Post War rosewood furniture

I came across the article below that was something that I imagine many of us were not aware of, so I thought that I would post it here.

It appears that Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) is an endanger species, which has restriction on the sale of items made from it after 1947 under CITES (Convention on International trade in Endangered Species of wild flora and fauna). In essence this means that a certificate, currently costing £31, is required for every piece of post war furniture made of rosewood that is sold. Although some of the rosewood used may not be this species a test to prove this would cost around £120 and require a sample of the wood to be taken so a non-starter.

I wonder how many dealers in Scandanavian and British post war furniture are aware of this and issue certificates when selling rosewood items?

http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2014/jan/29/danish-furniture-pulled-from-sale-over-cites/

Thats interesting they never mention it on" those programs"

The certificate is to prove that the piece of furniture that was made after 1947 would have been made before 1992 when the rosewood was added to the CITES list. Once issued that certificate should stay with that piece of furniture forever. It would then not be necessary to get a new certificate for each subsequent sale.

I went to an auction the other day and 81 lots of mainly Danish rosewood items were withdrawn at the last minute due to the Auctioneers being unaware of this 'ruling'! The auction house was Sworders and I was not too happy after making a 190 mile round trip to potentially buy some of those pieces........!!   

studio-pots wrote:The certificate is to prove that the piece of furniture that was made after 1947 would have been made before 1992 when the rosewood was added to the CITES list. Once issued that certificate should stay with that piece of furniture forever. It would then not be necessary to get a new certificate for each subsequent sale.

       If the British goverment has anything to do with it then they will issue certificates in invisible ink....!!

It is the Sworders auction house which is referred to in the article in the Antiques Trade Gazette and CITES is adminstered by the United Nations Environment Programme and nothing to do with the British Government.

It was something that I was unware of, as you appear to have been Troikafloyd, and I suspect the vast majority of dealers in this type of furniture are in the same boat.