Th e Craft of the Wood Carver
The Practical Decoration of Furniture. Volume I. By R. P. Shapland, A.R.I.B.A. (Ernest Berm, Ltd." 12s. 6d. net.) Tim first volume of this .series; deals with Veneering, inlay, inarqueterie, painting and gilding. The author, examining in detail these various methods of - embellishment, points out that little furniture is wholly devoid of some form of enrichment, and that carving is still carving whether it is an elaborate spray of fruit and flowers, in high relief and undercut, by such a master as Grinling Gibbons,
or a geometriCal pattern roughly dug out with a V-tool upon an oak chest. These are forty-eight plates, excel- lently chosen for the purpose in question; and, in the chapter on veneering, a number of diagrams in the text which indicate several ways in which the thine strips Of wood are cut and attached to the carcass. "Veneering, Mr. Shapland assures us, is not merely a dodge for concealing inferior wood and work- manship, but should be the means by which_ good furniture is decorated with fine woods which are much too rare as well as unsuitable for the purposes of actual construction. Amongst the illustrations which call for special comment is one of an inlaid chest of drawers of the period 1690-1700, which is definitely American. This is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. There are also...a. painted cupboard of the early thirteenth century in the . Cathedral Of Halberstadt, and • sonic ..e*ellenttwentiethzeentury English furniture, the design- ing of which innumerable illustrated books about antiques
"httri‘le 'so much to discourage. _
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