Bon Voyage! Queen Elizabeth and the Linley marquetry artwork

Queen Elizabeth's viewing point

  

View of Grand Lobby with Linley marquetry panel

There were so many articles written about Cunard's very successful naming ceremony for the Queen Elizabeth on October 11th 2010 that I was hesitant to add another from MiArtStudio. However, since I've covered the genesis of the Linley Art Deco marquetry panel in a series of posts, I'll share a few final images courtesy of Cunard. You'll find many more of these images, as well as a few videos, on the Cunard website and on Alastair Greener's 'We are Cunard" blog.

Queen Elizabeth views the Linley marquetry panel

  

Queen Elizabeth Views The Linley Marquetry Panel

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The completed Linley Art Deco marquetry panel

  

The completed Linley marquetry panel

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This has been a fun project to report on. I couldn't have dreamed up a better story for making the point that marquetry has a reputation for being "the art of Kings" and of Queens...

Status Of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth Marquetry Panel

The Cunard Queen Elizabeth foyer panel, designed by David Linley's design studio and produced by ACE Marquetry is now well under way.  

The Queen Elizabeth Marquetry Panel
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Claire Englefield, the person behind ACE Marquetry, told me that it was the largest single piece of marquetry that she and her team have ever produced. The size was such that they had to rearrange the workshop to erect a temporary table large enough to assemble it in one piece.

"The marquetry is now completed. We made the panel in one large piece. We cut it up yesterday (it's in roughly nine panels in the photo) and it's now being sent to another Linley associated studio. There it will be pressed onto a lightweight MDF, bonded with an ultralight metal Hexalite substrate, then sanded and polished. They will then take the panels over to Italy for fitting onto the ship before it's maiden voyage in October."

Assembling Marquetry On A Grand Scale
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Claire's business has grown steadily since 1986, when she started hand cutting marquetry for her husband Alan's furniture business [See Alan's remarkable boxes at LINLEY and on his web site at Alan Englefield Architectural Boxes].   She now runs two lasers with a team of four employees producing work for many furniture makers around Britain, with the occasional International piece. 

Alan Englefield - Architectural Boxes

Although most of her time is taken up by the managerial side of designing and fabricating marquetry commissions, she did get involved in the cutting and assembly of this prestigious piece herself.

Claire is very proud of her long standing association with David Linley and Co. and now produces almost all of the marquetry used on their excellent range of products, from a simple marquetry picture frame to the magnificent Cunard panel.  It shows her versatility, when the next piece to go through the workshop, after the 5.6m tall panel, was a small marquetry crest, no bigger than 60mm in diameter, with hundreds of pieces, some no bigger than a pin head.

Marquetry Artwork Being Prepared For The Queen Elizabeth

The LINLEY artisans are working to complete David Linley's Art Deco marquetry art work so that the panels can be shipped to the Fincatieri shipyards in Monfalcone, Italy, where it is to be installed this summer as the centerpiece of the new Queen Elizabeth's grand lobby.

Artist's rendition of Art Deco Panel

LINLEY's marquetry art work of the original 
Queen Elizabethis 2.5 decks high

To see the artist's rendition of the Grand Lobby and a video interview with Cunard's Alistair Greener follow this 'Read more' link:

A Limited Edition Marquetry Humidor Collection by LINLEY

David Linley

A Limited Edition Humidor Collection by LINLEY

A rare opportunity for the true Cigar connoisseur, a selection of unique humidors created by LINLEY in association with Hunters and Frankau.

In this post I'll present two limited edition humidors with marquetry, one architectural humidor and a Metropolitan Museum of Art architectural jewelry box.

The London Skyline 

The London Skyline Humidor is a limited edition of five humidors featuring the panoramic skyline of London in marquetry and loaded with Regional Edition cigars. This humidor contains special cigars known as "Regional Editions" produced exclusively for the United Kingdom market.

The London Skyline Humidor

Veneers of cherry, Swiss pear, sycamore, walnut and wenge are used to recreate the city skyline set against a background of Macassar ebony. The humidor contains Spanish cedar drawers with capacity for approximately 70 cigars, and conceals a Cigar Spa humidification system. RRP - £13,350

To view images of the New York Skyline Humidor and the Metropolitan Museum of Art jewelry box, follow this link:

Cunard and David Linley Honor Queen Elizabeth with Marquetry Artwork

David Linley

Linley's Marquetry Artwork Commission 

Both David Linley and the marquetry traditions of Cunard's Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth ocean liners are on my blog post topics to-do list. I'm traveling with my family, thus short on time - here's the news, starting with the intro from Cunard's press release and ending with a passage from Sue Bryant's piece for Cruise Critic:

20 May 2010 - Yesterday, in Chelsea near London, Cunard Line unveiled the stunning centerpiece for the Grand Lobby of the Line's newest ship, Queen Elizabeth, debuting this fall. The artwork was specially commissioned to David Linley, son of the late Princess Margaret and the internationally famous photographer Lord Snowdon - and Her Majesty The Queen's only nephew - whose company specializes in the design and creation of fine furniture and marquetry. Linley's magnificent work shows the port bow of the original Queen Elizabeth seen dramatically from sea level, and is intricately executed using the technique of marquetry inlay with nine individual panels made of various types of wood veneers seamlessly jointed to lightweight board.

David Linley and Peter Shanks
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Cunard's Wow Factor 

Queen Elizabeth Art (May 20, 2010, 5 p.m. EDT) -- A fittingly royal touch for Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth was unveiled last night. 

The backdrop to the sweeping staircase descending into the 90,400-ton ship's magnificent Grand Lobby, the first area passengers see on boarding, is going to be an intricate marquetry panel, two and a half decks high, depicting the original Queen Elizabeth -- and designed by master wood craftsman David Linley.

Viscount Linley, whose clients include Oprah Winfrey and perfume magnate Jo Malone, trained in cabinet-making under John Makepeace and founded his design company, Linley, in 1985. He has gone on to become a huge international success, creating exquisite inlaid wooden furniture that comes with a hefty price tag; at the big reveal of the panel last night in Linley's spacious Belgravia showroom, journalists and Cunard executives awkwardly circled a £16,500 table, not quite knowing where to put their drinks down.

So what's the thinking behind the panel? Peter Shanks, president and managing director of Cunard, told the gathering last night: "We needed to fill that space with something which would not just be dramatic, a "wow" factor in an area already full of "wow," but which would also reflect our emphasis on traditional and sumptuous materials."

"Once we had decided on the theme and the medium, it didn't take us long to conclude that no one was better qualified for this detailed but monumental work than the company of the exceptional craftsman David Linley, whose creative ability and mastery of wood is renowned."

Artist's rendering of Art Deco Panel
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 Art Deco Panel in Marquetry
 

The panel is undeniably stunning and will make a superb backdrop for formal photographs. It'll be made of nine wooden veneers, including Indian ebony, American walnut, bird's eye maple and grey ripple sycamore. The finished product will be shipped to the Fincantieri shipyard at Monfalcone, Italy, where Queen Elizabeth is under construction, and assembled over a period of four days.

LINLEY's Chairman, David Linley, who founded the company in 1985, commented: 

"I recall my father saying the interior design of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 made one proud to be British, so I am hoping our achievement on the new Queen Elizabeth will make him -- and others -- equally proud."

As a result, Linley, a company specialising in the design and manufacture of fine furniture and marquetry was commissioned to design and make this stunning centrepiece at the heart of the ship. Work is currently under way, and the completed panel will be shipped during the summer to the Fincantieri shipyard at Monfalcone, Italy, where it will be installed over a period of four days to take pride of place just before the ship enters service in October.