Is a piece of furniture covered with veneer of less
value and quality ?
No.
The use of veneers is not a modern development of the
wood manufacturing industry to save money by giving to the
customers less quantities of valued materials.
Veneers are designed to allow the furniture maker to give to
the piece the most of the beauty of the wood grain and
special effects that can not be achieved with solid stock of
wood.
The first use of wood veneers was discovered among the
Egyptians around 2000 BC.
Furthermore, the most beautiful woods cut in such a way to
display the grain in fancy patterns are either not strong or
stable enough to be used in furniture manufacturing.
Therefore the only option to achieve such effects and
maintain the sound integrity of the piece of furniture was to
use a strong and stable solid wood on the inside and a thin
layer of such fine wood grains glued on the outside.