Inlaid work

Madeiran inlaid work (embutidos) is made by carefully cutting small pieces of wood and inserting and gluing them into openings of the same dimensions made in other woods. The woods of the til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel), the barbusano (Apollonias barbujana, a laurel-forest tree), the fustete, the heath, the myrtle, the perado, the piorno, the massaroco, the walnut, the orange tree, the box, the Brazilian Madeira mahogany (vinhático, Persea indica), the cedar and the yew are the most widely used in the inlay industry, and with them designs of varied colours and considerable ornamental effect can be obtained.

All these woods are generally used in their natural colour; only perado wood is sometimes soaked in urine to give it a bluish colour, much used in composing flowers.

“

There are already in Madeira,’ says Vitorino José dos Santos in no. 5 of the Boletim do Trabalho Industrial, ‘some inlay workers, properly guided by technical training and gifted for artistic composition, who produce work of recognised merit, sought after and appreciated by connoisseurs. In general, however, Madeiran workers lack intellectual culture and artistic taste, and this leaves them indifferent to the idea of progressing by varying and improving the composition of their work. As a result, most of the inlaid work produced still follows the same models as a matter of routine, almost always depicting the traditional “Madeiran peasants”, the ox-sledges, the hammocks and the Monte (‘hill’) toboggans, framed with borders of symmetrical and little-varied designs.

“

This inlay as a rule decorates small tables, the so-called “bell tables”, card tables, trays and a variety of small boxes for sewing, paper, handkerchiefs, gloves, stamps, needles and pins, etc., etc. Of these products, those of inferior quality are the most numerous. It is these that, displayed daily on the “spardecks” of the steamers lying in the harbour of Funchal, go, mixed with other products of local industry, to make up an important sea-borne trade, that of the class of “bumboatmen”, who live from it exclusively.

Among the finest pieces of inlaid work made in Madeira mention must be made of a table presented in 1918 to the late President of the Republic, Dr Sidónio Pais, and of two tables ordered by King Luís, while still a prince, during his stay in Madeira in 1858, intended as gifts for King Pedro V and Queen Stephanie. These last two pieces were cited with great esteem and praise by the connoisseurs of that time.