How was it that in the fifteenth century the Italian " intarsiatori" conceived the idea of depicting ornaments and even landscapes in coloured woods? It was because they had seen the ancients paint with fragments of stone; mosaic containing in germ the idea of marquetry. How was it that at a modern period the cabinet makers resumed a process abandoned for centuries? It is that carried away beyond the already wide limits of their productions, they wished, like their predecessors, to encroach on the domain of a neighbouring art; some thought to rival mosaic work; others believed they could become painters. There is certainly one true fixed principle: which is, that furniture should be in harmony with the objects which surround it; but the results of this principle must not be forced so as to depart from the limits assigned by good sense and good taste to each branch of industry. The panelling with their pastoral scenes, and the tapestries, sufficed to represent the fashion of the eighteenth century without the participation of marquetry workers.

It would be difficult to fix a precise date for the introduction of modern marquetry; if we are to consider its first appearance as coeval with the use of woods arranged in panellings with bands of mouldings and fillets of light-coloured wood, we must go back to the end of the Renaissance. We have mentioned the modest attempts at herring-bone combinations in wood under Louis XIII., and finally under Louis XIV. We have seen Andre-Charles Boule depict two splendid vases of flowers on the panels of an armoire; at that time the impulse was given; the idea had burst forth with sufficient brilliancy for it to develop rapidly; and indeed from the time of the Regency to the end of the century it increased and was adopted to an excess.

The progress of commerce had a considerable share in this development of marquetry work; distant countries contributed their brilliant products, and when rosewood, brightly coloured in its grain, but limited in the size of its pieces, originated the idea of opposing dispositions of the pieces in herring-bone, squares, and lozenges; when the citron tree provided the white fillets used for enclosing large spaces, or for heightening the frames of violet wood, the field became open to caprice, which took possession of it without restraint. Crescent first inaugurated mixtures of rosewood, violet, and amaranth woods; soon afterwards, the natural tints appearing too restricted, a method was invented of submitting the wood to artificial colouring, and employing it in mosaic work to imitate painting.

When once the method became adopted, it proceeded with unheard-of rapidity. First, bouquets of flowers appeared in their natural colours, their leaves varied with every shade of green, then trophies of musical or rural instruments were suspended by bright coloured ribbons. From pastoral scenes to amorous emblems there was but a step; quivers, torches surmounted by the customary doves, appeared on all sides; more than this, in the medallions enriched by wreaths, shepherdesses in satin robes were made reclining in sylvan groves; Boucher's pastoral coquettes invaded the panellings of secretaires and the sides of commodes, and covered the bonheurs-du-jour.

Strange aberration, which evidently only resulted, even at the moment of execution, in a certain approximation to the models, but an approximation greatly inferior, and which from the effects of time, the action of light upon the dyes and the natural play of the resins during the drying of the wood, was soon to represent mere faded designs, and an ensemble without any other harmony than that resulting from the destruction of the effect desired to be produced. It is sad to reflect on the amount of talent and trouble which had to be wasted in composing these scenes, now reduced to a sort of cloudy sketch; the once brilliant draperies are dulled and dirty; the faded roses have lasted "ce que vivent les roses;" and when we compare these works with the tapestries, the seats, and tissues which accompanied them, we cannot help saying that even when they first came from the hands of their makers, they must have been extinguished by their brilliant surroundings.

Commode of marquetry decorated with chased bronzes, end of the reign of Louis XIV. (Collection of Dr. Piogey )

But let us pass on before a fait accompli, and endeavour by following up the stages in marquetry work, to retrace the history of the evolution of modern furniture, the two subjects having the closest connection with each other.

We have said a few words on Italian marquetry without dwelling upon it, for the inventions of Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano were much more generally employed in decorating the wood work of cathedral choirs than in ornamenting private furniture; we barely find a few rare chests (Cernuschi collection) in which some rudimentary sculptures, on a painted ground, are framed in a chequered work of brown and yellow wood. There are certainly the works "alia Certosa;" but these are not real marquetry.

During the Renaissance, sculptural notions, and the seeking after architectural forms bring furniture into a serious style, incompatible with the coquetries of tinted woods. When, towards its close, the want of a rather flaunting style of elegance begins to manifest itself, it is by applications of engraved ivory and the addition of pietra dura; architecture still retains its sway, and decks itself in jewels like the people of the court. In the reign of Louis XIII. furniture increases in size and weight, in unison with other works of art; ebony, which sculpture cannot enliven, seeks aid from chased bronze or even from the application of repousse copper; and Flanders already attempts to add frameworks of tortoise-shell.