| Article Index |
|---|
| Types Of Wood |
| Amaranth |
| Amboyna |
| Birch |
| Birds Eye Maple |
| Calamander |
| Elm |
| Harewood |
| Kingwood |
| Mahogany |
| Oak |
| Pine |
| Rosewood |
| Satinwood |
| Tulipwood |
| Walnut |
| Yew |
| All Pages |
The timber used for constructing and decorating a piece of furniture help to identify the country of origin and the period. Until c.1750, indigenous timbers were relatively freely and cheaply available, while the use of more exotic woods is an indication of either colonial access or luxurious extravagance.
Learning to differentiate between a wide range of woods takes time. There is no magic shortcut, but obviously the more you look at and handle a good selection of antique furniture the shorter your apprenticeship will be, Bear in mind that wood can be transformed in colour by insensitive restoration or by applying a dark varnish. You should make a point of inspecting the area where the wood remains unfinished and in its natural state, remembering that cheaper woods often make up the invisible area of a piece.
Amaranth
Amaranth - Freshly Cut
Amaranth - After Oxidation
Also known as Purpleheart, and Violetwood.
Amaranth is brown when freshly cut but oxidizes to a bright violet purple and eventually to a dark purplish brown. It is hard, heavy and finely textured and the grain of amaranth is usually straight, often with a fine, curly figure. It is very durable and is found in Central and South America. There is considerable variation in colour, texture and density among the several species that account for the commercial supplies of amaranth. It is moderately hard to work but takes a glossy, lustrous finish.
* Imported into Europe from Central America
* Employed in The Nederland’s and France from the late 1600´s mainly as a veneer on cabinets
* Used for marquetry and parquetry from c.1750
Amboyna
A hardwood imported from the Moluccas in the West Indies and characterised by its orangey-brown colour and tightly curled grain. This tropical tightly burred wood is similar to burr walnut but with an iridescent sheen. Widely employed from the late 1700´s by French and British cabinet makers.
* Invariably used as a veneer
* Particularly associated with the work of Adam Weisweiler (1744 - 1820) and fashionable during the Regency period
* Used in Europe and the United States, mostly as a veneer during the first 40 years of the 1800`s.
Birch
Also known as Sweet Birch and Yellow Birch
Light yellowish-brown coloured fairly soft wood indigenous throughout northern Europe, particularly Scandinavia and the Baltic. Birch is an important commercial timber. It is heavy hard, stiff and strong but has poor durability. It has close-grained, light reddish brown heartwood with the sapwood pale to nearly white. Figure and colour are similar to maple, but slightly coarser textured. Architect's delight due to fine finishing capabilities. Sweet birch tends to be slightly darker in colour, heavier and harder than yellow birch.
* First introduced as a veneer in the late 1700´s
* Used for chairs and country furniture.
* Appears in two principle forms; Karelien birch, a tightly figured, gnarled burr, and the lighter satin-birch (widely used in the 1800´s); often mistaken for satinwood
* Karelien birch favoured by Russian craftsmen from c.1800
Birds Eye Maple
Birds Eye Maple or American Sugar Maple describes the very attractive figuring in maple. It has small markings all over its yellow-brown surface, and was popular during the 1800´s. Closely related in colour and texture to satin-birch and satinwood, bird´s eye maple is more richly figured than the standard variety. The wood of the maple is whitish and responds well to polishing. Maple is indigenous to North America, Canada and northern Europe.
* Widely employed by the 1800´s cabinet makers both as a veneer and in the solid
* Has distinctive tight light-brownish spots, caused by branch bud initials, which resemble birds eyes when cut
* Fashionable in Britain during the Regency (1790 – 1830), and in France during the reign of Charles X (1824 – 1830). It was also used in the Victorian and Edwardian bedroom suites
* Bird´s eye maple is also popular today for picture frames
Calamander
Also known as Zebrawood
Calamander is a member of the ebony family and derives from Sri Lanka. It is a dense hardwood, and it is distinguished by its strongly streaked yellow bands, alternating with dull brown to blackish stripes. Popular in the Regency period, it is light brown in colour stripped and mottled with black and was used for veneer and banding. Calamander was also used in the manufacture of small decorative boxes.
* So called because it was initially shipped from the Coromandel Coast in India, later from West Africa.
* Always applied as a veneer in Europe; only colonial furniture was made in the solid
* Calamander’s strong figuring was particularly admired in Britain in the early 1800´s
Elm
A hardwood distinguished by its wide, jagged, open grain, which often has white speckles. Indigenous to northern Europe. Elm is a light brown timber from the temperate regions similar in look to oak but without the medullary rays (iridescent flecks) and with a more even grain due to its faster growth. It has distinctive blackish figuring when old and ingrained with dirt. Somewhat similar in appearance to oak, this wood was in use during the 1600´s and later. The British variety of elm is hard and durable but liable to warp with age and is susceptible to woodworm.
* Used since the 1500´s for construction in the solid
* Particularly favoured by provincial cabinet makers in Britain and The Netherlands
* Richly figured, burr elm is far rarer than the standard variety
* Burr elm tends to have a broken surface with tight grains
* Furniture constructed in burr elm was usually veneered or in some cases stained to emulate mulberry
* Burr elm was used for veneers and cabinetwork in the early 1700´s. Cut into burr veneers of fairly small sheets with extremely pleasing effect.
* Wych elm has a particularly attractive grain and polishes well.
* Used for Windsor chair seats in England, country furniture, provincial chests of drawers, and widely used for coffins because of its large plank size.
* Chairs were made from elm from the Georgian period and the seats of Windsor chairs were elm from the 1800´s.
Harewood
A term used for stained sycamore. The veneer of the sycamore, stained a grey colour, was called 'harewood' in the 1700´s. It has pleasing rippled markings, and was popular both as a veneer and for use in inlaying. Harewood is a light-coloured softwood characterised by strong parallel lines on a speckled ground.
* Much used in the later 1700´s and Regency as a decorative veneer.
* Well suited to staining and frequently used in marquetry
* Often stained green or brownish-grey
Kingwood
Brazilian Kingwood
Also known as Violetwood, Violetta, Bois Violet, Palisander and Princewood
Kingwood comes from Brazil and South America and is a strongly figured, black-grained hardwood with fine, purple streaks fading quickly to tones of greyish brown on exposure to air and light. A very strong, tough wood with good durability and with a distinguishable appearance. The heartwood is variegated with streaks of black, violet brown, yellow tan, and pinkish tan. Grain is typically straight. Lustrous and fine textured. Good for holding nails and screws. Gives a finish that is naturally waxy.
* Used for oyster veneering, inlays, marquetry, turning, inlay bandings, and fancy items
* First imported into Britain from Brazil in the late 1600´s.
* From 1770 it was used predominantly for cross banding and borders due to the availability of only very small blocks.
* It was used as a veneer or for parquetry decoration particularly in France.
* Widely employed by French cabinet makers during the Regence (1715 – 1723) and Louis XV (1723 – 1774) periods
* Seen in parquetry, bois de bout marquetry and cross banding
Mahogany
Flame Mahogany
Mahogany is a close-grained hardwood native to northern and central South America and the West Indies and is impervious to woodworm. It was introduced to Britain from Jamaica c.1730. and mahogany is such a well-known timber that it is scarcely necessary to say much about it in the way of description. To most people it is a familiar reddish- brown wood, and it has been used for making furniture since about 1730.
Mahogany is very strong, seasons quickly and does not tend to warp and split, is seldom attacked by woodworm, and is a good timber to work. It could be obtained in large enough pieces to make large table-tops without joining, which had not been possible before, and not only does it take a pleasing smooth finish but is excellent for carving. It is therefore not hard to understand why, once it had been introduced, it quickly became popular and stayed for long the principal timber used in cabinet making.
It varies in colour from dark brown to red and sometimes has a spotted effect. A hard, dense, reddish colour, it is found in straight planks through to finely figured veneers. It was the most popularly used wood from the early 1700`s due to its strength and ease of importation from the West Indies and other tropical areas. It is still widely used today, although by the mid 1800`s, all the best trees had been felled. Modern mahogany is coarse and opened grained and bears little resemblance to its 1700`s counterpart. Furniture made from mahogany became very popular with cabinetmakers in Britain from the mid 1700´s, followed by France and the rest of Europe. African mahogany, which is lighter in weight, was used from the 1800´s onwards.
Many varieties of tropical hardwoods are grouped under the heading of mahogany. The timber was imported from the Bahamas, Jamaca, San Domingo, Cuba, Honduras and Puerto Rico. Strictly speaking these different places produced trees that were not usually true mahogany, but the use of the word spread to cover all timbers of a red-brown colour that resembled it closely in appearance and could be worked in a similar manner. It is the Cuban variety that has the very distinctive markings beloved of cabinet-makers in the second half of the 1700’s. This variety was used often in the form of veneers, as was walnut, in order to show the light and shade of the figurings to the best advantage. Honduras mahogany (originally called Baywood) is lighter in colour and with a pinker tinge.
* Almost exclusively used by British cabinet makers until the 1760´s, when used in France, Germany and Russia
* Used both as a veneer and in the solid
* Most exotic and richly figured varieties include flame or fiddleback and plum pudding mahogany
Oak
A hard, coarse-grained, dense timber distinguished by its flecks (rays) which is light browny-yellow when cut. Oak is a slow growing tree taking between 150 and 200 years to reach maturity. The wood is hard and pale in colour but darkens to a rich brown with age and polishing. This hard, strong timber is available in good plank widths and used throughout history in both Europe and America. Usually identifiable by the medullary rays that can be accentuated by the way it is cut. It is resistant to woodworm due to the tannic acids it contains, which hardens it. An oak beam from an old house, covered in woodworm on the surface, is invariably sound in the centre. Furniture made from oak is usually heavy and solid and simple in design. From the mid 1600´s oak was used mainly for the carcasses of furniture and draw linings but became popular again in the late 1800´s with the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Early Oak – before mid 1600´s – used in solid, has become usually very dark or plain brown colour.
Later country oak furniture – of the 1700´s – tends to be lighter and the distinctive wormlike yellow rays are more visible. In fine furniture of late 1600´s and 1700´s, oak was used for drawer linings in plain sawn form, and especially in liner drawers remains light in colour. Also used in veneer form.
* Provincial oak furniture is often very red in colour owing to staining with “dragons blood”
* Employed in the solid since the Middle Ages, and constantly popular in the provincial tradition
* Increasingly used as a carcass wood on more sophisticated furniture from the 1600´s
* Brown or “pollard” oak, a richly figured burr with a broken surface fashionable as a veneer from the early 1800´s
Pine
A pale softwood with a wide straight grain and pronounced knot; indigenous to Europe and North America. Pine was also used for furniture intended to be painted or gilded but was too soft for elaborate carving for this reason, much carved giltwood is of lime or fruitwood. A widely available group of timbers used in Britain and the United States. Soft and pale, they darken with age and give off a resinous aroma when newly cut. Used for the invisible parts of furniture and where saving money was important. Provincial British and American furniture was made in solid pine but little has survived with its original painted or waxed finish.
· Usually employed as a carcass wood, particularly in North America, Italy and northern Europe
· Scandinavian pine (often has a distinctive purple grain), widely used in Alpine cabinet making
Rosewood
A dense hardwood indigenous to India, South America and the West Indies and characterised by black streaks on a figured ground. The pronounced figuring often fades with sunlight. Rosewood is a very dark reddish-brown hardwood with an almost black wavy grain but fades to a greyer colour. The name comes from the scent released when the wood is cut. Highly figured reddish timber with almost black streaks imported from Brazil, where the choicest specimens were available, and from the Far East for planer examples. When first cut, it is dark and purplish. The decorative figuring only becomes apparent after exposure to air, thus making rosewood pieces some of the hardest to re-polish since the purplish colour comes through again if the surface is removed. Used mainly during the late 1700`s and early 1800`s in Europe. Rosewood was used for inlaid decoration in the 1600´s and for veneer but was not used for making solid furniture until the early 1800´s. It was also used for decorative banding and small panels from the late 1700´s. Although it was in use during the 1700´s, it became widely popular during the 1800´s both as a veneer and in the solid when it was imported also from Brazil. It is a heavy timber, and chairs made from it are often found to have been broken from their own weight when carried.
· Widely used for veneering and crossbanding particularly by British cabinet makers
· Anglo-Indian pieces often made in the solid
· Darkly streaked Brazillian rosewood used prolificatly throughout Europe and America during the early 1800´s
· Brazillian rosewood was even carved from the solid
Satinwood
Also known as Ceylon Satinwood and East Indian Satinwood.
Found in Southeast Asia-- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. A dense and hard wood, mainly used for decorative purposes. Somewhat higher in strength than European Beech. Heartwood is light to golden yellow, darkening to a soft brown. Sapwood is not distinct but paler in colour than the inner wood. High lustre. Interlocked grain, sometimes having dark gum veins which cause splits. Fine and even texture. Difficult to glue. Turns, stains and polishes well.
An expensive, tight-grained timber from the West Indies with a curved smooth grain and light colour. Two main varieties of this yellow, iridescent timber come from the East and West Indies. The East Indies variety, paler and with more subtle figuring, was used at the end of the 1700`s for English Sheraton-style furniture. The more vibrant West Indies variety was used in Europe and the United States at the end of the 1800`s. It is a wood with a warm yellow colour, and has a close grain that takes a high polish.
Satinwood was used widely for veneers and inlaid decoration, the pale colour making it particularly suitable for painting. The grain varies from plain to rich figuring, the latter having a more transparent grain under polish or varnish. Cabinetmakers of the 1800´s preferred the West Indian variety, which is darker than the East Indian variety, and was used as a veneer in fine furniture from c1750. It was rarely used in the solid and not for chairs until c1800. The Eastern type, imported in the late 1700´s was pale yellow and used mainly for cross banding.
It was used mainly as a veneer, but unless handled carefully by the cabinet-maker it has a tendency to split. Towards 1800 it was used in the solid for making chairs and for the legs of veneered tables. Satinwood was an expensive timber, and it was used, on the whole, only for special pieces for wealthy clients. Satinwood furniture was sometimes elaborately inlaid with other light-coloured woods, but mostly it was decorated by having oil painting as part of the design. Much of it is said to have been the work of the woman artist, Angelica Kauffmann, but this is seldom, if ever, true. Chairs, as well as tables and cabinets, were decorated with painting, and this took the form of small bouquets of flowers and garlands of trailing leaves, which suited the slender shaping of the woodwork.
About 1900 there was a revival of interest in 1700´s satinwood furniture. Old pieces were brought out from cellars and attics, where they had been hidden as unfashionable, and were restored and sold for large sums. At the same time, a large number of copies and near-copies were made for those who could not afford the real thing. These pieces have now had half a century of wear and tear, so the prospective buyer should be on his guard. Often, too, the old painting on an eighteenth-century piece has been removed because it was worn, or for some other reason, and has been replaced by the work of a modern artist. This happens commonly with tabletops, which inevitably get scratched and stained in daily use. Such restored pieces are worth less than those on which the decoration is original.
* Introduced into Europe and North America in the late 1700´s
* Named after its satin like figuring
* Used for furniture, cabinets, interior joinery, decorative veneering.
Tulipwood
Also known as Rosewood, Brazilian Tulipwood, Pinkwood, Bois de Rose, Pau Rosa and Jacaranda Rosa.
Found in Brazil and tropical South America and has poor durability. A hard, dense wood with a reddish-pink grain from Brazil and Peru, known in France as bois de rose. A compact hardwood which splinters. Timber used for decorative purposes. Heartwood is pink-yellow in colour with a design of deeper reds and violet. Grain is often irregular. Fragrant. Fine texture. Extremely hard to work and causes severe blunting of cutting edges. Pre-boring necessary. Glues well, and excellent to polish.
* Used for fancy woodenware, caskets, jewellery boxes, turning, marquetry and inlays, marimba keys.
* Strongly figured grain and smooth texture well suited to parquetry and marquetry
* Mainly used for crossbanding from the late 1700´s
Walnut
A fruitwood indigenous to Europe and America, the colour of which varies from light to very dark. Walnut is an attractive light brown wood with distinctive dark patterns that came into use in the later years of the 1600’s. Much of it was grown in Britain and is golden brown with dark figuring, but the imported French variety was usually preferred because it was better marked. The esteemed markings or figurings are to be found when a tree is cut across the base where the roots start to spread, and at the point (the crotch) where a branch springs from the main stem. The equally popular burr wood (marked with innumerable tiny dark curls) is found near burrs or lumps by clusters of knots. Black walnut also grown in Britain from the late 1600´s; usually called Virginian walnut and much darker. Used in solid and can be mistaken for mahogany at first glance.
The use of veneers enabled the craftsmen to select the best-marked portions and arrange them in patterns; a familiar form being known as 'quartering', where four successively cut rectangular pieces are laid on a surface so that their markings coincide evenly. Equally popular were 'oysters', circular pieces cut across a branch.
Quartering
Crotch Walnut
Burr Walnut
* Used both in the solid or as a veneer
* Largely superseded from the mid 1700´s by mahogany and other exotic timbers
* Used in the provincial tradition until the late 1800´s
Yew
A very hard and slow growing timber, with a smooth fruitwood like surface and pronounced reddish-streaked parallel grain. Reddish brown hardwood with some burr effects. Polishes magnificently. Used from the 1500´s; often found in chairs of country origin. Used in solid or veneered form for much English provincial furniture, with the choicest burr veneers reserved for making tea caddies and other small items.
The familiar tree of English churchyards makes a wood of a medium brown colour used sometimes in the solid and also for veneers. Furniture using either type is much sought after, and when found is usually expensive.
* Employed particularly by provincial cabinet makers in Britain from the late 1600´s and also in Ireland and Russia
* Usually applied as a veneer
* Richly figured “burr” or diseased “root”, yew has smooth tight scrolled figuring and knots
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