Floral marquetry is a decorative veneering technique in which flowers, leaves, birds and scrolling foliage are cut from contrasting woods and other materials and fitted together like a jigsaw to create pictorial designs on the surfaces of furniture. It is one of the most elaborate forms of furniture decoration, requiring great skill in cutting and shading.
The technique developed in the Low Countries and France in the seventeenth century and was introduced into England in the later Stuart period, flourishing particularly during the reigns of Charles II and William and Mary. English and immigrant craftsmen decorated cabinets on stands, chests of drawers, longcase clocks, mirror frames and tables with panels of flowers in walnut, holly, box, fruitwoods and stained woods, sometimes with bone or ivory leaves dyed green. Shading was produced by scorching the veneer in hot sand. The style fell from favour in early Georgian England but returned in Neoclassical marquetry and in the nineteenth century, when revivals and later embellishments of plain furniture were common. Collectors judge floral marquetry on the quality of cutting and engraving, the balance of the design and the condition of the veneers, which can lift and fade.
