RARE WOODS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 646, 24 April 1929, Page 15

RARE WOODS

Used in Best Modern Furniture A WIDE CHOICE After many years of period reproductions a new style of furniture has been evolved in Great Britain which is sufficiently good and sufficiently beautiful to take its place among the famous seventeenth and eighteenth century designs. A totally new and original style has been built up, and is gradually nearing perfection. Just as Chippendale and Sheraton allowed their work to be influenced by French and early classical designs respectively, so the modern craftsmen have evolved their new style along traditional lines; that new style is, however, as original as any of the work that came from the workshops of the famous eighteenth centry masters. Apart from the original lines oC this new furniture style, one of the most interesting developments is the use of rare and, to the layman, unknown woods; indeed, a great deal of the originality of twentieth century design lies in the clever use of these decorative timbers. AMBOYNA WOOD The wood that has, perhaps, been most widely adopted is amboyna wood. The amboyna is a native tree of the West Indies. The wood has a bird's-eye figure and a mellow golden brown colour. It was used very slightly by Heppelwhite and Adam for decorating furniture, but it has never been so widely employed as at the present time. Whole bedroom suites are being produced in amboyna wood, and the softly glowing colour is a joy to behold. Several new woods are being used for decorative purposes; that is to say, to add a touch of distinction or colour to wood that is in need of relief. Many pieces of Italian, French, American and English walnut furniture are decorated with inlays of Macassar ebony, zebrano wood, holly, and coloured woods of every conceivable shade. Zebrano wood, which is a native of tropic America, is a beautifully marked hardwood which has been adopted particularly for bedroom furniture. Gold and silver leaf are frequently used to adorn drawer knobs and door handles of furniture made in the darker of the new decorative woods. Ivory and imitation ivory are also employed for this purpose, while motber-o’-pearl and many rare coloured woods which come from the very centres of trees growing in the densest parts of the world’s jungles form attractive bandings and inlays. AMARANTH The new French Line ship lie de France has one of its public rooms furnished with amaranth furniture, “in the white,” with legs of silver and seats of green. The painting of furniture in silver is becoming quite common, and the effect for certain rooms of the hous« is extremely appropriate and rich. Painted furniture, indeed, is coming into vogue again, and the writer has seen some very fine furniture painted in an apple green shade with brown and red designs introduced in a very tasteful and artistic manner. Among Dominion furniture woods are black bean and silky oak, which come from Australia; maple, which comes, of course, from Canada; and kauri pine, which emanates from New; Zealand. It must be mentioned, of course, that walnut, mahogany and oak are being used to a large extent in modern furniture, but in some of the best pieces these woods are being treated In novel manners to give more original effects. For instance, oak is frequently left “in the white”; that is to say, the I wood is left in its natural state, is not | polished or varnished, but merely | hand-rubbed to give a higher finish. OAK AND WALNUT Weathered oak is also used in cerj tain pieces. Walnut is frequently left i “in the white,” particularly the ! French Ancona walnut, with band- ; mgs of amboyna wood and inlays of j Macassar ebony and erinoid. 1 Thus we see the introduction into British furniture of many rare and j beautiful woods. Up to the present j time, our choice, when furnishing, has j been practically limited to walnut, mahogany and oak. but now the range ; has been widened greatly by the use 1 of timbers which are full of colour i aud beauty, and which are distin- ! guished by their fine graining and ! figuring.

Sulphur is chiefly used for disinfect- j ing purposes, either in sick rooms or to get rid of undesirable Insect pests. ; All paper must be stripped from ceiling aud walls, and aDy metal fittiugs or bedsteads must be taken out of the j room. Afterwards the room is made airtight by pasting strips of brown paper round the edges of the windows, the door or doors being similarly treated from the outside after lighting the sulphur bath and leaving the room. For a room of average size, about 21b of sulphur is sufficient. This is placed in an old enamel piedish or other suitable receptacle and burnt i over a spirit stove. j

PERIOD ART This period lounge chair made in oak, Has a hand-carved back and is cane-