Jan 25 2009
Buffard Frères Mosaic Banding
Characteristics of fine woodworking generally include fine details and first class finishing in the crafting of heirloom furniture. The use of inlays of contrasting wood or other materials in mosaics or banding has been around for centuries. and has great appeal
Example from Buffard Freres 1926
I became interested in the brothers Buffard and their amazing production of inlay banding while attending a workshop given by Garrett Hack at the The Inside Passage School of Woodworking on the Sunshine Coast of British columbia. The workshop focused on detailing work and the fine touches for which Garrett Hack’s work is known. We spent one afternoon discussing inlay banding and making our own designs.
As background, the firm of Buffard Frères of Paris made over 8000 styles of inlay banding for cabinetmakers for more than a century. The company went through bankruptcy in the 1930s. “In 1973, the remaining members of the Buffard family scrapped the special machinery used to make the banding so that it would not fall into the hands of imitators.” (Lee Valley Website). It would be difficult to reproduce many of these bands with today’s materials and methods.
In following up on this topic I tried to learn more about the Buffard Frères. I managed to find at an Antwerp Antiquariat a mint 1926 trade catalogue by Buffard Frères printed not long before their bankruptcy. The things you find on the internet. This Art-Deco catalogue has spectacular colour lithographs of hundreds of bands of their 1920’s offerings. For added historical interest it came with the original covering letter and price list (marked with a 20% discount!). Besides its inherent aesthetic value, I believe this is an interesting reference document and as such should be preserved, shared and promoted.
What I plan on doing in followup posts on this subject is provide photos of the lithograph pages in sufficient resolution to allow woodworkers to reproduce the patterns. Some of these patterns are quite complicated and would be very difficult to make without specialty equipment.
3 Responses to “Buffard Frères Mosaic Banding”
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I became interested in Buffard Freres based on the information on the Lee Valley web site. I bought one piece of the banding they had for sale to check it out and was inspired to try to make some of my own. At the moment I am trying to copy one of their patterns of repeating curved star type shapes. I am still working on the sequence and techniques for cutting and assembling the shapes. I look forward to seeing pictures of more of their work as all I have been able to find is the poster that Lee Valley sells which now graces the door of my shop.
Thanks much for posting your pics and information.
Chris
Chris,
I can’t wait to see more of your bands. What a shame it is that much of the art and technology that went into these bands is apparently lost and needs rediscovering. More fun for us?
Joe
I’m very excited to see these bandings. I’ve spent hours studying the Lee Valley poster, and scheming how to produce banding. I’ve often wondered what the “specialized machinery” Buffard used consisted of. Since high tech (CNC) didn’t exist then, I’m guessing it was more a matter of interesting configurations of multihead shapers and routers. One could use CNC equipment now to “extrude” with great accuracy, using small ball head cutters to make complex mating cross section pieces. This would eliminate the need for matching profile cutters, which is how I”ve done curves, using same radius half round and fluting cutters. But this would be a slow method of cutting, best for custom work, and very small batches. I plan to experiment with it this year. People should also check out http://www.mitercraft.com/default.htm who now do lots of laser work as well as the inlay banding they started with.