BUILDING-UP, OR APPLIQUÉ WORK.

It will often happen that in carving, while most of the work is on a level, some portion, generally the centre, will rise above the rest, or project beyond it, illustrated by Fig. 52. It would often be a waste of wood and time to cut this out of a single piece. In such cases we merely glue an extra piece of wood on, and carve it into shape. Sometimes in carving a face, only the nose, and perhaps the chin, require to be added. It is said that this method of gluing wood on to wood to obtain additional relief was first extensively practised by Grinling Gibbons.

In Germany this addition of a central “boss” is so well understood, that in many shops they sell heads or faces of men, women, or animals, wreaths, and similar centres or bosses for carvers who can execute flat or ribbon-work, but not high relief. In this way very ornamental or showy pieces of work may be executed with the least possible pains and expense. In the same manner a piece of old carving, or, it may be, several pieces, are taken or saved from some half-ruined ancient specimen, and well glued on a sound piece of old wood exactly like them in colour and texture. This is then carved in the same style. In this way really valuable work may be easily made, for such half-decayed pieces of old carving are too often thrown away, and may often be purchased for a trifle.

Still, this method of appliquÉ, or applied wood on wood, though it may be resorted to in certain cases to save a great deal of cutting and material, may be carried too far, when it degenerates into mere manufacture.

AppliquÉ work of this kind falls still further into manufacture when it consists of thin boards, cut into patterns with a fret or scroll-saw, worked up with gouges, and then glued on wood. This is plain imitation. Yet it may be borne in mind, though most writers on the subject deny it, that while it is absolutely not high or legitimate art, there is no law and no reason against it; and if a man can contrive no better way to ornament his house, he is perfectly in the right in doing so, if he thinks fit. And if he can afford the time, skill, and materials, he will probably advance from appliquÉ work to something better. In any case he will have learned something by it, and it is worth learning. It is too often the case with high art critics, that they exact that everybody must have finished taste and high perceptions all at once, with no regard to expense.

The pupil may now attempt an easy piece of appliquÉ work. Take a panel, Fig. 52, and trace on it the pattern. Leave a blank flat space of the original surface, called the “seat,” for the figures, of their precise size, and then work out the ground. Where this consists of a diaper, it may be made either by carving or by stamping. Having finished the diapered ground, saw or cut out the figures, glue them into their places, and carve them; or the carving may be executed before the application.

AppliquÉ work is liable to the objection, especially where large surfaces are laid on, that two pieces of wood are seldom of precisely the same quality and texture, and that, therefore, they may sometimes afterwards shrink or swell in different directions, with the natural result of warping and splitting. This is sometimes remedied by using screws as well as glue; but the best preventive of such accidents is to cut both the ground and the piece glued on to it from the same piece of wood, of course perfectly seasoned.

In many cases frames or borders may be appliquÉ or glued on. If the work be intended for an album or book-cover, the frame may be made a trifle higher than the central ornament, to protect it from being scratched when lying with the face on any surface. This will not be necessary if it be used for a panel in the side of a box or in a wall.