Also 7 tersia. [a. It. tarsia ‘marquetry or small inlaid workes of diuers colours of bone, horne, wood or Iuorie’ (Florio).] A kind of mosaic inlaid work in wood of various colors and shades. Also attrib. as tarsia-work.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 138. But if Mosaick be in wood ’tis called Tersia: the several pieces of which are boil’d and dyed into what colour the workman fancies.
1875. Pollen, Anc. & Mod. Furn., 28. The wood veneered or inlaid with marquetry or tarsia work of ivory, ebony, box, palm.
1883. Fr. M. Peard, Contrad., I. 228. Cortina … with its great schools of filigree and tarsia work.
1901. J. Black’s Carp. & Build., Home Handicr., 61. Tarsia … was a species of wood inlay or mosaic of which the Italians of the late Mediæval period were the great exponents.
