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Marquetry is the ancient art of creating pictures using different kinds of wood veneers. Artists through the ages have incorporated a variety of additional materials into their marquetry, such as metal, coral, stone, shell, bone and more. Marquetry has been an art form for centuries and continues to evolve and flourish. It reached a dazzling height in the era of Louis XIV in France and continues today as a high art form throughout Europe and much of Asia, with increasing popularity in the United States. To see ancient examples, google Andre-Charles Boule (1642-1732), for 21 st century examples google Silas Kopf (1949 - ).
The Kiskers' marquetry is present day - Hibiscus and Out of the Shadows are in the gallery. These are early examples of my father's marquetry. He (born in 1919) began learning the art form in high school in Littleton, CO after meeting "woodworker Binford Cardinal, who employed rare woods in the old British style of marquetry. Mr. Cardinal's tiny shop was overflowing with scraps of wood of all colors and filled with the fragrances of the world's forests. In the various natural colors, textures, and patterns of wood grain, Stuart found a lifelong gift of self-expression in wood."
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*In 1892 Marcel Schwob, at the time secretary to Mendès, published the collection
Le roi au masque
d'or
, which included the story "Le pays bleu", dedicated to his friend Oscar Wilde.
[5]
Maurice
Maeterlinck had entered Mendès literary circle as well and in 1908 he published a symbolist stage
play named The Blue Bird inspired by the same material. Two children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, are sent out
by the fairy Bérylune (Jessie Ralph) to search for the Bluebird of Happiness. Returning home empty-
handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their house all along and create great
happiness for another by giving their pet bird to the sick neighbor child.
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