The King's Woods

The Provision and Exhibition of Exotic Species in Spanish Palaces (1746-1833)

Luengo Gutiérrez, Pedro
Sancho, José Luis
Sanz de Miguel, Carlos

The present volume sets out to demonstrate that the prominence of wood in the construction of various royal residences from the mid-18th century to the early decades of the 19th was designed to sustain a rhetoric of Bourbon power in which the Americas and the Philippines played a central role. Meeting the challenge of selecting and supplying the right species required an exceptionally efficient viceregal structure. It depended on a documentary system that kept local authorities informed of the shifting demands for material, as well as on a sizeable body of professionals charged with managing these requirements in America and Asia. From the balconies and doors of the principal floors of the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) to the floors and panelling of offices in other residences, overseas timbers were made to occupy the most politically significant spaces. This Spanish initiative must be viewed in relation to developments in the English sphere, particularly the spread of mahogany, which from there extended to the rest of Europe. Once the potential of these materials to generate an imperial reading had been confirmed the initial preference for Cuban mahogany and Colombian timbers broadened into a much wider repertoire, prominently including Asian species. Thus, in the closing decades of the 18th century and the opening years of the 19th, the political decline of the Bourbons contrasted sharply with the exuberance of their Hispanic courtly production. The refinement of these interiors, integrating furniture with panelling and flooring, was far from superficial: it articulated a narrative in which the overseas territories – already moving towards independence – remained pivotal.