A sample of Marquetry history

[Gavin Baird]

Some 15 years ago, Lee Valley Tools acquired the contents of a warehouse in France that had been a storage place for a company named Bouffard Brothers. The company dates back to the 1800's and what Lee Valley found was the remains of their inventory long forgotten.
I happened to have been able to acquire a few pieces from Lee Valley and this winter built my son a 12 string Guitar which utilized a back inlay produced by the Bouffard company. I am certain the inlay is well over 100 years old and I think it was made to inlay into a sewing machine cabinet...Theinlay is made from Satin Wood and Ebony.
In addition to photos of the inlay, I have attached, for those interested, the fully compensated bridge used on the 12 string....Gavin

[Jake Wildwood]

Perty (in both respects: inlay and guitar)!

I've always loved older inlay... there are some patterns that you simply don't see anymore whatsoever.

[JEStanek]

Gavin meant to put this in the builder section, so I'm moving it per his request to show off some techniques.

Jamie

[journeybear]

Sorry to be persnickety but it's "marquetry." Not really important, we humans know what you meant, but computers don't - if something is misspelled you can't search on it. :whistling:

But anyway ... that is indeed really nice. Plus you will always have a good story to tell about it! :)

[Michael Cameron]

Gavin Baird,that 12-string bridge is,indeed,FULLY compensated ! Really beautiful work. Nice back-inlay.

That looks like old-school (candy-stripe?) mahogany to me. Beautiful!

I enjoy looking at pics of your mandolins too. Didn't you make one for Peter Ostrushko? He is one of my very favorite mandolinists.

Thanks for the pics.

[Jill McAuley]

What lovely work Gavin, and that blue F4 on your website is gorgeous!

Cheers,
Jill

[Philphool]

Neat. When I glanced at the inlay picture, I thought it was a piece of 35 mm film with developed pictures.:)