PANEL ORNAMENTED IN BUHL, FROM A CHIFFONIERS.
is now pushed out of the other veneer, and any minute pieces are picked out, and laid aside. The cavitythus produced is now entirely filled up with the pattern cut out of the other veneer, and the pieces are retainedin contact with a little thick glue. They are then turned over, and the toothings, or fine dust of the darkerwood, are rubbed in to fill up the interstices, after which the work is laid aside to dry.” It is then readyto be glued on to the piece of furniture it is intended to decorate, in the manner of an ordinary veneer,and is subsequently scraped and polished; The two veneers which are cut out form the buhl and counter ;*the one exhibiting, for instance, a dark ornament on a light ground, and the other having the same patternwith the colours reversed. In the same way three thicknesses of wood may be sawn out together, andthese, when cut through, split asunder, and recombined, would produce three pieces of buhl-work. Suchare technically known as works in three woods, and constitute the general limit of the thicknesses. Thedesigns for such work should be as much as possible arranged to have a nearly equal amount of eachcolour, in order to make each of the combinations effective. In buhl-work no part of the material is wasted,and this is one of the great differences between it and marqueterie. Stamps or punches are sometimes used inbuhl-work of brass and wood, but only to a limited extent. All kinds of wood that are capable of being cutinto delicate veneers, may be used in buhl-work, according to the description we have just given, but the termwas originally more particularly applied to a combination of brass with ebony, or dark-coloured tortoise-shell.These were the materials which Boule himself almost exclusively employed, and he sometimes engraved thesurface of the brass. Reisner used principally as the ground tulip-wood (called in France hois de rose),inlaid with flowers in dark wood, grouped in a less crowded manner than in ordinary marqueterie.
“ When the material is in small pieces and costly, as pearl-shell, it becomes necessary to use several pieces,accurately placed edge to edge, to cover the entire surface to be ornamented. Sometimes in this material, inorder to give additional elaboration and minuteness, the saw is made to follow all the outline of the counter,and thus leave only a narrow line of pearl: this is called internal cutting.” But the effect of the counter isseldom equal to that of the true buhl, which shows the drawing of the ornament better, and the internal cuttingof the pattern presents rather a thready appearance. The stringings, or fine lines of metal, which are introducedwith pearl buhl, are generally of a white metal, such as tin or pewter.