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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.