NATIONAL MARQUETRY EXHIBITION 2008

The 2008 National Marquetry Exhibition is this year being held at the Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke-on-Trent and will be hosted by that very friendly and highly successful bunch of marquetarians known to all as the Staffs Marquetry Group.

The dates for the exhibition are from Saturday 3rd of May until Saturday 10th May 2008. (Please note that Saturday 10th will only be until 1. 00pm)

With this May update we are bringing you all the information you will need to enjoy your visit to the 2008 National Exhibition.

Click the link on the right for travel information to the exhibition and for other attractions around Stoke-on-Trent >>>

& including
all information
on these
subjects
since
September
2007

"WE'VE HAD THIS PICTURE FOR YEARS, CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT IT?"

(Plus further "BUCHSCHMID & GRETAUX INFORMATION")

This question is often put to our editorial team - and I'm pleased to say that most of the time we are able to come up with an appropriate answer to the query.

Even though we have extensive archives and abundant knowledge on all matters marquetry, sometimes we can get "caught out" when trying to identify the maker of an early and very individual piece.

For this reason we introduced our "Can You Help?" page last year. This section of the web site has proved popular with our visitors, so for that reason we have expanded the facility.

Thanks to your collective input, we have quite a considerable amount of BUCHSCHMID & GRETAUX information available on pages 2 to 8 of "Can You Help?" that will help to answer many of your questions on this mysterious company.

The article on Page 5, which we added with our January 2008 update, was actually sent in by a personal friend of Mr Buchschmid. Because of this link to one of the owners of the company, we think you'll find this article to be, more or less, the definitive description of the Buchschmid & Gretaux wood inlay Company.
Click the Page 5 link to read more >>

Our May 2008 update brings you some new information on the life and work of Mr Gretaux.

We thank our good friend Dennis Kruse for his help in originally locating this very interesting document, and for supplying us with a copy of it.
Click the Page 8 link to read a condensed version of Mr Gretaux's biography >>

MARQUETARIAN MAGAZINE INDEX

Readers of the Marquetry Society's own publication, The Marquetarian, will find this new section of the web site extremely useful.

With the help of The Marquetarian's editor, Ernie Ives, a complete index for virtually all of the publication's fifty year plus run has been compiled, and is now available on this web site.

It is of necessity, a long document, but we have made it easier for you to use by placing an ABC, etc, selection at the top of the page so that you can reach the section you are interested in with just one click.

Each entry is listed as follows: Title of article - Marquetarian issue number - page number

For example: Circular tabletop 120/29, 130/32, 131/31

EARLY NATIONAL EXHIBITION GALLERIES

A wonderful cache of coloured slides taken at National Exhibitions from the 1960's up to a few years ago has come to light.

Ivan Beer, Ernie Ives and Enrico have to be thanked for providing this excellent collection of early marquetry exhibits for us to enjoy.

Ivan and Enrico are to be especially thanked for all of their hard work in converting every one of those slides into digital files - a mammoth task indeed!

The first of those early galleries is now available on this web site for you to visit. This is the one for 1976. It is not a large gallery, but you will find many of that year's exhibits are displayed in the exhibition photos.

New additions to these galleries will be added with each month's update.
Just click the link on the right to visit the first of the galleries: >>>

NATIONAL EXHIBITION "ALL OTHER ENTRIES" GALLERY

With this April 2008 update we have now added yet another "room" to the above gallery where you can see the last 6 entries - just click the appropriate link to visit "room 7"

This new addition is a "first" for our web site. As well as our 2007 National Exhibition 'Winner's Gallery' we are now introducing an extra Gallery where we will be displaying all the rest of the entries from this year's National Exhibition.

There are always well over one hundred entries from each National Exhibition that never get seen outside of the exhibition. This doesn't mean that they are not worth looking at just because they didn't win an award, far from it, indeed many of those entries would be up there with the best on a different day - it's just that there can only be a finite amount of winners at any one exhibition.

To judge and enjoy these "other entries" for yourself, just click the link on the right.

We have been adding ten randomly selected entries to the gallery with each update until, at last with this month, we eventually used every one of the 2007 National Exhibition entries. The 2008 National Exhibition takes place next month (May) and we will be adding the 2008 Gallery to this site as soon as possible after the exhibition closes.

THE MARQUETRY SOCIETY INSIGNIA

Ten years after it was first formed, the hierarchy of the Marquetry Society decided that it was about time that the society had a unique insignia or logo that would present its message to the world in a simple design.

A competition was thus held and a suitable design was chosen from the many entries that were submitted.

Click the link to read this fascinating story and check out the variations the insignia design went through to become today's familiar design >>>

A CLIFF PENNY PICTURE

Cliff Penny was one of the founding six members of the Marquetry Society, he was also the first "first place" winner of the Society's very first National Exhibition.

This would theoretically have made Cliff our first "Rosebowl Winner" - at least, that would've been the case if the Rosebowl had been in existence at the time!

Any marquetry pictures from those "first six" members of the Marquetry Society are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth. So, it is with great pride that, with the valuable help of contributor and picture owner, Adrian, we are able to bring you a perfect example of a genuine Cliff Penny marquetry picture.

Another "Lost" Cliff Penny picture has recently surfaced, we thank Gerry Everett for sending in this excellent quality example of Cliff's work. The picture, titled: "The Elizabethan Era" is available by visiting the link on the right.

Just click the link on the right to see the work of one of our own history's great marquetarians >>

JOE'S MARQUETRY THEMED WAISTCOAT

Any of our USA members who attended exhibitions hosted by Joe Monks may well remember Joe's superb Marquetry Waistcoat.

Joe very kindly "dug it out of its moth balled storage" and sent us a photo for our Memory Lane pages.

To see Joe's very unique marquetry themed waistcoat click the link >>>

MEMBERSHIP OFFER NOW CARRIED ON INTO ITS THIRD YEAR!

A Continuing Offer for 2008: Due to the success of our "2 for 1" new membership only offer introduced in 2006, we have decided to extend this offer in to 2008. To take advantage of this offer become a NEW MEMBER of the Marquetry Society in 2008 and get your membership subscription for 2009 totally free!!

Yes, that's right, on becoming a new member of the Marquetry Society you will be entitled to receive the second year of your membership at a 100% discount for the whole of that second year!

It is a marvellous offer and is one we are sure that you will not want to miss.
To take advantage of this exceptional offer please make use of the "special" subscription form you will find on this web site.
For a short cut to the form click the link in the box on the right:

"subscription form"

Current
&
Ongoing

"DVD offer"

VIKAR - MARQUETRY ARTIST

The work of Russian Marquetry Artist VIKAR was recently brought to the attention of your editorial team - and, we have to say, it suitably impressed us!.
As a marquetry artist VIKAR "paints" his marquetry portraits with the dedication and care that an artist in oils would apply to their more conventional materials. As you can see in the small photo here, VIKAR works on a large scale! His finished works, when assembled into their collective themes, are gigantic!	VIKAR with just a few of his works!
On a comparative scale we would say they are veneer equivalents of the epic literary works of VIKAR's fellow countryman Leo Tolstoy. To give you some idea of the scale we are talking about, the portrait to the left of VIKAR himself in the above photo, forms part of a complete work that actually measures 6. 8 mtrs x 2. 1 mtrs and weighs an incredible 260 Kgs! Click the link on the right to see more of this amazing work for yourself on VIKAR's own web site gallery. Don't forget to return here after completing your visit to VIKAR'S astonishing gallery >>>

INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKING EXHIBITION 2008
REPORT by Roy Murton

The Marquetry Society hosted its usual stand at Alexandra Palace for the International Woodworkers Exhibition held during the month of February 2008.

The exhibition was, as is always the case, very successful, and we're pleased to say, our stand attracted rather a lot of interest.

Roy Murton of the Redbridge Group, who hosted the stand on the Saturday, took photos of the event and wrote a first hand report for the Redbridge Group web site.

We have linked in to the Redbridge web site so that you can read the report, but don't forget to return here when you have finished reading it!!

LEN PAGE - A MEMBER OF THE FOUNDING SIX

Along with Cliff Penny, who we featured in January's update, we are introducing you to another of those six people who started the Marquetry Society back in 1952.

Len was much admired and respected by every member of the Marquetry Society who knew him, and, although he never won the highest of the awards at the National Exhibitions, his work was esteemed and valued nonetheless.

A tireless worker on behalf of the society, Len remained true to his marquetry principles all his life. To see a rare photo of Len, and to read a, then, contemporary report of Len's marquetry interests, click the link on the right >>

E-MAIL CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any questions you would like to ask us, or queries about anything contained in this web site, please feel free to e-mail us by using the pre addressed form that will appear when you click the link on the right. Thank you.

To contact the Marquetry Society Web Site please click the e-mail link on the right if you are using the standard Microsoft Outlook Express:

If however you are using a different E-mail system then just copy and paste the following address in to your "send to" box:

mqstymail@redbridgemarquetrygroup.org

or, if that is not possible, then just type it in as seen above, thanks.