veneer, extremely thin sheet of rich-coloured wood (such as mahogany, ebony, or rosewood) or precious materials (such as ivory or tortoiseshell) cut in decorative patterns and applied to the surface area of a piece of furniture. It is to be distinguished from two allied processes: inlay, in which cutout pieces of decorative wood or other materials—such as metal, leather, or mother-of-pearl—are inset into cavities cut into the main structure of the piece being decorated; and marquetry, or boulle work, which is a more elaborate kind of complex veneering.
There are two main types of veneering, the simplest being that in which a single sheet, chosen for its interesting grain (yew or purple wood, for example), is applied to a whole surface of inferior wood in one unit. In the more complex variation called crossbanding, small pieces of veneer wood are fitted together within a surrounding framework in such a way that the grain changes pattern, thus altering the tone according to the light. This process can produce complex fan shapes, sunbursts, and floral patterns.
When the veneers are made up of small pieces cut from the same larger piece of wood and affixed so that their grain runs in opposite directions in accordance with a formal geometric pattern, the process is known as parquetry.
Veneering allows the use of beautiful woods that because of limited availability, small size, or difficulty in working cannot be used in solid form for making furniture. In addition, it significantly increases the strength of the wood by backing it with a sturdier wood and, through the process of laminating veneers at right angles in successive layers, offsets the cross-grain weakness of the wood.
Modern veneering, which uses special glues, drying, and testing equipment, produces a strong and beautiful product. Basically, the process involved in making all veneers is the same. First, the decorative wood is sawn, sliced, shaved, or peeled, sometimes by a rotary machine, into pieces between 1/16 and 1/32 inch in thickness. Then the veneer is glued to a prepared, coarser wood and secured by the application of mahogany, zinc, or cardboard presses; for curved and intricately shaped surfaces, molded sandbags are used. Early hand-cut veneers were thicker than the later machine-sawn product; although they were seldom less than 1/8 inch in thickness, they were cut by hand to 1/10 inch in 16th-century southern Europe.
Although the craft of veneering was practiced in classical antiquity, its use lapsed during the Middle Ages. It was revived in the 17th century, reaching its apogee in France and spreading from there to other European countries. Because of their preference for ebony, the French masters of the craft of veneering were known as ébénistes, although they later combined veneering with technical variations such as marquetry. By the end of the 17th century, woods such as almondwood, boxwood, cherry wood, and pearwood were commonly used.
The considerable craftsmanship involved in the artistic use of veneers is most evident in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton employed mahogany and satinwood veneers. Later, exotic woods, various metals, and organic materials such as tortoiseshell—which was also popular with 17th-century Flemish craftsmen—were in vogue. By the mid-19th century, with the introduction of mechanical saws, the veneering process was sometimes used in mass production to make high-style furniture out of cheap pine or poplar wood.