In-lay′ing.
A species of ornamentation in which choice woods, metal, ivory, mother-of-pearl, etc., are inserted within portions of groundwork which are sunken to receive them, thus forming a sort of mosaic.We find specimens of inlaying of metals in the articles recovered from ancient Babylon.
Overlaying was practiced by the same people.
Herodotus states that “Glaucus the Chian” was [1189] “the man who invented the art of inlaying steel.” The salver made by Glaucus was offered by Alyattes the Lydian at the oracle of Delphi. It is described by Athenaeus as “covered with representations of plants and animals.” Alyattes was the father of Croesus, who reigned till defeated by Cyrus, 556 B. C.
Under this head we may fairly refer to the Taj at Agra, the most beautiful building in the world. It is thus described by Sir Charles Dilke: —
On the river bank [the Jumna], a mile from Akbar's palace, in the center of a vast garden entered through the noblest gateways in the world, stands the Taj Mahal, a terrace rising in dazzling whiteness from a black mass of cypresses, and bearing four lofty and delicate minars, and the central pile that gleams like an alp against the deep blue sky,--minars, temple, tomb, all of spotless marble and faultless shape. Its Persian builders named the Taj “the palace floating in the air.”
Out of the fierce heat and blazing sunlight you enter into chill and darkness, but soon begin to see the hollow dome growing into form above your head, and the tomb itself, that of Noor Mahal, the favorite queen of Shah Jehan, before you, and beside it her husband's humbler grave. Through within and without the Taj is white, still here you will find the walls profusely jeweled, and the purity retained. Flowers are pictured on every block in mosaic of cinnamon-stone, carnelian, turquoise, emerald, and amethyst; the corridors contain the whole Koran, inlaid in jet-black stone; yet the interior, as a whole, exceeds in chastity the spotlessness of the outer dome. Oriental, it is not barbaric. . . . . In a Persian manuscript there still remains a catalogue of the prices of the gems made use of in the building of the Taj, and of the places from which they came. Among those named are coral from Arabia, sapphires from Moldavia, amethysts from Persia, crystal from China, turquoises from Thibet, diamonds from Bundlecund, and lapis lazuli from Ceylon. The master masons were of Constantinople and Bagdad.
The varieties of inlaid work are numerous, and some of them very beautiful, bringing into use small fragments of valuable material that could hardly be applied to any other purpose. The principal varieties consist of marquetrie, in which woods of a variety of tints are inlaid in the form of flowers and other ornamental devices.
Buhl, wherein metals are inlaid upon a ground of ebony or tortoise-shell. The German cabinets made of ebony, and inlaid with precious stones or various woods and metals, constitute a species of this kind of work.
Mosaic inlaying, composed of extremely small pieces. The Hindoos make very beautiful boxes in this style. At the London exhibition in 1851 a table produced in Spain was shown, composed of three millions of pieces. Many Chinese and Japanese works of bijouterie are also of this class.
Parquetrie is a species of marquetrie on a bolder scale, applied chiefly to decorating floors, woods of different colors being cut to pattern and inlaid.
Pietra dura, consisting of certain kinds of hard stone, such as agate, jasper, chalcedony, carnelian, and lapis lazuli, inlaid in slabs of marble, generally black.
The marble is worked to a thickness not much exceeding one eighth of an inch, the design is drawn upon this, and is cut out with a line saw and a file. The hard stones, worked into the required pattern by the usual modes of gem cutting, are accurately fitted into the spaces thus prepared, in a polished and finished state. After the whole is thus prepared, it is fixed as a veneer to a thicker slab.
Tarsia. This was formerly much practiced in Italy during the Middle Ages, and is now carried on in France and elsewhere. It is executed in woods of different shades, the figures comprising flowers, birds, and colored ornaments; the various parts being cut out to the required figure are then placed according to the design and fixed on paper; afterwards they are applied like veneers to a piece of furniture; being mounted, they are cleaned off and slightly polished, and the finer lines then engraved.
