craftsmen employed by both,
and there seems no doubt that Longleat and Hardwick were the work of the
same men. The inlays upon the long table are particularly fine, and
except for a certain clumsiness almost recall the glories of the great
period of Italian marquetry. The cradle of James I. (1566) is enriched
with inlays.

At Gilling Castle, near Wakefield, are some panels inlaid with flowers,
etc., which local tradition says were executed by some of the ladies of
the family, which probably points to their having been done under their
superintendence by local workmen, and small panels of rough inlay are
not uncommon in chest and bedstead, overmantel and cabinet from the
Jacobean period onward. S. Mary Overie, Southwark, possesses a fine
parish chest decorated with a good deal of Dutch-looking inlay in
conjunction with carving, and a rather unusual piece of work may be
seen at Glastonbury Hall, where the treads and landings of the oak
stairs are inlaid with mahogany and a light wood with stars and lozenges
and a cartouche with a monogram and date 1726. The use of satin wood
came into fashion towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was
accompanied by a delicate inlay of other woods, which, however, scarcely
went beyond the simplest ornament, since the decoration of furniture by
means of painting became fashionable at nearly the same period.

[Illustration: Plate 45.--_Cabinet with falling front, in the
drawing-room, Roehampton House._

_To face page 94._]

It was in France that the most wonderful achievements of the later
marqueteurs were produced, which have made French furniture recognised
by the public as well as by connoisseurs as an art manufacture, in
conjunction with the wonderfully chiselled ormolu mountings. Mention is
made of intarsia in France as early as the end of the fifteenth century,
however. In the inventory of Anne of Brittanny's effects (1498) may be
read "ung coffret faict de musayeque de bois et d'ivoire," and in a
still earlier one of the Duke de Berry's, dated 1416, is mentioned a
"grant tableau, ou est la passion de Nostre Seigneur, fait de poins de
marqueterie." This is as early as the intarsias of Domenico di Nicolo at
Siena, and was probably of foreign manufacture. In 1576 a certain Hans
Kraus was called "marqueteur du roi," but the first Frenchman known to
have practised the art is Jean Mace of Blois, who was at work in
Paris from 1644 or earlier to 1672 as sculptor and painter. He i