Antique Regency Rosewood Canterbury Cabinet c.1820

Regency Furniture
During the Regency period it was fashionable to copy the classical furniture of the Roman and Greek times. Furniture had stopped evolving in design and had moved back to classical forms. The pioneer designers who represented this period were:

Thomas Hope (1770-1831),  George Smith (1804-28), Henry Holland (1745 - 1806)

George IV had a major influence over the furniture makers of the time.

This period saw the introduction of brass to wood from the previous marquetry that had been originally used. The sofa table was also introduced.

The main features of the Regency period furniture were their simplicity, with straight, unbroken surfaces and lines. 

Mahogany 
is probably one of the largest ‘families’ of hardwood, having many different varieties within its own species.

Mahogany has been used for centuries in ship building, house building, furniture making etc and is the core structure of just about every 19th century vanity box, dressing case or jewellery box. It became more of a Victorian trend to dress Mahogany with these decorative veneers, such as Rosewood, Kingwood, Burr Walnut and Coromandel, so that the actual Mahogany was almost hidden from view.

Mahogany itself is a rich reddish brown wood that can range from being plain in appearance to something that is so vibrant, figured and almost three dimensional in effect. 

Although Mahogany was most often used in its solid form, it also provided some beautifully figured varieties of veneer like ‘Flame’ Mahogany and ‘Fiddleback’ Mahogany (named after its preferred use in the manufacture of fine musical instruments).

Cuban Mahogany was so sought after, that by the late 1850′s, this particular variety became all but extinct.