Australian Fiddleback Blackwood Inlaid Panel with Specimen Wood
You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.
Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item
When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.
- Fiddleback - A name given to the pattern of the grain in some timbers, where the lines of the grain are compressed and at the same time wavy. Fiddleback grain is prized as a timber for furniture and musical instruments, and is expensive becasue of its scarcity.
In Australia fiddleback graining is found in blackwood. Other non-native timbers that are sometimes found with a fiddleback grain are mahogany and maple. - Blackwood - One of the best known and most widely used Australian timbers, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), is a member of the Acacia (wattle) family and grows in eastern Australia from about Adelaide in South Australia, as far north as Cairns in Queensland.
The largest, straightest and tallest trees come from the wet forest and swamps of north-west Tasmania where it is grown commercially.
Blackwood timber colours range across a wide spectrum, from a very pale honey colour through to a dark chocolate with streaks of red tinge.
The hardwood timber has been commonly used in the production of furniture, flooring, and musical instruments in Australia from the late 19th century. However, the straight grain timber is not the most prized or valuable, that honour falls to blackwood with a wavy, fiddleback pattern, which is used both in the solid and as a veneer. Fiddleback was only used on the finest examples of furniture.
Visually similar items
A collection of historical photographs, including scenes of Melbourne, Sydney and the Murray River (G - VG) (14)
Angela van Wyk, Lisbon Rooftops, pen & acrylic on paper, signed lower left titled verso, 12.5 x 22.5 cm
Edward Warner (1879-1968) Fisher Library, Etching. 14.5 x 12.5 cm. Signed lower right. titled and numbered 90/110 lower left
Mark Gerada, Everyone has a different version of what the house layout was like. 2002 acrylic & mixed media on canvas, signed lower right titled verso Boutwell Draper gallery, Redfern, 2002, cat. No. 14, label verso 40.5 x 40.5 cm