Wainscot Oak
What is usually known under this name was for many years imported from the Baltic seaports of Dantzic, Riga, and Libau, and was the produce of forests ‘in the interior of the Russian Baltic Provinces, and of Russian Poland, from whence it was brought to the coast by water, until railways were made. According to Laslett, the Riga timber, though of moderate dimensions, had the medullary rays more numerous and better marked than the Dantzic oak, and came to market in the form of hewn billets of about 18 feet.
But as the supplies of this oak became less, and the demand greater, a fresh source of supply was found in Slavonia and South Hungary, which for many years has furnished about half the total import through the ports of Trieste and Fiume. Mr. A. Howard tells me that the size and quality of this was better than the Baltic oak, but owing to the Austrian Government having recently diminished their cuttings in consequence of the rapid diminution of mature timber, a large quantity of billets are now exported from Odessa, which are believed to come from the forests of Podolia and Volhynia, and other provinces of South-West Russia.
All this imported oak is milder and more easily worked than English oak, and as only selected logs free from knots are shipped, it can be converted into boards with less waste and risk than home-grown timber. We have no certain evidence as to the existence of a sufficient quantity in Russia to keep up the supply either from the Baltic or Odessa, and though the more scientific foresters of Austria are taking steps to restore their oak forests by natural regeneration, it is probable that the French, who consume an immense quantity of oak from this region, will take all they can get, and this, coupled with the approaching disappearance of American oak large enough for quartering, must, sooner or later, cause our own timber when long and clean to be much more valuable than it is at present.
A note in Holinshed’s Chronicles, vol. i. p. 357 (ed. 1807), seems to show that wainscot oak was already exported from the Baltic as long ago as Queen Elizabeth's reign, but whether ‘‘ Danske” means that it came in Danish ships or from the port of Dantzig I cannot ascertain, though Colonel Brookfield, H.B.M. Consul at that port, has made inquiry on the subject.
Laslett is the only practical English writer I know of who was personally acquainted with the oak in its native forests in the east of Europe, having been employed by the Admiralty to survey the forests near Brussa, in Asia Minor, as well as in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Styria, and Hungary. He states that in the
1 According to Mr. J.C. Shenstone, Harrison of Redwinter in Essex, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., was the
author of this note. ‘* Of all oke growing in England the parke oke is the softest, and far more spalt and Prickle than the
hedge oke. And of all in Essex, that growing in Bardfield parke is the finest for joiner’s craft ; for often times have I seene
of their workes made of that oke so fine and faire as most of the wanescot that is brought hither out of Danske, for our
wanescot 1s not made in England. Yet diverse have assaied to deale with our okes to that end, but not with so good
sucesse as they have hoped, because the ab or juice will not so soone be removed and cleane drawne out, which some
attribute to want of time in the salt water.”
