during the Conservation Treatment of a ‘Boulle’ Style Commode in the Wallace Collection Jürgen Huber Continuities and Changes in Marquetry Technologies 168 and Techniques Clive Edwards The demand for more Decorations in Norwegian 178 Modernism – a political statement Widar Halén A contemporary Use of Marquetry 190 – Traditional Techniques in a modern Context Rasmus Malbert An Exotic Cabinet 194 – The fusion of Indian and Persian style Nigel Bamforth Silas Kopf Marquetry Technology and Aesthetics – Historic Objects and personal Work Silas Kopf Marquetry through the ages – a short outline Furniture has been decorated using contrasting This ragged edge became the teeth. Hammering materials since ancient Egypt. It is the craftsman’s the metal would make it somewhat harder, but familiarity with his tools that often dictates the also more brittle. The teeth would break frequently style of decoration that is used. Tools evolved over and it would require new hammering. Imagine the centuries allowing greater elaboration of design. challenge of sawing a hard wood like ebony with one Great craftsmen have also been excited by the of these copper saws. pushes the boundary of craftsmanship. The exotic wood and ivory that were the primary introductionThe earliest of existingnew materials. example The of finest marquetry-like work often decorativeThe Egyptians materials were were the firstvaluable to make enough veneers. that decoration is a fragment from an Egyptian box in there was a desire to “stretch out” the amount of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It dates from coverage that could be obtained from a given log the First Dynasty around 3000 BC. Coloured faience or tusk. A depiction in the tomb of a nobleman, triangular tiles are glued onto the wooden surface Rekmire, shows how this was done (Figure 3). The creating a geometric pattern (Figure 1). log (or tusk) would be strapped to a vertical pole and the sawing would go down until the piece of and are contrasted with the plain wood surrounding thinner veneer was created. This veneer could then theThe design. pieces It isare this fitted concept and ofglued taking to thethin background contrasting materials and gluing them to another surface that cheaper wood. will evolve into the sophisticated marquetry of later beWe ground have beenflat and left aglued marvellous to the surfacerecord ofof Egyptian another eras. culture through murals found on tombs and temples. The tools available to Egyptian wood craftsmen There is a mural on the tomb of the woman pharaoh, largely dictate what can be done decoratively. Hatshepsut, depicting an expedition to a land called Punt (presumed to be in the area of present and this allowed the cutting of straight lines (Figure day Somalia). We are told that the ships are being Straight backed saws were first developed in Egypt loaded with ivory and ebony among other valuable imports (Figure 4). An expedition such as this was a but2). Howeverthere were it nocouldn’t harder have iron beentools. easy! The teeth The ofmetal the great undertaking and shows how important it was used for the tools was first copper and later bronze, to have these decorative materials available to the metal to a thinness where it the edge would fray. royal craftsmen. saws were not filed but created by hammering the 8 Marquetry Technology and Aesthetics Figure 4 Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 1 Wood with faience inlay, Egyptian, 1st dynasty (c. 3100 - 2890 BCE). Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England. Figure 2 Egyptian woodworking tools, 1st dynasty (c. 3100 - 2890 BC), British Museum, London. Figure 3 Representation of woodworking. Tomb of Rekmire c. 1475 BC, Valley of the Nobles, Thebes, Egypt. Figure 4 Ships preparing to return from Punt, Temple of Deir el Bahari, Tomb of Queen Hat-shep-sut, c. 1460 BC. Figure 2 9 Silas Kopf Figure 5 Coffer from Tutankhamun’s tomb, Eighteenth dynasty Figure 6 Ceremonial Chair from Tutankhamun’s 1332 - 1323 BC., Ivory, ebony, and faience, Egyptian tomb, Eighteenth dynasty 1332- 1323 BC., Ivory, Museum, Cairo. ebony, and faience, Egyptian Museum, Cairo. One of the great surviving decorative objects in By the eleventh century Islamic culture dominated Egyptian history is a coffer from Tutankamun’s tomb (Figure 5). It looks very similar to the object techniques of mosaic were adapted by craftsmen and being made by the woodworkers from Rekmire’s spreadthe area throughout that was once the Islamic the Byzantine world. The Empire. favoured The tomb (Figure 3). In this case the surface is covered motifs were geometric and very elaborate. A minbar with small polygons of ebony ivory and faience tiles. from Cordoba, Spain is a wonderful example of the The surface is rich in pieces that all would have use of geometric decoration (Figure 8). This is close been cut using the crude saws of the era. Notice to what we would call marquetry. The parts are that all the lines are straight, saws were not yet available to cut curves. There is a ceremonial chair work). Most importantly the decoration is overlaid from Tutankamun’s tomb that were made with the asall atightly sheet onfitted a plainer (without wood.

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