Celebrating 50 years in business!

Patrice Lejeune and I show our Treasure Boxes

When I started my business in June of 1969 it was because I needed furniture for my new house and it was obvious that old or antique furniture was a bargain.  You could find nice hardwood rockers, tables and chairs and other antiques in thrift stores and used furniture stores, which were nearly everywhere.

I remember the first "antique" I bought was from the used furniture store just two blocks from my house.  It was a very ornate oak parlor pump organ made around 1880.  I think I paid $125.  It did not work (as the bellows were damaged and the works were dirty).  I immediately took it apart to see how it was made.

(True fact: all my life I have taken everything apart as a first step to fix it.  Not all of these efforts proved successful...I'm thinking of carburetors in particular, where you always end up with extra parts and no place to put them.)

In any event, I was soon playing music on my pump organ, which was very loud.  The dealer who sold it to me was walking by my house and the door was open.  He was surprised to hear the organ working and made me an offer to buy it back.  I think the offer was $250.  I had doubled my money!

AND I had a lot of fun.  I thought this would be a good way to pay for college, since I was making only minimum wage working 20 hours a week in the Physics Department at UCSD.  I was able to make much more than that restoring antiques on the side.

As you may know from reading earlier posts on this blog, the physics thing did not work out and the antiques thing just kept getting more fun and more profitable. First I opened an antiques store and called it "Antique Wholesalers."  My motto was "Quality Pieces at People's Prices."  I went back and forth in my truck from San Diego to the Mid West and East Coast and bought nice things.

After about 6 months in business I lost the entire inventory to theft.  I don't want to talk about it...

I quickly opened another business and called it "Antique Refinishers."  My new motto was "Here We Save the Past for the Future."  Business was great and, after a few hurdles, my reputation started growing and I began working on finer and finer pieces of antique furniture.  I specialized in veneer and marquetry repair.

In 1991, when I met Dr. Pierre Ramond at the Getty Museum, I was ready to graduate to the next level.  He was so impressed with what I had learned on my own that he invited me to study with him at ecole Boulle, in Paris.  That changed my life.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Brian Considine, who introduced me to Dr. Ramond.

I was fortunate to have spent much of the 1990's with Dr. Ramond and other craftsmen and educators in Paris, and when he retired, I opened my school, the American School of French Marquetry.

I am responsible for introducing the French method, using the "chevalet de marqueterie," to North America, and happy to see its general acceptance.  It is a wonderful tool and you can accurately saw the finest pieces of material in comfort and with confidence.  You can order a custom chevalet from David Clark.  Chevalet Kits

Soon after I opened the school, I was contacted by Patrice Lejeune, a graduate of ecole Boulle.  He wanted to work with me, and I ended up making him a full partner.  He has an amazing talent for the craft, and an educated eye.  Most unusual, he is not offended by my personality.

Working together, we have created many wonderful pieces of furniture.  Starting in 2011 we decided to produce a series of Treasure Boxes, in a process which allowed us to make four identical boxes at the same time.

To better understand our methods, you can visit our YouTube channel: 3815utah.

Here is a short video that illustrates a typical assembly process.  This is Patrice working on the marquetry for the inside of Treasure Box II.

TREASURE BOX I

The inspiration for TB I came when I was searching online with Google images.  I spend a lot of time using "images" as it provides an amazing wealth of information.  I discovered a marquetry box that was made late in the 17th century and sold at Christies in Monaco for 18,000 British pounds.  I thought it was perfect and the price indicated a certain demand for such an object.

We spent the next 18 months producing 4 identical boxes with a similar construction and design.
The background for the marquetry was some wonderful absolutely black Gabon sawn ebony veneer that we obtained from J. George in Paris.  The interior was veneered in sawn olive with king wood, tulip wood and boxwood.

Treasure Box I

Interior View (secret compartment)

We were able to sell all four boxes before we had finished construction.

TREASURE BOX II

Encouraged by the success of the first series, we began to design TB II.  Again, Google images provided examples of marquetry that we adapted for our use.  The inclusion of birds was a goal, as we find collectors really like them.

The detail on the second series is much more complicated than the first.  Also, we included bone inlay, both white and green.  It took some research to find out exactly how to color the bone green.  I want to thank Don Williams for help in that search.

Treasure Box II

Interior (secret tray released)

Instead of a hidden compartment, we designed a system for a gilt leather writing surface to be released.  In one spot on the interior the wood is slightly flexible.  By pushing down in that spot the tray is ejected by hidden springs.

The interior is veneered with sawn bloodwood, kingwood, tulip and boxwood.  In total there are three birds on the box and marquetry on all sides.

As before, we sold all the series before construction was completed.  One was purchased by a kind client who donated it to the permanent collection of the Mingei museum, in San Diego.  That represents the first time one of our creations found its way into a museum collection, although I have participated in several different museum shows in the past.

TREASURE BOX III

There are several objects in the Getty museum collection that Patrice and I really appreciate.  One is the ivory and horn table attributed to Gole.  One of my students, Aaron Radelow has succeeded in making exact copies of that table, and they are wonderful.

Ivory and Horn Tables by Aaron Radelow

The other object that we admire is the marquetry coffer.  It is a basic box, resting on a gilded stand (not original?) and covered in marquetry.  We decided to use it for our inspiration and reduced the scale by 33 % to make it more manageable and salable.  We also decided to design custom made hardware and include drawers.

For the background we selected ferreol.  This wood was rare, even in the 17th century, and found in South America.  It has the density of brass and is very hard to cut.  That said, it has a wonderful chocolate brown color and really shows off the marquetry elements.  We added pewter and brass inlay to set off the border.

For this box we used nearly 50 different species of exotic hardwood sawn veneers.  I must say that I was fortunate to have purchased the bulk of my veneers in Paris during the 1990's, while I was in school.  These veneers were very expensive then and, unfortunately, are not available today.  Thus, it is essential that I use the material I have very carefully.  It cannot be replaced at any cost.

I Love Wood

Selecting the Material for Treasure Boxes

That is why making the Treasure Boxes makes sense.  These are perfect objects to show off the last of the rare woods from all parts of the world.

We immediately sold the first box to a long time client and he asked "could you make a stand?"  We had not considered that, but his suggestion was taken to heart.  We created a stand in matching material in the same late 17th century style.

Treasure Box III and Stand

Interior (three drawers, writing surface, secret compartment)

In fact, the stand itself is something that "stands on its own"  (sorry, I had to say that!)

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Louis XIV Stand

The interior of Box III has several interesting features.  The key that locks the box also serves to open the secret compartment located behind the mirror.  The front lid is released by pushing two buttons on the sides. The writing surface is covered in French silk and lifts up to reveal a tray veneered in satinwood.  Inside this tray is a small brass button.  Depressing this button allows the drawers to spring forward.

Three drawers, Silk writing surface, Secret compartment

Drawer Release System

Here is a photo of TBI, TBII, TBIII and the stand sitting in the veneer cave.

Words escape me....

As you can see, what I have learned in 50 years of business as a furniture conservator in private practice is how to convert hardwood logs into rare veneers into decorative marquetry surfaces into money.  And it all started with a pump organ...

Top View Treasure Box III

PS:  We have sold two of the boxes and stands at this point and are looking for nice homes for the rest.  I am thinking of a new motto for these boxes:  "Limited Quantities, Unlimited Quality."

Little Wheels Go Round and Round

Teapoy Upside Down on the Bench

I have taken apart tens of thousands of antique pieces of furniture in my time.  One thing I hold dear is respecting original hardware.  Furniture hardware takes a beating.  Metal and wood do not live well together and are constantly at odds.

For example, how many outdoor decks have you seen with the nails sticking up?  Ever wondered how that happened?  Little elves in the middle of the night sneaking around with crowbars and lifting the nails little by little?  Same thing with wood screws.  They always are a bit loose after some time.  Do these elves also have screwdrivers?

These are the things I occupy my time with, when I am trapped in elevators, or waiting for my turn in line at some place.  I am not normal, I have been told.

Naturally, the obvious conclusion is that the wood hates the metal and wants to get rid of it, or the metal hates the wood and wants to get away.  That makes perfect sense to me as they are not from the same species.  Wood grows in nature and iron is man made.

On the other hand, perhaps the wood dimensions change as a function of humidity and, by expansion and contraction, there is a force which just pushes out the iron.  Just another thought...

In any event, when I find a screw, or hinge, or other piece of hardware which has stood the tests of time, the environment and the whims of ownership, I tend to respect it and leave it alone.  It is, after all, the absolute proof of age and cannot be faked.

If a screw is blunt and made before 1850 and has never been touched, then the antique is before 1850.  See my earlier post "Respect the Screw," for more on this topic.

Today I am posting about wheels.  I have seen a lot of wheels on furniture.  The earliest wheels were made with leather rollers, held on each side by brass washers.  Then brass wheels appeared, followed by porcelain, iron and then wood.  Each of these materials had their advantages.  The leather was soft enough and quiet but quickly developed flat spots.  The brass rolled smoothly but distorted under pressure.  The porcelain wheels were clean and added a decorative color but could be broken if sharply hit.  The iron wheels worked well, but would rust if wet.  The wood wheels were the cheapest, and depending on the species of wood, lasted for a fairly long time.

A basic problem with all these wheels on furniture is the shaft which held the wheel.  If it got bent then the height of the wheel changed, and the piece of furniture became unstable.  Most of the time, when I deliver a piece of furniture with wheels, I need to instruct the owner to take the time to rotate the wheels until the piece is level and stable on the floor.  It's frustrating.

Not until this week did I realize that there is a solution to this problem.  For the first time in my experience I found a set of wheels that were made by an unknown genius.  There is no name or patent date on these wheels, but they certainly would qualify.

I was restoring an English rosewood teapoy from around 1850.  It had never previously been repaired or restored, so I was the first person to take it apart.

You need to realize that tea and the tea service is one of the most important social habits of the English lifestyle.  It is not uncommon for the wealthy to spend a lot of money on the tea as well as the furniture and materials used in storing, mixing and drinking tea.

This teapoy has a circular lift top which contains 4 circular containers for the tea.  Two wood containers with lids, lined with lead foil, for the tea and two cut crystal containers to mix the blend for consumption.

Hand Made Cast Brass Hinge

As the circular top is rather heavy and there is only one hinge, it needs to be sturdy.  The builder reinforced the area around the hinge with custom brass plates, and the hinge itself is hand filed from thick blanks of cast brass.  Modern rolled sheet brass hinges were new at the time, as several exhibitors at the 1852 exposition included them in their display, but they were not as strong as this hinge.  It is massive.  It also shows that the brass hardware on this teapoy was made by a craftsman who understood design and engineering stresses.

Minor Veneer Damage

Look At How The Veneer Was Added

Some 40 years ago, when I was at Winterthur, during the Summer Institute of 1978, I was approached by Don Fennimore, then a curator who was a specialist in silver, but had been asked to include furniture in his duties.  He was curious if I knew why there were small cut marks under the plinth where the veneer was stuck in the corners.  I pointed out that it made sense to saw a bit deeper in the corners so you could jam the veneer into place, thus holding it secure during glue up.  It was obvious to me, as I had been doing this at work.  However, in his position, he needed to complete a stack of paperwork before he could even remove a single screw.

The pedestal is a carved spiral post in solid rosewood, and the plinth is a shaped flat platform with carved scroll feet.  The veneer is thick sawn Brazilian rosewood veneer.  As the finish had become completely opaque and black over the years, I decided to refinish it to show off the rosewood.  This wood is endangered and it is a visual pleasure to see the quality of rosewood which used to be available some 150 years ago.

Wheels and Screws Made before 1850

As the wheels were carved into sockets under the feet and all the screws had become loose I removed them.  They were original and blunt, so they will be returned to their places after the restoration.  My goal was to clean the dirt and oxidation from the wheels.

To my surprise, as I began cleaning the wheels, I found something I had never seen before.  There was a second, very small wheel, which actually served to carry the load.  This unique design allowed the primary wheel to carry the load without bending the iron shaft, thus keeping it level over time.  This system was in perfect condition on all three wheels, and after cleaning it appeared that these wheels were unchanged and unaffected from many years of use.

Big Wheels and Little Wheels Make It Work

I need to respect the craftsman who designed and built something like this, knowing that it will survive many generations.  Unfortunately, much of the human energy spent on building objects today is wasted, as nothing really is expected to survive for long.

The basic philosophy today is make it last "until the check clears."

Jewel Cabinet Backstory Revealed

A Little Pride Showing

When I started this blog, I selected one of my favorite pieces to use as the Banner.  The Jewel Cabinet I made nearly 10 years ago has an interesting story and I often use it during my lectures on Painting in Wood to illustrate my favorite method for decorating surfaces.

This Jewel Cabinet was first exhibited in the SAPFM member's exposition, "Contemporary Classics: Selections from the Society of American Period Furniture Makers," at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia, and I distinctly remember it as being the only piece of European furniture in that show.  Subsequently, it was also on exhibit here in San Diego, at the Mingei Folk Art Museum, as part of the "Forms in Wood and Fibre" exhibition.  I must say it also stood out from the rest of the show, as being from another planet.  My good friend, John Lavine, editor of Woodwork Magazine, was kind enough to place this cabinet on the back cover of issue #101, October 2006.  It is in a private collection today, and I get to see it from time to time.  The last time I looked at it, my first comment was "I could do much better today!"  Then I realized that my thoughts should best be kept to myself.  This craft is an amazing thing: you spend 45 years working every day trying to master it only to find out that there are still many more things to learn.

The art of French polish is a good example. Once, in the most prestigious restoration shop in Paris, I approached a worker who had spent 10 years in that shop and his only job was polishing.  As he was working on a beautiful mahogany table, rubbing away, I watched his darkly stained hands moving expertly over the surface and asked, "Can you tell me some of the secrets of French polishing?"  As I understood his response, in French, I heard, "I've been doing this every day for 10 years, and I still have a lot to learn."

As the photo of this Jewel Cabinet is an iconic part of this blog, I thought it was time I should explain what led me to make such a thing.  Also, since Paul Miller just wrote me and asked if he could use my piece as an inspiration for him to make something similar, I want to post some more details for him to use.  I have no problem with others copying my work.  I have done the same thing all my career.  The difference is that the craftsmen I choose to copy have all been dead for a couple centuries.

In any event, I first saw this cabinet in London, at one of the most well known and expensive antique dealers in that city.  I will not name the company, for reasons which will become obvious in this post.  As I walked through their showrooms, I was impressed with the quality of the objects and the perfect condition they appeared to be in.  In one room I was stopped in my tracks by a wonderful marquetry cabinet with ivory feet and pulls.  I asked the salesman for more information, as I "might have a buyer" and he obliged by handing me three glossy 8 x 10 photographs and the price sheet.

Here is the description on the price sheet:  (Dealer name covered by blue tape)

Name Deleted to Protect the Dealer

There are several points raised by this sheet to consider.  First of all, it is attributed to "France, circa 1690."  Secondly, it is called a "Cartonnier."  Third, it is very strongly attributed to Boulle, without exactly saying so.  (The word is "comparable.")  Forth, it is 116cm wide (this fact will soon be recognized as very significant.)  And, finally, it is 18,500 British pounds.

As soon as I was able to return to my library and do basic research, I found this document:

The Evidence Exhibit A

The type is hard to read, but it says: "Flemish..Antwerp, in the manner of Van Soest..." This page is from an auction sale around the same time as I saw the cabinet in London, and the auction estimate was 7-10,000 British pounds.  I do not know how much it sold for.  I do note that the top section is"a removable superstructure of inverted breakfront form, with a central cubgoard door inlaid with a vase of flowers, flanked by eight drawers..."  More importantly, the width of the cabinet is 116cm.

I doesn't take a lot of conjecture to imagine a person buying this desk, throwing away the base section (since it needs a lot of work), adding ivory feet and pulls to the upper section and calling it French.  The motive is simple: you double your money.

My first suspicion that something was not right, was the term the dealer provided for the object: "Cartonnier."  I know from my reading and visiting museums that a cartonnier in French furniture is a different shaped cabinet which stood at the end of the bureau plat.  In simple terms, it was a filing cabinet for the paper work.  Generally quite tall and shaped to match the Louis XV forms popular at the mid century.  The dilemma faced by the dealer was what to call it, since it no longer was associated with the Flemish desk that used to support it.

In any event, here are the photos supplied by the dealer and what I did with them:

"Comparable to Outstanding Boulle Marquetry"

This first photo is of the central door and two of the small drawers.  The marquetry is very crudely executed.  My process is to trace the designs, rather quickly on tracing paper, so I can begin to memorize the details.  This is the result:

Rough Drawing of Original

At this point, I was convinced that I would not use any of the marquetry designs on the piece.  I could do much better by adapting some of the traditional French designs that are included in all of Pierre Ramond's books.  So I kept the same dimensions and form and redrew the designs completely as follows:

Final Drawing of Marquetry

You might notice that I am not afraid of cutting very little pieces.  The eye of the bird, for example, is less than 1mm in diameter.  I prefer the way the flowers stand in the vase and the perspective of the table top supporting the vase gives depth to the image.  I like to use olive oyster sawn veneers for the vase, as it lends a look of marble to the object.

I cut out the solid woods for the carcase, using quarter sawn white oak and beech.  I rough out my stock and set it aside, with stickers, for a season (at least one year) to adjust to my climate.  I cut out more pieces than I need, so I can pick the best ones when it comes time to build the piece.  While the wood is set aside, I turn my attention to cutting out the marquetry panels, using the Painting in Wood process.  I remember there are 18 panels plus the running bands on the face.  Several of the panels are identical in design but inverted in polarity so as to appear different.

For example, the two large panels on the top ends are the same design, but mounted left and right, with the individual colors of the elements selected as opposite colors.  The 8 drawers are made from only two drawings.  One has an orchid in the corner and the other has a rose.  By flipping the images left and right and changing the woods, it appears that there are 8 different designs.  There are 32 different wood species and all of them are natural colors, except the blue and green woods which are tinted using traditional methods.  Of course all the veneers are sawn material I purchased in Paris from Patrick George and are 1.5mm thick.

Here is the top of my cabinet:

Top of Cabinet

I needed ivory for turning the feet and pulls, so I contacted my friend, David Warther.  He kindly sent me the proper pieces of ivory along with a legal "Affidavit of Origin" documenting where he purchased it:

Legal Ivory

I included this paper with the cabinet when I sold it.  You may check recent posts on this blog to see how current legislation is affecting the trade in ivory, both legal and antique.

I might mention that I like to use full blind dovetails for my cabinets and boxes which are veneered.  This way the dovetail pins do not telegraph through the surface over time.  I did the same for this cabinet.  Everything was hand surfaced and toothed so I could press the veneer in place.  After the panels were laid down, the cabinet was glued together and the ebony and boxwood banding applied.

Here is the front of the original cabinet:

Made by Hand in Antwerp late 17th Century

Here is my cabinet:

Made by Hand in Southern California 21st Century

Here is the back of the original piece:

Back of Cartonnier

Here is the back of my cabinet:

Credit for Design to Louis XIV Coffer 

When I applied the shellac polish, I found myself being detached from the object in a very strange way.  As I stepped out of the job of making the cabinet and transitioned into the job of polisher, I began to wonder "who made this?"  It sounds strange, but when I am in the middle of a project, I can think of nothing else.  But when it is done, I forget all about it and move on to something else.  So, as I polished the ebony and marquetry surface, all I could think of was how amazing this object was, and how lucky I was to be able to work on it.

All told, I spend 800 hours building this cabinet and it sold the day it was finished to the first person who saw it.  Life is good.  There is still a lot to learn.

Assembly Board Videos

Lately we have been encouraged to make more videos, and YouTube provides the perfect venue for others to see what we do and how we do it.  We are working on a series of videos which will explain the different methods for making marquetry, according to Dr. Pierre Ramond.  Those will follow as we get the time to put them together.

However, as we are building the second series of Treasure Boxes, we thought it would be nice to show how a picture is put together on an assembly board, according to the traditional French process.

I have posted previously about this method, and it is important to note that the idea of building marquetry face down in hot glue on stretched Kraft paper is something developed by the French and not usually done in other countries.  In fact, the type of Kraft paper used is not even available in America, and I have searched for it.  We import rolls of it from a company in France, and the shipping costs exceed the cost of the paper.  (Last shipment arrived by air freight, and the "friendly" customs inspector drove his fork lift over the shipment and thought that was funny.)

Anyway, the French Kraft paper is shiny on one side and dull on the other.  The shiny side resists moisture and is the side we glue to, and the dull side absorbs moisture, and is the side we apply water to to remove the paper from the marquetry when we are finished.  By applying moisture to the shiny side and allowing it to soak in for several minutes the paper expands.  Then when we wrap it around a board and glue it to the edges, it shrinks tight.  That is an assembly board.

A more exhaustive explanation of how to build an assembly board is found on this blog by searching earlier posts.  Use the search word "assembly board."

Patrice finished cutting all the pieces for the marquetry panel using the Classic Method ("piece by piece"), and we set up the camera to film the incrustation of the elements.  Each picture took about a half hour to assemble, working normally, and we speeded up the video so it takes half that time to see what goes on.

Hot hide glue is spread on the paper and the background is laid face down on the board.  Each piece is then picked up, flipped left to right and placed into its appropriate cavity.  We use a special marquetry knife to install the pieces.  It is a soft steel, so we can pry with the point without breaking the tip.

When all the pieces are in place, we clamp it under a piece of plexiglass and start over.  It is fast and easy.  Note we are using sawn veneers, which are quite thick, and you can easily hear the "click" as they plug into place.

As soon as we posted this to YouTube, we noticed that our friend, Paul Miller, had made a similar video last month.  The difference is that he is using sliced veneers, which are much thinner, and he has applied paper to the veneers before cutting them to strengthen them.  After he installs the pieces on the board, he must then carefully remove the paper with a slight amount of water and scraping to clean off the surface.

In either case, once the picture is done, we mix hot glue, hot water and fine sawdust to make a mastic.  That mastic is applied to the entire surface, which fills any gaps and holds the parts together.  Only then can the picture be cut away from the assembly board and applied to the final project.

Hope you enjoy this.  Patrice's video is HERE

Paul Miller's video is HERE

Back To Work On Lecount

Marquetry Panel For Lecount Case Door

I have been rather busy lately with the business of business.  I knew that when the jobs and housing markets turned around the phone would ring.  Well, it has, and I am looking at a shop full of antiques that need my attention.  Also, I had two weeks of teaching which is always a nice change in routine.

The Lecount project has been calling me...literally.  The clock works sit on a stand in the corner of the shop and chime precisely on the hour, reminding me that they need a case.  The amazing thing about this set of works is that they run for 30 days!  And they keep time to the second.  Not bad for a set of brass works made by hand around 1690.  How many mechanisms made today will still be running perfectly in 300 years?

During the last week we had a holiday, and holidays mean that I can work without interruption.  So I returned to the chevalet and cut out the remaining panels for the door of the clock.  At the same time I thought I would make a video of the process of building marquetry face down on an assembly board, which is the French method.

I have written before about this method, but I find that using words to explain it really is confusing.  Watching a video is much better.  So I selected a simple flower example to demonstrate.  I should note that the only thing that didn't happen during this video was the phone or door bell ringing.  What did happen was the Lecount clock chimed, the mail man arrived and Bridget kept barking, Patrice stumbled over the stool while filming, and the garbage truck drove by the shop, making it impossible to hear what I said at the end.

All in all, a very professional shoot.  Watch it HERE

I am using sawn veneers, which are 1.5mm thick.  The building process is very easy and you just place the pieces in the picture cavity face down, holding them with hot protein glue.  The glue allows for some adjustment if you do it quickly, so you can move pieces around slightly for a good fit.  Later, if you find a mistake, you can easily reheat the pieces and remove them or replace them.

When the panel is assembled, I will use diluted protein glue and fine sawdust to make a mastic to fill the saw kerf, again working from the back side (glue side) of the marquetry, so the front surface remains clean.

Here are some photos of the process of building a marquetry panel using an assembly board.  The first photo shows the gluepot, assembly board, simple tools and a tray with the parts.  Note I have just completed the first panel and am ready to build the second.  The paper design goes with the parts in the tray for the second design.  All the parts in the tray are laid face down, and the paper design is inverted left to right so I can follow the design easily.

First Panel Done, Ready For Second

Here are the parts in the tray, carefully laid out according to the design.  All the pieces have been burned in hot sand.

All The Pieces Laid Out

Here is the ebony background which has just been laid into the hot glue on the stretched paper of the assembly board.  It is important to place the branches and leaves in place first, so that the background is properly located before the glue sets.  Putting the individual flowers in place takes longer so is done after the branches and leaves.

Sawn Ebony Background Glued Down

Here is the drawing for the flower at the top of the design.  It is made up of lots of pieces, and each one is unique, having a walnut piece with cut engraving lines and a box wood piece which is the lip of the petal.  This type of flower is typical of work done late in the 17th century.

Flower Design Inverted Left To Right

Here are the pieces for the flower, carefully burned and laid out in a precise location in the tray.

Flower Pieces Ready To Install

Here is the flower assembled.  You are looking at the back (glue side) of the flower, which will be filled with mastic to complete the process.

Flower Assembled Face Down

Here is the final picture, glued to the assembly board, ready for mastic.  The entire assembly of this picture took less than an hour.  Much less.

Ready For Mastic

"Classic Method" Video

Oeben Table J. Paul Getty Collection

Several years ago the J. Paul Getty Museum had an exhibition which illustrated the various stages of making a table by Oeben which is in their collection.  It was a well produced effort, and involved many of the workshops and artisans who I know from my time in Paris.

In particular, Michel Jamet was involved in the ebenisterie, and Pierre Ramond directed his top students in the recreation of the marquetry surface.  They are not given credit in this video, but I would like to mention that they produced this work at ecole Boulle, in Paris.

The exhibition discussed the sawing of the veneers, the making of the carcase out of oak, the bronze dore mounts, the polishing and, of course the marquetry.  Note the veneers used were sawn veneers which are 1.5mm thick and supplied by Patrick George, in Bagnolet, France.

If you have visited the museum, you will recognize this table as one of the great masterpieces in their collection.  It was made by Jean-Francois Oeben, around 1754.  The top of this table slides back which opens the drawer for access.  That, in itself, is a neat trick, since you do not have to move any of the stuff sitting on the top and get full access to the drawer for the writing tools inside.

The inside of the drawer is finished as elaborately as the outside of the table.  I particularly love the grill and flower motif ("jeux de fond") which decorates the aprons and sides of the drawer.  In this method, each of the individual flowers were cut into their respective backgrounds with conical cutting.  Then the grill was laid down and, one by one, the flowers were positioned into their appropriate cavities.

The Getty video is a very accurate representation of the Classic Method, invented by the French in the 18th century, also called "element par element" or "piece by piece."  The essential part of this process was making copies of the design using the picking machine, or even using a pin to poke the holes by hand.  This early "Xerox" method allowed the artist to make as many exact copies of the drawing as needed.  Each part of the design was then cut out and applied to a packet of veneers, held together by nails.

It is important to understand that this method relied on cutting the outside half of the line away for all the inside elements and the inside half of the line away for the background.  The accuracy required for the proper execution of this method depended on two things: using a chevalet, which is the most controlled and accurate tool for cutting veneers, and the simple trick that the inside elements were cut clockwise around their perimeter and the background packet was cut counter clockwise around the perimeter.  Once you understand this, you will see the advantage of this method.  Not only does it minimize waste and eliminate the saw kerf completely, it allows the worker to make many copies of the marquetry as he wants, all exactly identical.

I was fortunate to be involved in this exposition.  I was hired by the Getty Education Department to make twice weekly public presentations in the Gallery adjacent to the installation.  I had a picking machine, chevalet, and all the tools and materials used to make marquetry set up and demonstrated the techniques which were shown in the video.  These 2 hour talks allowed the visitors to ask questions and see exactly how marquetry is traditionally made in France.

Demonstrating Marquetry at the Getty Museum

Let me know if you have any questions.

Treasure Box Series I (Part B)

There are several things that are essential to the French method of making marquetry. Surprisingly, the use of the chevalet is not one of them. By that I mean that there are many French workers who make great pieces and do not use the chevalet. In fact, the workshop at ecole Boulle has generally replaced the chevalet with Italian jig saws. I discussed this in an earlier post, and showed photos of the new workshop.

In my mind the essential ingredients of a French process marquetry workshop are: hot protein glue, Kraft paper and trays. Lots and lots of trays. Large trays for all the parts for the design. Smaller trays for the cutting work and tools. Cabinets to hold the trays and tables to place the trays on. It seems that most of the work building these pictures involves moving parts from one tray to another or within the same tray, using tweezers and trying not to disturb the pile. With 4 copies of sawn veneer, it is fairly easy to keep them stacked up. With 8 copies it gets more difficult, as the stacks keep falling over and mixing up.

I found a coated paper which is blue and has a low flocking surface of some kind that works great. I don't know where I got it and I don't know where you can find it, so don't ask. However, since it is blue, it is easy to see the wood on the surface, even the small elements. Also the parts seem to stay in place and not move around. I just used spray adhesive to line the trays with this paper. The larger trays are from an antique typesetting cabinet. The smaller trays are just something I made from pieces of wood with an edge frame.

So, as the pieces from each packet are cut out they are placed in the small tray, which is at the chevalet. When that is full, these pieces are then transferred to the larger tray and placed in their respective position, according to the exploded design. It is very important to keep them in exactly the proper location, because it can become confusing in a hurry as the design gets complicated.

Now, looking at the design which has been shadowed, each piece is carefully placed in hot sand in such a way as to create the desired effect. The sand is very fine and uniform and heated as much as possible. We purchased a rather expensive hot plate, made in Germany, since the hot plates made in China did not create enough heat to do the job. The sand is about 1 inch deep and heated for at least an hour or more to create the proper temperature. Do not stir up or disturb the sand, as you want to use the even heat distribution (top to bottom) to your advantage for the proper look.

Only after all the elements of the picture are properly cut out, placed in their proper position and burned in hot sand do you begin to cut the background packet.

That is another post. To be continued.

Treasure Box Series I (Part A)

I love Google search using "images". I can waste hours sitting and scrolling through page after page of images. It is amazing. Add to that the Google "alert" feature and I am in heaven. How did I ever survive life just a decade or so ago, when the computer took hours to load up any image and, before that, I needed a CPM operating system just to read the screen?

I am one of the Boomers, who are the first generation to grow up in a home with a television (black and white). When you turned it on a white dot would appear in the center of the dark screen, gradually expanding to fill the entire area, as the tubes in the set warmed up. Often the picture would scroll up or down, and you would have to reach around the back where there were several control knobs to adjust the horizontal or vertical hold. Not to mention that there were 13 VHF channels. Period. No UHF. No cable. No reality shows. Just news and the Disney channel, and Gunsmoke and, the most wonderful show of all: the Twilight Zone.

Just to put into perspective (for the younger generation) how cool it is to just put a word into the search box and, as quick as you can press the "return" key, the world of information is in front of your eyes. And you can do that on your phone while sitting in a cafe having a coffee or walking on the beach.

So, a few months ago, when I received an alert on "marquetry," I found a wonderful marquetry letter box for sale from the late 17th century. I thought it would make a nice project, so I captured the image and sent it to Patrice for digital manipulation. He corrected the perspective with photoshop, using edit>transform>skew. then, using illustrator ( you can also use inkscape), he created a vector drawing. We prefer to make this line a series of small dots, using the stroke feature. It was important for us to have small dots, since we decided to use the Classic Method ("element par element") in cutting this project, ultimately making 4 identical copies. (Needless to say, Patrice improved the original design tremendously, as you can appreciate by comparing the pictures.)

The reason we draw with dots is because, even if you use a fine pen (0.01mm tip) you still have a line. Trying to see if you have cut away exactly 1/2 of that line is difficult. If you have a series of fine dots, then you can more easily see if you have cut those dots in half or completely cut them away or left them whole. This type of accuracy is important for the pieces to fit properly, and the "chevalet de marqueterie" is the only tool I know of which makes this possible.

Printing out multiple copies of this design, we proceeded to the next step: choosing the colors and woods. We wanted to make this box using authentic materials, so we went through our veneer cave and selected a wide range of sawn veneers, typical of the species that were used at that time. We selected some wonderful sawn Gaboon ebony for the background. I love this period of marquetry and had a lot of fun filling in the design with exotic hardwoods, choosing from a rich and diverse palette. These woods included: holly, hornbeam, bow, sycamore, lemon, cherry, pear, "my lady", olive, walnut, padauk, bloodwood, satine, and other tinted woods.

We put together 22 different packets for this job, with each packet consisting of a 3mm backer board, grease paper, 4 layers of sawn 1.5mm hardwood veneer, and nails at each corner. After cutting the pattern into individual pieces of paper, for each element of the design, we glued the appropriate paper pieces to the selected packet, numberes 1 to 22. Finally, we held the packet tightly together, placing veneer nails in between each of the paper pieces.

I assembled the packets while Patrice worked on cutting out the elements. Each cut would produce 4 identical elements, which were returned to the tray and placed in their respective position, relative to the design. This project contains about 1325 individual elements in the design, for the top and sides. Thus, with 4 copies, we needed to keep over 5,000 different pieces of wood in order, without loosing any during the process. Just cutting out the pieces took two weeks.

After all the elements were cut out and placed in the tray, we turned on the hot sand and drew the desired shadows on the design. Following the drawing, we placed each of the 5000 pieces of wood in the sand just in the right angle and for the right amount of time to create the burn we wanted. Since some of these pieces were microscopic in size or extremely fragile, this requires a lot of focus and attention. It is also rather time consuming...but, without adding the shadows, the picture looks flat and unrealistic. The goal of this work is to create fine art: Painting in Wood.

(Post to be continued)