Mahogany stairs

Mahogany, or acajou, was a highly prized tree native to the Caribbean island of Saint-Domingue and almost entirely deforested during the eighteenth century to satisfy the vogue for furniture in the dark wood. The wood for the bridge as well as for a mahogany garden pavilion echoing the mahogany pavilions on the Laborde plantations was supplied directly from Laborde’s sugar estates.

Sowing Empire: Landscape and Colonization | Jil Casid