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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