THE OLD RANCHER

THE OLD RANCHER is a marquetry pattern that my father, RUSSELL M. BLOOD bought from H.L. WILD in NEW YORK early in the twentieth century. H.L. WILD himself was a huge fan of the old west and a friend to BUFFALO BILL CODY. When father was working for MOLESWORTH he tried to convince him that his furniture would look better if he used marquetry as adornment as well as his carvings. MOLESWORTH was skeptical but told father that he would try it if he would produce an inlay on his own time with his own materials. Dad complied by doing a panel of THE OLD RANCHER. MOLESWORTH used the piece but decided that it took too long and was too expensive to produce. As far as I know this was the only pictorial marquetry that MOLESWORTH ever used. He did however, go on to use the pattern.

These panels were made by me for a client that wanted matching doors for a piece of burl furniture. I used woods pretty much to what Wild suggested on his original plans.