By Fauna and flora are essential visual elements in the marquetry marvels produced by Massachusetts furniture maker Silas Kopf. Bouquets of roses adorn the splats of dining chairs; a squadron of goldfish patrols the drawers of a sideboard; leafy aspens flourish on the curvaceous case of a grand piano.

Kopf’s furniture is at once refined and understated, a harmonic blend of stylized images and stylish lines often rendered in the most exotic of woods. While the overall look of his pieces hovers midway between the subtler sinuosity of Art Nouveau and the entrancing geometrics of Art Deco, they evoke a freshness and allure that is singularly contemporary.

In 2003, Glen Adamson wrote in the brochure for a show of Kopf’s work at Gallery Henoch, his longtime New York dealer: “For the past decade, he has led, virtually defined, the state of contemporary American marquetry, the exacting and painstaking art of assembling pictures out of minute pieces of differently colored woods. He stands so far apart … in this discipline that he bears a unique responsibility in furthering the progress of this centuries-old craft.” Adamson is curator of the Chipstone Foundation, a legendary collection of American decorative arts in Fox Point, Wisconsin. In 2002, he curated “Skin Deep: Three Masters of American Inlaid Furniture,” at the Milwaukee Art Museum, which highlighted marquetry work by three craftsmen representing the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Kopf was the one living maker whose work was featured.

If one asks Kopf how he first became involved with marquetry, he answers rather disarmingly, “I was an ‘alternative lifestyle’ student looking for something out of the ordinary.” Nonetheless, he did graduate from Princeton University with a degree in architecture in 1972, but decided the conventional route to graduate school and professional practice held no appeal. “I’d done a little sculpturing with wood while in school,” he notes. “I thought working with wood offered both the design element of architecture and the satisfaction of hands-on craftsmanship.”

Eventually securing an apprenticeship with renowned art-furniture maker Wendell Castle, Kopf soon realized that the outstanding practitioners in the field had a “signature” that distinguished their work. “I started looking at historical styles and became fascinated with French Art Nouveau furniture, particularly the work of Louis Majorelle and Emile Gallé. While known for his glass, Gallé’s real passion toward the end of his career was furniture.” Kopf soon found he liked creating cabinet doors decorated with floral patterns in the Art Nouveau style.

Visits to Italy in 1984 and France in 1988 further refined his talent. He relished the artistry of Italian Renaissance marquetry that he had seen in books, but the opportunity to “get close to something to observe how it was made” was a stimulating experience for Kopf.

A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship four years later allowed him to study marquetry at the École Boulle, the illustrious school of cabinetmaking in Paris. “I was able to scrutinize great French pieces in the same way I had Renaissance marquetry in Italy,” he says. He also became familiar with the ultra-svelte work of 18th-century cabinetmaker David Roentgen. “His marquetry is beautifully juxtaposed with the refined design of his furniture. That’s what I strive to do: make the furniture and the marquetry accentuate each other.”