The Parrot & Lily Blog — Curiosities

Marquetry and Parquetry in furniture Imagine the most curious collections of curiosities known to us. Artists' equipment, exotic birds, rare editions with a hint of musical instruments... And all this is just out of reach, behind a delicate and inexplicably fine curtain of veneer.    From generations of Boulles "bejewelling" Louis XIV's cabinets to the neoclassical masterpieces of Reisener- marquetry is an inseparable part of XVIII century French royal  furniture.XVIII century marquetry developed from Renaissance intarsia, originating in Italy where the above example can be found. Marquetry inlays can be done in any medium, including marble and brass. In wood, a mosaic of veneers is created by cutting...

Even more than man, art is known by the company it keeps. An ill-curated collection can do a disservice to even the most valued individual works. It is no news that we treat our work like fine art. After all, their primary purpose is always visual. That you can sit on them is merely a happy afterthought. So we never think of them as just individual pieces that are being sold, but as significant additions to someone's personal collection. We see them reinterpreted every time they are moved, analysed through the seasons, paraphrased by each onlooker.  We are each the curators of our own lives. If we...

The art of carving pictures in wood- an ancient tradition older than any of us, accompanied by excerpts of a poem that are even older. I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess --of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus rapt away,given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.  Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits,she was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanusand gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinthsand the narcissus which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeusand to please the Host of...

We would like to wish a very merry Christmas, from all of us at Parrot & Lily to our beloved friends and clients.May the joy of this Christmas warm our hearts till the next one.  

  There are very few settings where the age-old tradition of heraldry is still taken seriously. But our mortal preoccupation with signage, symbolism and representation remains.   The beauty of custom-made is that our designs can be customised to your exact tastes and requirements. So we do rather wonder when someone wants to pick up one of our pieces off-the-rack and put it in their homes. Of course, sometimes one just falls in love with what already is. But how can you resist the opportunity to add a little bit of yourself to something that you are going to live with? Specially something as allusive as a nameplate announcing the...