Mappa burl is the burl of the European black poplar tree (Populus nigra, of the family Salicaceae, the willow family), so you won't see mappa as anything other than a burl. My thanks to Marcus Starbuck for alerting me to this, and my thanks to Paul van Rijckevorsel for telling me that "mappa" is a contraction of the German "Maser Pappel" ("poplar burl")
my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions
both sides of a sample plank of mappa --- HUGE enlargements are present.
end grain of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of mappa --- HUGE enlargements are present.
end grain of the piece directly above
burl veneer
burl veneer and closeup
web pics:
mappa burl slabs
mappa burl planks and slabs, all from the same vendor, all moistened for the pic, and all with both levels of enlargements
two views of a pair of small slabs
mappa burl slab and closeup
bookmatched thinwood pair with a color that is just ridiculous
solid burls
solid burls all from the same vendor, probably moistened for the pics otherwise they would be more white
veneer with wet and dry sections showing nicely how the raw wood is whitish and the wet wood is orangish
burl veneer --- colors are all over the map and I'd bet that in every case, the wood is whitish and the color you see here is a result of lighting/photography, not nature
burl veneer with the kind of color that you only find on the internet, not in nature
this was a particularly large piece of mappa burl --- judging from the context of the pic from which I extracted this section (which is about 5' long) the whole sheet was about 8' long a 2.5" wide. Color is likely spot on.
bookmatched burl veneer with colors in the last two, that are just silly (the first one isn't all that likely either but is less of an exaggeration)
burl veneer all from the same vendor --- I believe that the extreme color variation between the white smooth areas and the reddish burl-eye areas, is somewhat due to image manipulation and not inherent in the wood. See my veneer samples at the top of the page for what is probably a more realistic illustration of the veneer.
bookmatched burl veneer
quartermatched burl veneer
mappa bowl, undoubtedly with a finishing agent that has enriched the red color
bowl listed as "mappa burl" which is redundant. Mappa IS burl.
mappa earrings
mappa lamp shade
mappa live edge table top 92 inches long --- this is the biggest piece of solid mappa I've ever seen; enlargements are present and really show the piece nicely
