Musings

Acres of Veneer

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En route to my recent presentation in Franklin TN I stopped to visit my long time friend DaveR in Knoxville. He arranged for us to visit renowned local marquetuer RobertL at Robert’s house about an hour away, and we spent an enchanting morning and lunch with him. Beginning with the nonpareil view from the deck of Robert’s house the entire visit was an unmitigated pleasure.

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Dave have given me forewarning about Robert’s stash of old veneers, but still I was not fully prepared for the racks and piles of old, thick veneers. Robert indicated that his passion for marquetry and collecting veneers began back in the 1950s, and he’d had the opportunity to acquire several much older inventories of veneer from furniture makers and other craftsmen of generations previous.

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As we toured the delightfully used warren of spaces in the basement, racks of veneers, portfolios of patterns, and the inventory of artworks completed and in-progress had my head spinning. Robert carefully explained and demonstrated his techniques, and it is impossible not to appreciate the result.

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