In the Antique Woods: An Invaluable Guide for Collectors

Antique furniture (pieces that are around 100 years of age or older) comes in all shapes, sizes – and types of wood. When identifying antique woods, it’s important to know specific details that may help age, value, and preserve your items.

To help our readers and avid collectors best understand the types of wood commonly found in antique and vintage furniture, what these pieces were used for, where the wood came from, types of finish, and basic antique wooden furniture terminology, we’ve created an antique wood guide to have by your side. Here’s what to know.

Antique wood vocabulary to know

First, let’s review a few vocabulary terms that you may find throughout this guide and in further research on antique woods.

Bole 

The trunk of a tree.

Burl/ Burr

A hard woody often flattened hemispherical outgrowth on a tree.

Grain 

A pattern of fibers seen in a cut surface of wood.

Fruitwood 

The wood of any fruit tree, particularly hardwood from species such as pear and cherry, that is valued for furniture, woodcuts and other applications.

Hardwood

 The wood from a broadleaved tree (such as oak, ash, or beech) as distinguished from that of conifers.

Heartwood 

The dense inner part of a tree trunk, yielding the hardest timber.

Knot 

Occurs when a branch has been surrounded by continued growth of the bole. When the bole is sawn into lumber, or peeled to make veneer, the branch sections included in the lumber or veneer show up as knots. 

Pulpwood

Timber suitable for making into pulp.

Rosewood 

A close-grained tropical timber with a distinctive fragrance, used particularly for making furniture and musical instruments.

Sapwood

 The soft outer layers of recently formed wood between the heartwood and the bark, containing the functioning vascular tissue.

Softwood 

The wood from a conifer (such as pine, fir, or spruce) as distinguished from that of broadleaved trees.

Veneer 

A thin decorative covering of fine wood applied to a coarser wood or other material.

Wood finishing

The process of refining or protecting a wooden surface, especially in the production of furniture where typically it represents between 5 and 30% of manufacturing costs.

Common types of woods in vintage and antique wood furniture

Amboyna

Description 

Amboyna is a high-quality hardwood that takes its name from Ambon Island in Indonesia, where it is believed to have been first exported. The burl forms especially on the Andaman group of islands. It’s one of the priciest and sought-after types of wood among antique furniture collectors.  

Popular era(s) 

Amboyna burl was a popular and frequently used wood in the Jugendstil epoch (c. 1895 – 1910). 

Common uses 

Fine furniture, turned objects, knife/gun grips, and other small specialty wood items. 

Key attributes

Amboyna is frequently sold as veneer. The burly part of the log is often very small, thus only veneer in small dimensions. Some suppliers use “red amboyna” for material with the rich reddish brown heartwood, and “gold amboyna” for pieces with lighter yellowish brown coloration.

Finishing

Amboyna takes any type of surface treatment and is very well-suited for polishing. Ultraviolet-resistant varnishes should be used to avoid darkening over time. 


Ash (European)

European Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior) - image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

European Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Description

Ash, also called white ash or European ash, is a strong harwood that originated in Western Europe and southwestern Asia. The ash burl forms in the trunk, not in the root. Ash wood is widely used in the USA and the Far East, and the best growing areas for the veneer industry are found especially in France and Germany.

Popular era(s)

Georgian (1714 to c. 1837) and Victorian (1837 – 1901).

Common uses

High-quality architectural woodwork including Georgian and Victorian furniture, as it was locally sourced. It was also used as drawer linings in chests of drawers and wardrobes. 

Key attributes

Ash is normally a lighter shade. It has a medium-to-coarse texture similar to oak. The grain is almost always straight and regular, though sometimes curly or figured boards can be found.

Finishing

Ash is suitable for all types of surface finishes, and colored stains are used in particular.


Coromandel/ Calamander/ Macassar Ebony

Calamander or coromandel wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Calamander or coromandel wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Description

Originating in India and South East Asia, coromandel, or calamander, is a very heavy hardwood. The name coromandel refers to the Coromandel Coast in India from where it was first exported. Unfortunately, it was logged into extinction over a period of 200-300 years, so the few remaining pieces of coromandel antique furniture sell for extremely high prices on the market today.

Popular era(s)

The Regency period (1811 – 1820), during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).

Common uses

Carpentry, luthiery, and sculpture, as well as veneers and banding on antique furniture. Coromandel was considered one of the most exotic, luxurious and expensive woods to work with and was the veneer of choice for some of the finest antique boxes.  

Key attributes

Coromandel is a hazel brown wood with black stripes. Coromandel is a member of the ebony family, and today, the nearest relation to Coromandel is Macassar Ebony.


Black Cherry/ American Cherry

Black cherry wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Black cherry wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Description

Cherry is a common hardwood (one of the softer hardwoods). Cherry wood comes from the American Black Cherry fruit tree, known as “black cherry” or “American cherry.” When settlers first arrived in America, this tree was abundant, and furniture makers of the time dubbed cherry wood “New England Mahogany” after observing how it darkened over time. It is the most prized furniture hardwood in America, and is renowned for the way it ages. Today, the cherry tree can be found along the east coast of the US, in the midwest, and in parts of Mexico.

Popular era(s)

Colonial America (1600s-1763).

Common uses

Queen Anne style American antiques; fine furniture and cabinets.

Key attributes

Cherry wood is almost pink when first cut, but it darkens with age to beautiful browns and reds. It is strong and durable, and has a fine, straight grain. It’s simple, smooth, and closed in pattern, similar to maple wood. It’s easily cut and shaped into exquisite carvings, and it is found with varying colors, mineral streaks, knots, and sap pockets that make it give it a unique look. 

Finishing

Cherry wood can be treated very well by all methods. Quick darkening is prevented by using light protective varnishes.


Elm

Elm wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Elm wood. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Description 

Durable and hard, elm originated in Europe, mainly in France and England. In Central Europe, it is used as accentuating wood for decorative purposes, and in Southern Europe it is fashionably used for a range of furniture.

Popular era(s) 

Georgian period (1714 to c. 1837).

Common uses

Decorative veneers, high-quality architectural woodwork and furniture (specifically chairs in the Georgian period).

Key attributes

The color of the heartwood is light to dark brown. Elm has an attractive grain and polishes well. 

Finishing

Elm takes any surface treatment well. Filler is recommended due to the coarse texture. High gloss surfaces are extremely impressive.


Kingwood

Kingwood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Kingwood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Kingwood is a classic furniture hardwood and type of rosewood that comes from a small tree that grows in Brazil and occasionally in Mexico. It’s very dense and hard, and can be brought to a spectacular finish. Due to its density and hardness, it’s difficult to work with hand tools on kingwood. In the 17th century, it was called princes wood, but it turned into kingwood after several French kings (Louis XIV and Louis XV) in the 17th and 18th centuries, who preferred the wood in the use of fine furniture.

Popular era(s)

17th & 18th century France.

Common uses 

Inlays of fine furniture, veneers, small items and turned work like billiard cues, antique furniture and parquetry decoration in France.

Key attributes

Kingwood is brownish-purple with fine darker stripes and occasional irregular swirls. It’s only available in small sizes.

Finishing

Kingwood turns very well and takes a high polish.


Mahogany

Mahogany wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Mahogany wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

With species native to Cuba, South America, Mexico, the West Indies, and Pacific Central America, mahogany is a close grained hardwood. Different types of mahogany can be found across the world, varying in quality and character based on soil and climate, but it’s categorized into three species: Honduran or big-leaf mahogany, West Indian or Cuban mahogany, and Pacific Coast mahogany. The mahogany trade may have begun as early as the 16th century and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. In certain countries, mahogany is considered an invasive species.

Popular era(s)

Mid-18th century Britain, and soon after in Europe.

Common uses

Table tops and other fine furniture especially in Europe, veneering, cabinetry, turned objects, and musical instruments. 

Key attributes

Mahogany varies in color from dark brown to red, occasionally with a spotted effect. Color tends to darken with age. Mahogany also exhibits an optical phenomenon known as chatoyancy. The grain can be straight, interlocked, irregular or wavy. The texture is medium and uniform, with moderate natural luster.

Finishing

Mahogany sands very easily, and turns, glues, stains, and finishes well.


Maple (Bird’s-Eye)

Bird's-eye maple wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Bird’s-eye maple wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Native to North America and Northeast Asia, maple wood, also known as the genus Acer, is a hardwood that’s categorized into 132 species. Most of these species are native to Asia, while some appear in Europe, Africa, and North America.

Popular era(s) 

Regency period (1811 – 1820); Victorian and Edwardian periods.

Common uses

American furniture, Victorian and Edwardian bedroom suites, veneers, musical instruments; sugar maple wood or hard maple is commonly used for bowling pins, bowling alley lanes, pool cue shafts, and butcher’s blocks.

Key attributes

Maple wood is often graded based on physical and aesthetic characteristics. The most common terminology includes the grading scale from common #2; which is unselected and often used for craft woods; common #1, used for commercial and residential buildings; clear; and select grade, which is sought for fine woodworking. Some maple wood has a highly decorative wood grain, known as flame maple, quilt maple, birdseye maple and burl wood. This condition occurs randomly in individual trees of several species. The grain is generally straight, but may be wavy and it has a fine, even texture.

Finishing

Maple wood is specked, and it polishes and finishes well, though blotches can occur when staining, and a pre-conditioner, gel stain, or toner may be necessary to get an even color.

Oak (Pollard)

Pollard oak wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Pollard oak wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Pollard oak is formed from growths on the side of tree trunks caused by fungus. Pollarding is a system of pruning the top branches of a tree, which then promotes a dense head of branches and foliage. This technique has been popular in Europe starting in the medieval times, and today is used to keep trees in cities at a specific height. This wood was frequently seen in antique furniture after the introduction of Victorian machines, as it was very difficult to cut and lay by hand. In general, oak is a very solid hardwood with 400 known species, and while there are several varieties, red and white oak are the most popular. Oak wood is very popular because of how durable it is, and the ease of building with it adds to that.

Popular era(s)

Victorian period; Arts & Crafts movement.

Common uses

Cabinetry, wood turning, furniture

Key attributes

When pollarded, the oak tree forms a lump or ‘burr’ which, when cut for veneer, has a lovely swirling figure in the grain. 

Finishing

Oak stains and finishes well. Oak furniture has traditionally taken on a golden hue even with a clear product as it brings out the natural color of the wood (a wet look appearance). 


Pitch Pine

Pitch pine, sanded. Source: wood-database.com.

18th century French carved pitch pine cabinet.

18th century French carved pitch pine cabinet. Sold for CAD1,230 via Maynards (April 2019).

Description 

Pitch pine is a very strong softwood that grows in multiple or crooked trunks. It’s slow-growing, and is native to North and Eastern America, Central America, and the Caribbean. 

Popular era(s) 

Victorian period.

Common uses

Country furniture and church fittings, interiors of pieces.

Key attributes

Pine is lightweight and resists shrinking or swelling, and is commonly white or pale yellow, darkening over time, with a straight grain. 

Finishing

Pitch pine works fairly well with most tools, though the resin can gum up tools and clog sandpaper. It glues and finishes well.


Satin Birch

Satin birch wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Satin birch wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Betula or satin birch is a hardwood that grows across the Northern Hemisphere, originating in Europe and Asia up to about latitude 65° north. The earliest birch trees were found in the USA, and birch is the state tree of New Hampshire. Most sliced birch in the US is yellow birch. 

Popular era(s)

1950s-70s America.

Common uses 

Veneering, peeled birch for furniture (tables and chairs) and panel industries, bedrooms in the 1950s.

Key attributes 

Satin birch is fine grained and light-colored, often with an attractive satin-like sheen. Birch tends to yellow more visibly over time, but the logs often have brown hearts when mature. Birch wood has a low resistance to weather and is very susceptible to fungi and insect attack. Clean logs, free of defects, are seldom found. Figured wood is frequent, much in demand and sold as “Ice Birch”.

Finishing

Because of its texture, Birch is very suitable for staining and applying glossy finishes. All usual surface finishes present no difficulty in application.


Satinwood

Description

Originating in Sri Lanka and West India, satinwood is a hardwood that tends to be quite heavy and hard, definitely heavier than common cabinet hardwoods like maple or oak. The original species also no longer exists in a commercial sense – it was harvested at such an unsustainable pace in the 1800s that it has been off the market for centuries now. With the exhaustion of the original species, a replacement was sought, but this replacement wood (having now been used for over 100 years) is very rare and valuable, like its predecessor.

Popular era(s)

19th century and Edwardian era.

Common uses

High quality architectural purposes, more in North America and Australia than in Europe, veneers, inlaid decoration.

Key attributes

Satinwood is a hard, yellowish close grained wood. It is generally sliced as true quarters, which have a beautiful striped pattern. Since Satinwood also often has a bee’s-wing mottle, it is an extremely decorative wood which has been used for centuries in making high quality furniture.

Finishing

Surface finishing presents no difficulties with satinwood – nitro varnishes and polishes are taken readily. It has small pores which don’t require filling during the finishing process.


Sycamore (European)

Sycamore wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Sycamore wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Originating in Europe, the European sycamore is a hardwood not to be confused with the American sycamore. The European sycamore, or sycamore maple, is actually a type of maple, and can be found all over the continent as well as in southwestern Asia. 

Popular era(s)

Regency period (1811 – 1820).

Common uses

Veneers in fine furniture, paper (pulpwood), country furniture like kitchen table tops, cabinetry, interior trim, turned objects, boxes, musical instruments, small speciality wood items.

Key attributes

The sapwood color of European sycamore ranges from almost white, to a light golden or reddish brown, while the heartwood is a darker reddish brown. Sycamore maple can also be seen with curly or quilted grain patterns. The grain is generally straight, but may be wavy, and it has a fine, even texture.

Finishing

Sycamore maple turns, glues, and finishes well, but blotches can occur when staining, so a pre-conditioner, gel stain, or toner may be needed to get an even color.


Teak

Teak wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Teak wood. Image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.

Description

Teak is a tropical hardwood tree species that’s native to south and southeast Asia, mainly Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean. 

Popular era(s)

Victorian period.

Common uses

Victorian Campaign furniture, ship and boatbuilding, veneering, exterior construction, carving, turnings, small wood objects.

Key attributes

Teak tends to be a golden or medium-brown colored hardwood that usually has a straight grain, though it can occasionally be wavy or interlocked. Teak darkens as it ages, and there can be a large variation in appearance based on where teak is from. Older growth has much tighter rings than new growth.

Finishing

Despite its natural oils, teak usually glues and finishes well, though in some instances it may be necessary to wipe the surface of the wood with a solvent prior to gluing/finishing to reduce the natural oils on the surface of the wood.


Walnut

L: Walnut wood (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons); R: Walnut burr (image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.)

L: Walnut wood (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons); R: Walnut burr (image courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.)

Description

Native to Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and Western China, walnut is a hardwood that’s also found in North America, spanning various types. These varieties of walnut wood have been used in furniture making for many centuries, and walnut veneer was very highly prized; the more decorative, the more expensive and desirable the walnut veneer. Figured walnut and burr walnut were considered the most attractive varieties of walnut. 

Popular era(s) 

17th century. 

Common uses

Decorative veneering (when it’s cut by cabinetmakers, it forms a beautifully figured veneer used on antique furniture), furniture including tables, desks, bureaus, and cabinets. 

Key attributes

Close grained with a color varying between light golden browns and light gray-brown. Walnut often has a rich grain pattern. Burr walnut, which comes from the knotty whorls in the growth of a walnut tree, has a brown background with dark brown streaks and many darker brown knots with circular eyes. Walnut lightens with age.

Finishing

Walnut polishes to a very smooth finish.


Yew (European)

L: Yew wood; R: Yew burr (images courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.)

L: Yew wood; R: Yew burr (images courtesy of the Invaluable Price Archive.)

Description

Yew is a softwood, but it is one of the hardest and most durable. Originating in Europe and Southwest Asia, it is a unique wood species. Its density and working characteristics resemble a heavy hardwood. Yew wood has been used to make furniture for hundreds of years.

A yew wood dresser, 18th century. Sold for £480 via Cheffins (Dec 2022).

A yew wood dresser, 18th century. Sold for £480 via Cheffins (Dec 2022).

Popular era(s)

Georgian period (1714 to c. 1837), particularly the Regency era (1811 – 1820)

Common uses

Cabinetry, Windsor chairs and table tops, bows (archery), veneer, carvings, musical instruments (lutes), and turned objects.

Key attributes

Yew is a warm golden color. The sapwood is usually a thin band of pale yellow or tan, and the heartwood is an orangish brown, sometimes with a darker brown or purplish hue. Yew darkens with age. The grain is straight, with a fine uniform texture, and it has a good natural luster.

Finishing

Yew glues, finishes, and turns well. It has a tight, fine grain and smooth texture that gives it a lustrous finish.



Collecting antique wooden furniture

We hope this guide makes it a bit easier for you to identify antique woods and become a more knowledgeable collector! In our next edition, we’ll cover how to clean antique wood furniture, starting with a quick wood finish test using denatured alcohol, all the way through removing mildew and adding a wax coating.


To see more examples of excellent antique wood furniture pieces, check out the Invaluable price archive or browse upcoming sales.