Found this in Florence Italy - What is it?

[Tom Jones III]

I found this door and carvings in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence Italy. What kind of wood is it?
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[Robert LaPlaca]

I am voting Walnut, saw so much beautifully done Walnut paneling in the Galleria Accademia in Florence (yeah, pretty sick I am looking at the millwork in a art museum). That's some pretty nice carving there also..

[scott vroom]

Mahogany? Just a guess.

[Tom Jones III]

Walnut would be my guess also, but there must be more to it than that. The walnut that I get here (Houston TX) is much darker and so hard that it is virtually impossible to carve. Is there some sub-species that I should be asking for?

[Robert LaPlaca]

Well Walnut lightens and gets redder in color with exposure to sunlight, I would guess the Walnut in Italy is not a species typically available in the US. Possibly English Walnut

[John Lankers]

Considering the age, history and location walnut is the most likely wood, it's hard to tell.

[Tom Jones III]

Here is a higher resolution picture of a bench that was in the same room. I think that it is the same wood as the door. Do the worm holes tell us anything about the wood species?
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[John Lankers]

Well Walnut lightens and gets redder in color with exposure to sunlight, I would guess the Walnut in Italy is not a species typically available in the US. Possibly English Walnut

Maybe better known as European Walnut, and the sap wood was never used in a project which explains the even color.

[Mel Fulks]

The silk like grain threads looks like it could be birch,and it does grow there. Since it's got some worm holes in wood that is not sap wood, I don't think its mahogany.

[Brian Holcombe]

The doors are not usually as old as the building.

[John Lankers]

I don't think the builders of the Palazzo Pitti (which was built between the 15th and 17th century and became the residence of the king of Italy in the late 1800's) would have settled for birch even though it shows some similarities (correct me if I'm wrong), it had to be a much more precious wood. Mahogany was unknown to them at the time (Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492), it became the wood of choice for the upper class during the Victorian era in England and later Germany and North America. Historians to the rescue.

[Mel Fulks]

Mahogany was being used in England in the first half of 18th century. Some say as early as 1730. I can't agree that birch was not fine enough for carving, ...fine china is made from clay!

[John Lankers]

Tom, this is all your fault you should have brought your block plane :D

[Robert LaPlaca]

One thing for sure, Florence has some of the most impressive stone and wood carving..

[Joe Jensen]

Not sure on your sample but it may be faux finished to match the bench. We spent a good amount of time in Paris and I saw a lot of doors like that where the faux finish was worn off lower couple of feet and the top was so well done it was hard to tell it wasn't real wood. The grain on the vertical member of the third pic looks Faux to me. I can't imagine a door could last in the elements for even 100 years with a clear finish. It would have been neglected by some generation I'd expect.

[Ted Reischl]

Looks like walnut to me.

For the gentleman from Texas who said the walnut he has seen is hard and impossible to carve:

Definitely not my experience. Walnut carves very well and holds fine detail. Not sure what you are getting?

[Brian Holcombe]

Same experience and I would tend to think if these are original then they were able to source fantastic European walnut, they had not run out of walnut yet at that point. IIRC the big transition from walnut to mahogany was due to availability, they had a new source of wonderful material to supply the European cabinet makers in the 18th century.

[Tom Jones III]

I'm betting the European walnut must be very different than American. Same is true for English oak, I would never try and carve American oak but English oak is a famous carving wood. I'll talk to my lumberyard and see if they can get a small amount of European walnut.

[Brian Holcombe]

Not so much, it's quite similar but slightly lighter (in color) and a little easier still to work.

[Tom Jones III]

Could this be butternut?

[Brian Holcombe]

Malcolm brought up cedar/cypress in your other version of this thread. I think that is the most likely wood. It's certainly finer than walnut, very tightly grained and darkens up considerably over time. It's also commonly used for very large doors.

Mahogony is not the easiest wood to acquire in huge perfectly straight sections, though that may not have been the case at the time. Walnut is also something rare in door quality large straight grained rift sections. Walnut kills the surrounding foliage and so it typically branches out lower than trees which are more accustomed to growing very close to one another.

This is in direct contrast to my above post but his post sparked my thought process.

[Mel Fulks]

Could be. But I don't think either would carve as well as birch or stand up to wear (not weather) as well. I think it's got to be something pretty hard since it's not full of dings.