Ebony being expensive, it was sometimes simulated with stain. An
old fifteenth century recipe says: "Take boxwood and lay in oil
with sulphur for a night, then let it stew for an hour, and it
will become as black as coal." An old Italian book enjoins the
polishing of this imitation ebony as follows: "Is the wood to be
polished with burnt pumice stone? Rub the work carefully with canvas
and this powder, and then wash the piece with Dutch lime water so
that it may be more beautifully polished... then the rind of a
pomegranate must be steeped, and the wood smeared over with it,
and set to dry, but in the shade."

Inlay was often imitated; the elaborate marquetry cabinets in Sta.
Maria della Grazia in Milan which are proudly displayed are in
reality, according to Mr. Russell Sturgis, cleverly painted to
simulate the real inlaid wood. Mr. Hamilton Jackson says that these,
being by Luini, are intended to be known as paintings, but to imitate
intarsia.

Intarsia was made also among the monasteries. The Olivetans practised
this art extensively, and, much as some monasteries had scriptoria
for the production of books, so others had carpenter's shops and
studios where, according to Michele Caffi, they showed "great talent
for working in wood, succeeding to the heirship of the art of tarsia
in coloured woods, which they got from Tuscany." One of the more
important of the Olivetan Monasteries was St. Michele in Bosco, where
the noted worker in tarsia, Fra Raffaello da Brescia, made some
magnificent choir stalls. In 1521 these were finished, but they were
largely destroyed by the mob in the suppression of the convents in
the eighteenth century. In 1812 eighteen of the stalls were saved,
bought by the Marquis Malvezzi, and placed in St. Petronio. He tried