Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - refinishing a mahogony dresser

I hope someone can answer this question. I am refinishing a mahogony dresser. It is fairly old because the drawers have hand cut joints. After stripping off the top, one of the boards is about 30% lighter than the rest and is apparently from a different stock. How should I attempt to stain this? Also should I use red mahogony or just regular mahogony stain to get back to the orginal finish? Before stripping, the entire piece was almost black from old varnish but a small section under where the mirror sat was a deep red.

It likely was not varnish, but shellac that you removed. It comes off easily with stripper and also with denatured alcohol.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that once you refinish, with an oil based finish, you will hardly be able to notice a difference. I do not recommend shellac or water based finishes. The original process took a very long time, and is now only done at Williamsburg and very expensive restoration shops, as far as I know. And it is not a durable finish, although it has lasted hundreds of years on very old furniture, direct contradictions. Very susceptible to moisture(water) and alcohol. I am partial to plain old polyurethane, thinned for multiple coats, and lightly sanded between each coat.