Vintage View: 19th century Irish, English, and European furniture

HOW is it that experienced collectors can name the wood of a piece in one glance?

Vintage View: 19th century  Irish, English, and European furniture

It’s simply experience, and by studying furniture in woods that are already identified in the catalogue of a good sale, you can start to find your eye too.

Certain woods were used during certain periods. So, we can generally expect most of the 19th century Irish, English, and European furniture we come across at antiques and fairs to be made or decorated in veneers of hardwoods — mahogany, oak, rosewood, satinwood, or walnut. That’s a good place to start.

In the time of Charles II, (restored in 1660), it was found that you could take a cheaper stable solid wood and glue sheets of more expensive, attractive wood onto it to form a veneer as the French and Dutch were doing. Carving was no longer the only form of decoration and the first ‘age of oak’ was over. Pieces were also painted, dyed, and japanned.

Walnut straddles almost two centuries as the wood of choice for the big house before a fleet of exotic timbers took to the floor of fashionable society homes. Towards the turn of the 19th/20th century, there was interest in lighter shades offered by ash, and satinwood, (returned in the Sheraton Revival). Pine continued as a champion for country furniture, and there was a revival in solid oak in Arts & Crafts. The Americans include all these species of exotic and native hardwoods, but also favoured maple, birch, and cherry wood.

The colour of the wood and the character of the grain generally identify the type of wood a piece is made from in solid wood, or with a covering of parts of the entire piece in a veneer. Distinguishing one wood from another is not always easy, the wood may no longer have its original colour, as it may be bleached out by the placement in a warm sunny position in a room for several decades. Staining, waxing, and polishing will also change solid woods and veneers. Victorian wa nut was often gussied up in a red stain to imitate a more desirable mahogany.

Walnut and oak both darken over time and have a tight grain pattern, walnut is slightly harder and will be identified in a glance by a seasoned dealer. Burr walnut veneers taken from diseased wood were treasured for their magnificent patterns and are common on Art Deco bedroom suites.

Mahogany has tight grain patterns and a distinct red/orange colour, and can display fabulous ‘flames’ if taken from the ‘crotch’ of the tree, giving it the other rather giggling title of crotch mahogany. Rosewood, is almost blood red at times with dark lashes of tight grain.

Oak might be an honest workhorse by comparison to its exotic companion woods, but quarter-sawn, it has what are termed medullar rays, tiger stripes of darker and lighter ribbons in the timber which are just as fascinating. These were originally nutritional highways, used by the tree to take moisture and goodness from the inside to the outside of the trunk. Rays are a mark of quality, as quarter-sawn oak is more structurally stable than boards just slabbed off from the main trunk.

Elm used for early furniture was prey to woodworm and elm furniture in good condition is rare. There are dozens of other gorgeous timbers used for everything from tea caddies to intricate inlays, cross banding and complex ‘seaweed’ marquetry. Laburnum, in particular, is almost purple in places. Brazilian Kingwood and olive wood, cut into mirrored ‘oyster’ veneers is reminiscent of the oyster shell. Satinwood — not just taken from one tree but from over 30 species — is known to polish to a high shine of iridescent honey shaded glory. In the 17th century, sycamore was dyed green to make what was called ‘harewood’ in Continental marquetry.

Next time you’re at an auction, see if you can tell solid wood from veneer (look for chips, or open a drawer to see if there’s a layer of a more expensive wood over a supporting cast of softwood). Is the colour of the wood out of sight different to the face on show? Without looking in your catalogue or checking the ticket, see if you can tell the wood from the tree. There’s a handy guide to different wood types (most of which you will rarely, if ever, see) at www.museumfurniture.com/wood.

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