What kind of wood is this?

[wowimports]

Hi, does anyone knows what type of wood this is? It is an old bed that we purchased in Zanzibar Africa, and it's 100% handcarved. Your knowledge could really help us, thank you so much for having a look.

[wade clark]

Africa has hundreds of types of trees. This looks a little like teak but could be lots of different woods. Is it heavy or light in weight? Does it have any bug damage/pin holes? Is there any wood that shows unfinished color, such as on the bottom of legs, etc?
Being an Auctioneer, I've sold about 25 containerloads of furniture from Egypt at Auction. Some of the pieces have been from North Africa, but the Egyptians have been building "Antiques" of every style, especially French, since Napoleon built factories and moved artisans and craftsmen there in his day. Some of the pieces I've sold have been old, some new and looking hundreds of years old...I always tell my crowd "You be the judge on age".
I'd love to see a full picture of it!
Someone here will know of a place you could send a small sample sliver to and have it analyzed. They'll also have a better idea of type of wood, I'm sure.
Good luck!
Wade

[wowimports]

Thank you Wade. The bed is very heavy, there are some pin holes here and there, and there is no unfinished color present. i took a sliver from the underside and the color under the finish is the same.

This is an original, we have many of these from Zanzibar, some old and some repros. The sultans who ruled Zanzibar, especially during the late 1800's, would bring Gujarati craftsmen from India to make this furniture for them. Timber used was normally Indian teak, though mahogany and even jack fruit trees were used.

I initially thought this bed was teak, but seeing as I know nothing about wood types (but want to learn!) I just wanted to get another opinion.

Here is a photo of the whole bed, FYI. I hope this additional information helps. And thanks for the info on Egypt, yes i agree with you Egypt is a sketchy stomping ground for Antiques. Isn't it amazing though the quality of some of the repros there.... i heard they fooled the louvre a few times!

[whitecree]

Africa runs to many, many kinds of dense and heavy woods. Just offhand, I'd say it looks a lot like mahogany, but it cold just as easily be kingwood, teak, or even a light coloured ebony.

HERE's a site that sells all sorts of wood, and has reasonably clear pictures of the different grains. It might help.