Good question - it looks like a shellac but this finish is a special type of waxing called rempli ciré in French where the pores of the wood are first filled with pumice powder and then special wax is applied with a pad in a process similar to French polishing - it’s a very resilient finish which is/was done on these large solid wood case pieces. Not many people do it anymore or have it done. You encounter it on really fine regional pieces like this and it does look like a French polish.
Has anyone ever figured out how much these would have costs in today's currency? Was this an item only for the extremely wealthy of the day. Where was this wood grown?
This would have cost 30,000 today or so to make - it’s hard to translate monetary value from then to now (goods and services have changed so much). All of these pieces are decorative art level pieces which are intensely beautiful but by no means a universal historical portrayal of life back then... as you mention only the extremely wealthy had items like this. In general though, across society, Furniture was appreciated more than it is today. The wood was likely grown in Cuba - could have been Haiti... the Dominican Republic... I am not yet enough of a mahogany species specialist to know exactly.
