What Is The Difference Between Parquetry and Marquetry?

Before explaining the difference between parquetry and marquetry, it’s probably worth defining exactly what is meant by each term.  Not particularly commonly used terms in day to day language, most people have a notion of what is meant by parquetry and marquetry, but the detail is worth exploring to enable the differences to become clear.

Parquetry, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect”.  Commonly used in both furnishing and flooring, parquetry dates back to the mid to late 1600’s and is recognisable for it’s highly regular, geometric patterns.  Squares, triangles and lozenges, created using strips or blocks of wood, are all common parquetry forms as are stars and sunshine forms.  That said, the most common form nowadays is almost certainly the herringbone or chevron pattern.

Contrasting woods, such as oak, walnut, cherry, lime, pine and maple are often used in parquetry to enhance the patterns created by the strips or blocks of wood.  These different colours, tones and grains of different species of woods add to the overall effect of the parquet flooring.  At one time glued to the subfloor using hot bitumen, parquet floors are more commonly glued down using a cold adhesive in modern day installations.

Marquetry is the term used to describe the addition of pieces of veneer to furniture or flooring to create a decorative pattern, design or picture which sits on the surface of the original structure.  Patterns in marquetry may be random or structured or may be real images of such things as people, animals or items.  A method of decoration more commonly used in furnishings than flooring, marquetry is often confused with parquetry but is actually very different.  The main difference relates to the fact that marquetry is the application or addition of a veneer to a smooth surface, whereas parquetry is the creation of a design or image that is made using blocks or strips of wood.

The other major difference between parquetry and marquetry lies in the materials commonly used for each technique.  In parquetry, wood is used throughout the design, albeit different species of wood and maybe even solid wood and engineered wood.  In marquetry the veneers used may well be wood, but are likely to include the likes of tortoiseshell, mother of pearl, pewter or brass as well as (in years gone by) bone and ivory.