Among the decorative arts in watchmaking, such as enamelling and engine-turning, there is an even more exotic craft known as miniature marquetry. Unlike its counterparts, marquetry is a craft that is only practised by a handful of independent artisans. It involves the intricate arrangement and inlay of tiny, precisely cut pieces of veneer, leather or other materials to create detailed designs on a flush surface.
Marquetry originated from the ancient art of inlay that dates back several millennia in Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. As opposed to marquetry which involves thin slices of materials that are cut and assembled on a supportive surface, inlay involves carving a recess into a surface and embedding a second material into it. This craft experienced various forms of revival throughout history, notably during the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century where it was adapted into a practice known as “intarsia.” It involved the cutting, shaping and arrangement of blocks or sections of wood to create the illusion of depth, achieving a more substantial effect through the deliberate incorporation of different levels and contours. As such, the practitioners of intarsia, or intarsiatori, were known as masters of perspective. The technique was used to embellish both secular and religious objects, creating luxurious and convincingly three-dimensional designs.
Despite acclaim from some quarters, the Florentine polymath Giorgio Vasari, often regarded as the first art historian, famously dismissed intarsia as an “imitation of painting” and something that merely “required more patience than skill.” But unlike painting, which involves applying pigments to a flat surface, intarsia and marquetry demand meticulous cutting and fitting of various wood elements to create a cohesive and detailed composition. The artist must navigate the inherent characteristics of wood, such as grain patterns and colors, as well as master woodworking techniques.
Techniques in wood marquetry became far more sophisticated in Flanders in the 16th and 17th centuries. One development that would revolutionize the intricacy achievable in marquetry work was the invention of the fretsaw.
