Looks like red oak to me.

Use a non polyurethane varnish---varnish is more water resistant than shellac or lacquer----that allows for touchups if necessary.

handymac -
Thanks so much for answering! See, now, I might have used a polyurethane, quite easily. Do you consider Varathane Crystal Clear Diamond a polyurethane? It doesn't call itself that on the label. So, red oak would have those "eyes" like that, then? Because of the color, I'd thought of that, but couldn't find any examples of red oak with such well-defined eyes as this table has.

Thanks so much!

Hi,
It's a fine-grained hardwood, like Walnut or Butternut. The leaf displays a perfect old walnut color. I imagine the bleaching process had a lot to do with the present color of the main top. The style is typical of depression-era furniture. Some people refer to it as "waterfall" style, as the dressers had horizontal surfaces that rolled right down into the fronts. It draws loosely from art deco styling cues.
Casey

Look at the fine print on the back label---most poly style varnishes say that there.

Hey, Casey, thanks so much for your thoughts. Especially, one the "waterfall" design. I've always thought of it and described it as sort of a deco style, and what I remember from old radio cabinets. Just before I read your message, I had been researching, and it is also called a reverse fluted or reeded design. But, the waterfall term is what I'd been looking for.

Yeah, I bleached it pretty extreme when I first stripped it years ago. I kept trying to get the black out with chlorine bleach (the internet didn't exist back then). It's been covered with with vinyl tablecloths 24/7 since then. That is why I'm thinking of staining it, but I'd like to do it in something with a slight reddish orange tone, MinWax Sedona. Would that be sacreligious?

If I put an oil stain on it, I pretty much have to use an oil based varnish for the clear coat, right?

BTW, Handymac - the Diamond finish says it uses Interpenetrating Polymer Network (IPN) technology - and it is waterbourne, rather than water based (but it is still waterbased, in my book). I've used it on my wooden handrails, over paint, on a dresser and really like it.

Please note that I added more pages of pictures tonight, so people could see the whole table.
Thanks again for your comments.

Not walnut......for sure. I believe it's mahagony...not fine Honduran mahagony but the cheaper Phillipine stuff.
In the era that that table was made, American walnut was in good enough supply not to be used as a veneer.
It's a fairly hard wood...or of course it wouldn't bee in a veneer....so we have a choice of butter nut or walnut, which it's not, Cherry...possible but I don't think so, burch? Maybe but too much color. Maple? Not close grained enough. Not oak...not ash....what's left?
Linda C

I don't know what lindac is talking about; walnut has always been a veneer wood of choice since factories started mass-producing veneered panels. Premium face-grade walnut is so costly that while one board foor of lumber can yield one square foot of solid furniture, it can yield 12 square feet of veneer. It made great economic sense for manufacturers to use walnut veneer in almost every case. And, as a woodworker I can declare that it is no joy to work with solid walnut, as it exhibits "stress relief warping" when sawed into components, which ends up wasting even more lumber.
BTW, lindac, by _1900_ American walnut was in critically short supply. This is one of the reasons why golden oak furniture came into vogue- the walnut was basically gone and financially out of reach for consumers.
BTW, any wood can be and is made into veneer, even sugar pine, so again, I don't know what basis you have for these statements.
The link below is to a woodworker that has lots of different butternut pics, some of them are really close to your tabletop.
Casey

Here is a link that might be useful: Butternut pictures