Marquetry Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The name derives from a middle-French word which means ‘inlaid work’. The veneers used are primarily woods but can include bone, ivory and tortoiseshell. The French cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) specialised in furniture using metal and either wood or tortoiseshell together, with the latter acting as the background.
