When a $2,000 barrel isn’t a barrel
For thousands of years, artisans have found ways to make one material look like another. The history of furniture is filled with examples, like wood painted to resemble marble, metal, lacquer or other expensive or exotic materials. Sometimes, other materials are sculpted or painted to look like wood. The faux bois (literally “false wood”) technique was popularized in France, as its name suggests, in the mid-1800s, although its roots go deeper. Garden furnishings made of reinforced concrete sculpted into tree or branch shapes, which blended into the natural landscapes but were not ...
