Mahogany

Mahogany is one of the largest species of hardwood with many different varieties within it. It is rich reddish brown in colour and can range from being plain to having a vibrant and almost three dimensional effect figure.

It has been a very popular timber for centuries being used in ship and house building, furniture making and formed the core structure of possibly every 19th century dressing case, vanity and jewellery box. In Victorian times it also became the fashion to dress mahogany with decorative veneers like Kingwood, Rosewood, Coromandel and Burr Walnut, hiding the underpinning mahogany almost from view.

As well as being used in solid form, it was also used for veneers with amazing figured varieties like ‘Flame’ mahogany in demand. Cuban mahogany was so popular and sought after that it became virtually extinct by the late 1850s