In the East - Persia, India, China, Japan - were created different types of songs, from wooden floor, wood flooring, to furniture, boxes, reliquary, parts used in religious ceremonies. In ancient Rome used a variety of wood essences, especially lemnexotic imported cut veneer form. Pliny recalls the common wooden furniture, decorated with a "bark expensive".
Over time, in Egypt, Rome, Persia, eighth century Japan, Italy and Germany sixteenth century, many pieces have been created and decorated with marquetry marquetry. At Florence, in 1478, there were 84 workshops "intarsia" and other wooden furniture designers. Giorgio Vasari referred to the prospects of building design for marquetry, with the oldest subject, the Cathedral of Siena (1503) and doors "Raphael's Chambers" from the Vatican.
In sixteenth century Germany, in the shops at Augsburg, furniture was decorated with ornaments and pictures.
In sixteenth century England appears in color veneer inlay, using a limited palette of dark wood open and mainly green and red.
In 1640, Antwerp - Belgium is famous because veneered cabinets and decorated with put and ebony. Inlay was used very much and Dutch masters. For late sixteenth century are known cabinets made in workshops in Amsterdam, where he produced the most spectacular examples of floral ornaments marquetry veneer of rosewood and ebony. In the eighteenth century in France, with geometric decoration is called parquet. Another type of arabesque design is inspired by Islamic patterns, using only two types of wood, one for drawing, and other background.
The marquetry and intarsia was expensive and takes time for knowledge and learning techniques. Various types of exotic wood essences were imported, then cut in the form of veneer of different thickness, depending on periods and then assembled onto wooden animal glue, and finally sanded and finished with shellac and wax.
An important step in the processing of materials that make inlay (cutting plywood on the drawing) was the discovery fretwork, the mid-sixteenth century (before that date were cut with a chisel). In the mid-nineteenth century began using mechanical fretwork, which allowed
cover large areas of veneer.
The late nineteenth century, fretwork has become an extremely popular and accessible form of furniture decoration.