Importation
The mahogany wood was widely imported from America and especially from the Malabar islands but also Haiti, Cuba or Mexico. Nevertheless, the mahogany varieties the most popular come from Saint-Domingue (mahogany from Haiti) and Cuba.
It was first the English that started the importation from 1730, then the French, twenty years later. Thiw wood knew a quick success in Europe and became from the late 18th century and the beginning of the French Empire, the favorite wood for furniture. Nevertheless, the blockade of 1806 by Napoléon, stopped its use for indigenous wood varieties.
It’s only in the 1850’s that the massive importation of mahogany restarts and lets it become a luxury material accessible to all and priced the same as the indigenous varieties.
Use in the furniture industry
The mahogany is used by the European furniture makers quite frequently from the middle of the 18th century, solid or veneer.
Nevertheless, we find more solid mahogany furniture so-called “port furniture” in the port cities like Bordeaux, Nantes, or Saint-Malo for instance, where the best pieces of mahogany were sold as soon as they arrived for an interesting price.
More often, the two technicals were used for the making of furniture, the mounts of the body and the mouldings were in solid mahogany, while they used the veneer technical for the crossties and the panels.
Finally, from the 19th century, most of the mahogany furniture were made of veneer mahogany on a solid oak or poplar body from Italy.
The Okoume wood
Botanical name : Aucoumea klaineana Pierre
Family : BURSERACEAE
L’Okoume is an essence of wood coming from West Africa and more precisely Congo, where it is the main exotic essence wood exploited.
This big tree can be higher than 50m and has a base that can be 2m. Its long and cylindric bole is rarely straight. Its bark is smooth and grey and becomes red/brown by aging with white, yellow, brown or red spots because of the lichen. It is mainly used for interior plywood but also for interior carpentry, furniture, moulding or panelling.
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