Mahogany Furnitures: With the advent of the Modern period, over 20 woods new to furniture making were added. These come from various foreign lands, including Africa and Australia and are used for the decorative quality of grain or distinctive colors when finished.
Woods most favored during the various furniture style periods are: Puritan Span, white oak with tops or lids of wide, knot-free white pine; William and Mary and Queen Anne, walnut or maple, either plain or fancy grain; Chippendale, mahogany furnitures, walnut and, after 1770, native cherry as a mahogany furnitures substitute; Hepplewhite, mahogany, frequently with panels of satinwood veneer; Sheraton, mahogany furnitures, or cherry with satinwood or curly or bird's-eye maple veneer for decorative panels; American Empire, mahogany furnitures with liberal use of crotch-grain mahogany furnitures veneer for tops, panels and sometimes entire pieces; Early Victorian, rosewood followed by black walnut, sometimes combined with crotch-grain walnut veneer, also, for some custom-made furniture, satinwood trimmed with rosewood or black walnut.
The wealth of trees includes thousands of tropical American species classified among many plant families, of which the legume family (Leguminosae) perhaps is best represented. The woods of this mixed forest vary greatly in quality from hard and heavy to soft and lightweight woods. mahogany furnitures (Swietenia), the world's premier cabinet wood, is scattered in this forest from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil and in the West Indies. Spanish cedar (Cedrela), also in the mahogany furnitures family (Meliaceae), is perhaps the most important timber for domestic use in tropical America. |
