Veneer is thin slices of wood that are glued onto a wood core of a different material to create a more attractive look on a piece of furniture. While many less expensive pieces of furniture use veneer to reduce the cost of production, quality furniture has also employed veneers since the ancient Egyptians, who invented veneer. In fact, King Tut’s tomb boasted exquisite ebony and ivory veneers. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, veneering techniques were perfected and the artistry of marquetry was invented. Veneer came into common use in the 1700s, usually employed for the great beauty that unique woods can add to a piece of furniture.

Today, the following typically use veneer in their construction: side panels of most pieces of furniture, decorative doors and drawers, molding, edging, marquetry, parquetry, burl and highly grained woods -- all of these are nearly always created by using some form of veneering. Decorative veneer (like flame mahogany, tiger oak) is usually obtained by slicing through the growth rings of a tree at certain angles. Different slicing methods will give different types of grain, depending on the type of tree used. Burl, a swirling, highly grained wood, is actually taken from growth knots on trees. Bird's-eye maple and curly maple are actually from common maple trees and it's actually unknown if the tree has the rare bird's-eye wood until the tree is taken down and the wood sliced into. Marquetry and parquetry use various exotic wood veneer pieces to create complex designs and pictures.

Many inexperienced collectors have the misconception that a veneered piece of furniture is worth less than a piece that’s made of solid wood. However, nothing could be further from the truth. High quality furniture not only uses veneers for exotic designs but for the wood’s beauty as well. Veneering techniques allow beautifully grained wood to be glued to a more stable, larger and less expensive piece of wood. Finding a piece of wood with ornate grain is rare -- burl, crotch or flame mahogany, bird’s-eye or curly maple, tiger oak … are all decorative woods with a rarity that makes them too expensive to use in their solid wood form – these woods are virtually always used in veneer form.

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