Limewood is the timber of the lime or linden tree, a pale, fine-grained and even-textured hardwood that is soft enough to cut cleanly in any direction. These qualities have made it one of the most valued woods for carving in Europe for centuries, particularly for intricate decoration and sculpture.
In Germany, late Gothic sculptors such as Tilman Riemenschneider carved altarpieces and figures in limewood, and the wood was widely used for religious sculpture across northern Europe. In England it is famously associated with Grinling Gibbons, whose late seventeenth-century carvings of flowers, fruit, foliage, birds and game in limewood decorate great houses and churches with astonishing realism. Limewood was also used for the carved and gilded frames of mirrors and pictures, console tables and other giltwood furniture, as it takes gesso and gilding well. Because it is pale and lacks strong figure, limewood was rarely used for exposed furniture surfaces. It is prone to woodworm, so antique limewood carvings should be inspected for active infestation and structural weakness. Collectors value crisp, deeply undercut carving and original surfaces, whether natural, painted or gilded.
