Kiaat Coffee table

By Ernst Mittermair

Inquire Now

Designer

Ernst Mittermair

Woodcrafter

Ernst Mittermair

Tree

Kiaat Tree

Kiaat Coffee Table

This stylish contemporary coffee table is crafted from solid Kiaat wood. With its structured oval table top fixed to the oval base with a floating design, this piece makes for the ultimate coffee table. A black trim insert has been added to the base to create a suspended or floating effect.

DESIGNER

Ernst was born into a wood-crafting family in Austria, spending his early years in his father’s woodworking factory. Later, he competed his apprenticeship at the family factory, specialising in bespoke commissioned and custom-made furniture. Ernst dream was to gain experience in wood design and crafting all over the world and finally reached South Africa in 1968 where the warm, sunny climate and landscape abundant in beautiful indigenous trees attracted him. He has been designing custom-made furniture since then, spending time creating and training other woodworkers in this unique craft.

Ernst Mittermair

THE MATUMI DESK

THE TREE

Family: Fabaceae | Tribe: Dalbergieae

It is a deciduous tree usually growing to 16 m tall, with dark brown bark and a high, wide-crowned canopy of shiny compound leaves. In favoured wetter locations the trees are typically about 18–19 m tall. The leaves appear at the time of the flowers or shortly afterwards. They are alternate, deep green, imparipinnate, with 11-19 subopposite to alternate leaflets, the leaflets 2.5–7 cm long and 2–4.5 cm broad. It produces an abundance of scented, orange-yellow flowers in panicles 10–20 cm long; flowering is in the spring. In southern Africa, this is usually just at the end of the dry season, often about mid-October. The pod is 2–3 cm diameter, surrounded by a circular wing 8–12 cm diameter, reminiscent of a brown fried egg, and containing a single seed. This brown papery and spiky seed pod stays on long after the leaves have fallen. In poorly drained locations, the tree can still grow but it becomes more open in shape with leaves on the end of long branches - a 'stag-headed' appearance.

WHERE ARE THEY FOUND?

Pterocarpus angolensis is a species of Pterocarpus native to southern Africa, in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zaire, Zimbabwe,and Zambia. It is a protected tree in South Africa. The name Kiaat, although Afrikaans, is sometimes used outside South Africa as well. In Zimbabwe, depending on what region you are in, it is known as Mukwa or Mubvamaropa.

WOOD PROPERTIES

There are several uses for the wood of P. angolensis. The brown heartwood is resistant to borer and termite, is durable and has a pleasing spicy fragrance. The wood polishes well and is well known in tropical Africa as Mukwa when used to make good quality furniture that has an attractive light brownish-yellow colour. It can also be used for curios, and implements. Since the wood does not swell or shrink much it is great for canoe building. Furniture and curios are often made from the reddish sapwood. The colour of the sapwood is a result of the remarkable, dark red sap of the plant; an alternative name of Bloodwood rises from this. This wood also produces a rich, resonant sound and can be made into many different musical instruments. In Zimbabwe, the mbira is traditionally made from mukwa.

It is valued for several medicinal uses. It has been recorded to treat ringworm, eye problems, blackwater fever, stabbing pains, malaria, and to increase the supply of breast milk. The resemblance of the sap to blood has led to the belief in supposed magical healing powers concerning the blood. Because of all these reasons and that it is also fire resistant, P. angolensis is sometimes planted around the chief's enclosure to make a living fence.