The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-10-17
THE lNLAYERS OF HANOI
skillful Artists at Incrusting Ebony with,
Mother of Pearl.

skillful Artists at Incrusting Ebony with
Mother of Pearl.
Hanoi, city of French Tonquin.
/ says q writer in The Journal des
Voyages, has fourishing industry
IN tho 1ncrustation of precious woods
with mother Of pearl The industry
IS SO important that whole street.
called the street of the Inlayers, is
given up to it and constitutes the
sole curiosity of the city. Strangers
to the art pass hours in watching
the native workmen. The latter are
genuine artists, masters of a delicate
handicraft demanding at once ar.
tistic perception and high manual
skill.
Furnished with rude tools, but
with much patience and skill, these
workmen produce articles of great
beauty, cleaning with rainbow hues.
Here is q sheaf eff many colored
flowers; there are delicious ara
besques; yonder is landscape gilt
tering in the sun.
The workmen have applied the
principle of the division of labor to
their art. There are the cabinet
makers, who put together the differ
ent parts of the material to be in
crusted. The process of joining is
done without the aid of nails and
with a system of nice dovetailing
and the use of paste of which
lacquer is the base. The wood en-
ployed is of two distinct species of
palisander, sometimes called violet
ebony and by the natives tiac, and
true ebony from the forest of the
Red river of Tonquin. This latter,
which the natives call noun, is es-
pecially valued by reason of its close
grain and it's deep black, which
brings out the shifting glories of the
mother of pearl. Objects of incrust-
ed ebony are more costly than those
of violet ebony.
When the cabinetmaker has pre-
pared the wood, it passes into the
hands of the designer, who makes
sketches of the ornamentation upon
rice paper. These designs are trans
ferred to the wood by the inlayer,
whose duty it is to choose the pearl
that will best serve to bring out the
beauty of the design. Tho mother
of pearl is obtained from a species
of large shellfish called casque, chief
| ly caught upon the shores of the is
land of Poulo-Condar.
The inlayer cuts the mother of
pearl into bits four or five centime-
ters in diameter and chooses the COM
bination of colors that shall yield the
contrasts necessary for the artistic
| success of his work. His art lies in
the skill to arrange the pieces so as
! to obtain the best effect of rides
cence. This he heightens by the use
of sort of pearl dust furnished by
a kind of great mussel taken from
| tho brooks of the region. The play
of light upon these mussels gives
the whole gamut of the rainbow.
The bits of pearl chosen, the in
layer strives to give them the form
of the design and to dispose them as
a veritable mosaic in the wood. The
crude morsel is rendered translucent
with pumice stone. 1t is then fixed
in wise, and the inlayer's labor of
patience begins. Crouching upon
his heels before the wise, he shapes
the piece with file smaller than an
ordinary colored crayon. The pearl
fashioned, it is necessary to trench
the wood to receive it. This is ordi-
narily done by children IA or IS
years Old They follow the lines of
! the design with a BURN and channel
tiny trenches of a millimeter in di-
ameter. The bits of pearl are then
set in the grooves and fixed with
lacquer paste. The whole is gently
heated to melt the paste and so fill
all interstices. The inlayer then pol
ishes his work, varnishes it and
gives it finishing touches with the
BURN. The work is so beautiful
and so costly that it is much coun-
forfeited by cheaper methods, though
never with entire success.-New
York Sun.
Tall