AS we have arrived at a period when the importa-tion of foreign woods gave a great impetus to the practice of gluing them over common oak or deal, it is perhaps advisable to notice the difference of meaning between the terms 'inlay,' 'marquetry,' and 'veneering.' The derivations of the latter words do not help us much, 'marquetry' merely signifying diversification with marks, and 'veneer' coming through French from the old German fumiren, to furnish. All three refer to processes which are very similar, as in each case woods of various kinds cut into thin slices are glued on to or into a thicker and cheaper groundwork. The term'inlay' may be used when a pattern consisting of woods of various colours and grains is let into a groundwork which is visible as a field for the pattern when the work is complete. 'Marquetry' is perhaps better applied to that kind of work which consists in covering an underlying ground entirely with thin slices of other woods, often less than a thirty-second of an inch in thickness, so that none of the base is visible as a field.

Under this heading would come all the elaborate pictures in wood, either of figure subjects or architecture, which were made in Spain and Italy, and later by Roentgen and others in France. By 'veneering' is meant the process of covering a substructure of some common wood, such as oak or pine, with a thin coat of a single other wood, such as walnut or mahogany, so as to convey the impression that the whole object is made of that wood.