Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/590

 480 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Jan. Inlaid Work. — How pretty and how varied are the different kinds of inlaid work ! and how much they facilitate the employment of small fragments of mate- rials ! There is the Marquetrie, or inlaid cabinet furniture, of France, consisting in inlaying woods of a great variety of tints, in the form of flowers, ornaments, &c, There is the Buhl, or Boul work, also of French invention, wherein metals are inlaid, upon a ground of ebony or tortoise-shell. There are the elaborate German cabinets, made of ebony, inlaid with precious stones and various woods and metals. There is the Mosaic inlay, in which the pieces inlaid are extremely small, and of which exquisite boxes are made in the East Indies ; witness, also, the marvellous Spanish table (which was to be seen at the Great Exhibition at London) in three million of pieces. There is the Parquetrie, or inlaid flower- ing, which differs from Marquetrie chiefly in the bolder scale of the designs ; woods of different colors being cut to pattern, and inlaid. There is the novel and beautiful process of inlaying articles of furniture with porcelain : the inlaid por- tions are not merely panels and pilas- ters, but painted porcelain flowers and other ornaments. There is the Pietra Dura, or Florentine Mosaic, a kind of art carried to great perfection in Tus- cany ; its cultivation in that country, for a long period, supplied most of the palaces of Europe with works in pietra dura, which rank among the finest ex- amples of decorative furniture. This process consists of certain kinds of hard stone — such as agate, jasper, chalce- dony, cornelian, and lapis lazuli — inlaid in a slab of marble, generally black. The marble is worked to a thickness, not much exceeding an eighth of an inch ; and the design is drawn upon it, and is cut out with a fine saw and a file. The hard stones, worked into a required pattern by the ordinary methods 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, and is ready for mounting or framing, according to size. REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. The Carpenter and Joiner. Br Robert Riddell. A revised edition of this work, illustrated with 34 plates, is just fresh from the press ; and the Publishers, Cj.axton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, have kindly furnished us with an early copy. There is a very great want of fitting books of instruction for Carpenters and Joiners in this country ; and, in consequence, our students are com- pelled to have recourse to Nicholson, although that work, soexcelleut atone time, is growing rapidly out of date. The treatise, now under consideration, is well calculated to aid iu filling up the deficiency. What we want at this day is not English but American books. Our system of Joinery, aud indeed our modes of Fram- ing, are in a great measure sui generis. It is necessary, therefore, to give the beginner every opportunity of storing his mind with all the requisite information, which may help to lea»d his mind on to the easy under- standing, and entire control, of all branches of his scientific art. On t'uesuhject of Stair-Building, Mr. Rid- dell is very clear, and extremely useful to the practical man; aud we feel confident, that his lessons, in this de- partment alone, will prove a very desirable matter, indeed, to the class for whose benefit they are so admi- rably designed. Mr. Riddell's book is inductory, beginniug with the very initial outlines, and leading, carefully aud comprehensively, ou to the most difficult problems, with which the mind of the joiner has to grapple. The work is all we could desire; and we claim for it the patronage of our American carpenters and builders. It is profusely aud most usefully illus- trated on excellent paper; aud, in fact, gotten up in a style well adapted to its purpose. The enterprising young firm, who have given it to the public, deserve the success their 'venture is certain to meet with. The Diseases of Shexp: With an E~sav on Cattle Epidemics. By Henry Clok, V. S. I vol. S vo. pp. 146. Philadelphia, Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1S6S. We have no doubt, that this little brochure will prove of very great usefulness to a large class of our readers, being free from lengthy dissertations, which only tend to reuder the subject tedious, and being the production of one thoroughly aud practically conversant with the matter he has handled. Every thing he has related is the result of his own experience and observation ; and nothing is — as too often is the case with similar works — the product of philosophical reasoning, or hypotheti- cal theories. We recommend it to all who are interested in the subject.