What woods are these? Theories of origins of this furniture piece?

marinosr

Richard
Corporate Member
My wife and I bought a vanity this weekend and we're curious about the origins of the piece. It was sold as a Biedermeier-style piece, but it's definitely 20th century (NC lacquer finish, die-cast hardware, plywood) and not a one-off item. I'm interested to know what you think the veneers are and any speculations you might have about the origins. Based on no makers mark, the hand-cut dovetails, and the exotic veneers on non-show surfaces, I'm guessing that it was made somewhere in the developing world for export to the US, but I really have no clue.

Pedestal:
IMG_20200508_202131.jpg

Top:
IMG_20200508_202000.jpg



Here are some curious details:

The non-show surfaces (e.g. the top of the pedestal) are veneered with a nice wood, I'm pretty sure ribbon mahogany.
IMG_20200508_202059.jpg


Scribe lines on the dovetails indicate that they were cut by hand. But like I said, the existence of other examples suggests that it is a mass-produced piece.

IMG_20200508_202317.jpg


The only non-veneered surface on the piece is the bottom of the pedestal. You can see here that the veneers were applied to plywood bent around a solid wood frame (I took a block plane to the wood to try to get a hint of what it was, but it's "generic white")

IMG_20200508_202518.jpg


Here you can get an idea of the base frame construction. This is the underside of the pedestal. Glued up sticks splined in places.

IMG_20200508_202528.jpg
 

bbrown

Bill
User
Ribbon stripe mahogany for sure on the top.
Could be one of many burl veneers on the remainder - maple burl dyed or otherwise coloured is a possibility.
I've used maple burl and with dye it looks identical to the photos.
 

sawman101

Bruce Swanson
Corporate Member
Wow, is that ever pretty. Love the back side, which is mostly unseen when placed for use. Great piece of well made furniture.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
It's nearly impossible to identify the wood species for a furniture piece-especially exotic/imported wood species.

Why does it matter what the wood species is?
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Looks to be southeast asian work. Lots of times, dovetails are machined and then scribed to give the appearance of hand made.
 

marinosr

Richard
Corporate Member
Could be one of many burl veneers on the remainder - maple burl dyed or otherwise coloured is a possibility.
Yes, it does look dyed (brush strokes visible on unfinished surface) and could def be a maple burl. Which would perhaps argue against it being produced in the tropics. I guess one species of burl is pretty hard to tell apart from another... I don't know too much about them.

Lots of times, dovetails are machined and then scribed to give the appearance of hand made.

Ah the plot thickens. Never heard of this being done... what a waste of time! It could be... every tail is close in size (perhaps identical?) and the scribe lines are very thick. But then again one of the half-blind tails has a substantial gap indicating human error.
 

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