My parents always had real wood furniture which my dad made himself and spent days French polishing - and then the rest of the years we lived in their house telling us not to put anything on it, don't scratch it, don't play near it, etc., etc. Moving on a few years, you can imagine my horror when my toddler (now 19YO) put his kiddy cup on the sideboard and left a white ring. I put the cup back on the ring before my dad saw it and went and got my mother who breezed in with a duster and a spray can of furniture polish and just polished it off.
When she moved the cup my dad did see the ring and whoa you should have seen his face, but before he had chance to say anything it was gone and he was scooping his jaw up off the floor
. I don't know what sort of wood the furniture was made of, but I know it wasn't pine. And I don't know what brand of furniture polish it was, but it will have been a big name brand of stinky chemical nastiness. I guess this is an idea to use as a "last resort".
It's very pretty c1880 waxed pine with turned mirror supports and finials, wanted one for ages and finally OH bought this for me last year for my birthday come Christmas. 
.