Oystering
Oystering or oyster veneer is a decorative form of
cocus.[1] The resulting circular or oval pieces of veneer are laid side by side in furniture to produce various decorative patterns.[2] Because the shape formed resembles an oyster shell the technique acquired the name of oyster veneering.[3][4]
History
This technique is likely to have been developed by English cabinet-makers in the 1660s, immediately after the
longcase clock
cases were similarly veneered.
By around the early 1670s softer and more cheaply available woods such as olive and walnut began to be used for oyster veneering, the fashion for such furniture becoming widespread and also spreading to Holland by around the mid-1670s. Oyster veneering fell out of fashion from c.1710. The chest illustrated here, if it is not a later reproduction, therefore appears to be an unusually late example.
-
Chest Of Drawers, age of George I -
End of same chest -
Detail of the chest -
A commission from 2017, A baptismal font cover in Rolvenden, Kent.
References
- ^ a b Oyster Veneer - Coloradostyle.com
- ^ "Veneer terminology". Archived from the original on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2013-04-05.
- ^ Antique terms
- ^ "Oyster Veneer - Rau Antiques". Archived from the original on 2013-10-21. Retrieved 2013-04-05.
- Kopf, Silas (April 2004). "Making oysters for veneering". Fine Woodworking (169). The Taunton Press, Inc.: 106, 108, 120. ISSN 0361-3453.
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