[Illustration:  Carved Italian Mirror Frame, 16th Century. (In the South Kensington Museum.)]

The enrichment of woodwork by means of inlaying deserves mention.  In the chapter on Ancient Furniture we have seen that ivory was used as an inlaid ornament as early as six centuries before Christ, but its revival and development in Europe probably commenced in Venice about the end of the thirteenth century, in copies of geometrical designs, let into ebony and brown walnut, and into a wood something like rosewood; parts of boxes and chests of these materials are still in existence.  Mr. Maskell tells us in his Handbook on “Ivories,” that probably owing to the difficulty of procuring ivory in Italy, bone of fine quality was frequently used in its place.  All this class of work was known as “Tarsia,” “Intarsia,” or “Certosina,” a word supposed to be derived from the name of the well-known religious community—­the Carthusians—­on account of the dexterity of those monks at this work.[6] It is true that towards the end of the fourteenth century, makers of ornamental furniture began to copy marble mosaic work, by making similar patterns of different woods, and subsequently this branch of industrial art developed from such modest beginnings as the simple pattern of a star, or bandings in different kinds of wood in the panel of a door, to elaborate picture-making, in which landscapes, views of churches, houses and picturesque ruins were copied, figures and animals being also introduced.  This work was naturally facilitated and encouraged by increasing commerce between different nations, which rendered available a greater variety of woods.  In some of the early Italian “intarsia” the decoration was cut into the surface of the panel piece by piece.  As artists became more skilful, veneers were applied and the effect heightened by burning with hot sand the parts requiring shading; and the lines caused by the thickness of the sawcuts were filled in with black wood or stained glue to give definition to the design.

[Illustration:  A Sixteenth Century “Coffre-Fort.”]

The “mounting” of articles of furniture with metal enrichments doubtless originated in the iron corner pieces and hinge plates, which were used to strengthen the old chests, of which mention has been already made, and as artificers began to render their productions decorative as well as useful, what more natural progress than that the iron corners, bandings, or fastenings, should be of ornamental forged or engraved iron.  In the sixteenth century, metal workers reached a point of excellence which has never been surpassed, and those marvels of mountings in steel, iron and brass were produced in Italy and Germany, which are far more important as works of art, than the plain and unpretending productions of the coffer maker, which are their raison d’etre. The woodcut on p. 53 represents a very good example of a “Coffre-fort” in the South Kensington Collection.  The decoration is bitten in with acids so as to present the appearance of its being damascened, and the complicated lock, shewn on the inside of the lid, is characteristic of these safeguards for valuable documents at a time when the modern burglar-proof safe had not been thought of.