Our next Buchschmid and Gretaux wood inlay work is owned by Ronald Hawn and is another rarely encountered title, this one being "The Penniless Poet".

This picture was one of the larger Buchschmid and Gretaux pieces. It is also on some of the B & G listings as "Poor Poet" - although we are given to understand that both titles relate to the same picture design. So, unless we are told anything to the contrary, that is the situation.

The Penniless Poet displays an excellent example of good veneer selection. The Walnut for the walls and the Madrona Burr for the brick work fit their allotted tasks well. It goes to show the inportance of selecting the right veneer for the right task.

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Our third Buchschmid and Gretaux piece for this July update is an example of a B & G tray.

The design on this tray is the B & G composition of a view of Heidelberg. You will have seen a full size version of this picture on page 7 of our B & G pages. This smaller copy still retains all the beautiful elements of the design that are so appreciated in the larger version; so it is a good example of how a reduction can be made to work well

The only real difference to the eye between the picture proper and the decorated tray is the look of the frame or surround of the picture. This frame / surround section has a deepish lip which acts as the usual tray handle arrangement.

We do not see many B & G trays these days, we rather suspect the reason for this is that the lip / handle arrangement gets broken and the remaining picture from the tray gets converted to a picture proper. We cannot verify this idea, but we rather think this is what gets done to those trays over the years!

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Our last B & G example for this July update features a picture with a very interesting story.

Ann Sorenson rescued this delightful B & G picture from ending its days by being consigned to the ignominious fate of becoming land fill.

How anyone could bring themselves to throwing such a superb example of a B & G picture out with the trash amazes us. Still, we suppose there may well be a good and understandable explanation for someone disposing of a delightful B & G picture in such a way, but as we say, we certainly cannot understand why.

However, we offer our thanks to Ann for having the prescence of mind to rescue this B & G work from its awful fate.

We hope Ann enjoys her ownership of a wonderful example of Buchschmid and Gretaux Wood Inlay work. Such a picture deserves a good home - we think its now got it.
Well done Ann.