Beech is a pale, close-grained hardwood from the European beech tree, ranging in colour from creamy white to light pinkish brown, with a characteristic fine fleck in the grain. It is strong, hard-wearing and easy to turn and bend, but it is prone to woodworm and is not durable outdoors.
Beech has long been used for chairs, particularly in the Chiltern Hills around High Wycombe, where the beech woods supported a large chair-making industry from the eighteenth century onwards. Bodgers working in the woods turned legs and spindles for Windsor and country chairs. Beech was also widely used for the frames of upholstered chairs and sofas, and for carved and painted or gilded seat furniture, as it takes paint and gesso well. In the Regency period it was often painted or stained to imitate rosewood. In France and Austria it was employed for chairs, and Thonet's bentwood furniture relied on steam-bent beech. Collectors should check beech furniture carefully for active woodworm and structural weakness, but sound pieces with good colour and original finish are practical and attractive in everyday use.
