Leadlight Display Cabinet with String Inlay

• Parquetry - Parquetry is inlay laid in geometric patterns, the contrast being achieved by the opposing angles of the grain and veneers. The herringbone pattern is the most commonly used in flooring, but this is almost never seen in furniture - the patterns used are more complex and unlike flooring, can include several different varieties of timber.
• Leadlighting - The use of stained glass, held together with leaded strips, sometimes found in cabinet furniture. While stained glass is not uncommon in Victorian houses, it is unusual to find it in furniture before the end of the 19th century. It was favoured by cabinetmakers for sideboards and smaller pieces such as dinner trolleys, in the style of the Art Nouveau, and is often found in kitchen cabinets and display cabinets dating from the 1930s and 1940s.
• Inlay - Decorative patterns inserted into the main body of a piece of furniture, generally in wood of contrasting colour and grain, though brass, ivory, ebony, shell and sometimes horn have been used. Inlay may consist of a panel of well figured timber inset into a cabinet door front, geometric patterns, or complex and stylized designs of flowers, swags of foliage, fruits and other motifs. As a general rule, in pieces where the carcase is constructed in the solid, the inlay is relatively simple such as stringing, cross banding and herringbone banding. Where more elaborate and decorative work was required veneer was used. Inlay has been fashionable from at least the latter half of the 17th century, when a variety of elaborate forms were developed

This item has been included into following indexes:

• display cabinets, material - leadlight 39
• display cabinets, period, age or style
  • 20th century 135
  • Edwardian crystal or display cabinet 221
• furniture, items - leadlight cabinets 33