If you are trying to determine the age of a piece of American antique furniture, it will require investigative work. Look closely at the the different elements that make the piece of furniture. Examine the level of work that went into the furniture from the joinery, finishing, knobs, and more. Study the materials used from the wood, fabric, and screws. If you take all these factors into consideration, you may be able to figure out on your own if have an antique or a machine-made reproduction.
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Look Past the Style of a Piece
When you are trying to determine the age of piece you cannot just look at furniture style. Popular styles have been prolifically reproduced over the years and some of these classic styles are still being made today.
The overall stylesuch as Chippendale, William and Mary, Queen Anne, or rococo revivalcan serve as a potential clue, although, not a definitive one. Once you determine a particular style, look for the signs of aging that would verify if you have an antique or not.
Examine Bottoms, Insides, and Backs
Take a look at the joinery (the spots in furniture where the pieces come together). Look at the bottom or back of a piece or inside its doors and drawers. This can provide important clues about whether a piece of old furniture was machine cut or crafted by hand.
Most handmade pieces will have some irregularities on the surface like minor nicks that were made by a hand plane being used to smooth out the wood. These nicks are sometimes even more evident on the back than on the finished, front surface. If the work looks too even or perfect, it was likely machine-made or machine-cut. Most machine-made pieces date to after the Industrial Revolution (after ).
Check for Perfectly Matching Elements
Small matching elements on furniture, such as wooden drawer knobs, chair spindles, or feet on a variety of objects, may have slight differences in the shape. This can mean that they were handcrafted prior to .
Machine-made furniture will have components that match more perfectly than those made by hand. Its almost impossible to make the same exact furniture element over and over identically without the use of machinery.
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Try to Figure Out What Tools Were Used
When hand planes were used to smooth woods, they usually left some sort of uneven surface. This is especially evident on the back or underside of pieces made prior to the mid-s. Hand chisels and wood-shaping tools operated with elbow grease left cuts and nicks in the wood.
When circular saws were used (this wasnt prevalent until the mid-19th century), you can usually see a circular pattern that was left behind as evidence. In comparison, manually operated hand saws left a straighter pattern.
A handcrafted furniture piece does not set it in time as an antique. Furniture is still being crafted by hand today. However, machine-made evidence does give you a better picture of when the piece of furniture could not be from.
Look at the Wood and Upholstery Fabric
It can be difficult distinguishing the type of wood or finish used on a furniture piece, but these are important clues. Certain types of woods were favored during different furniture periods.
For example, oak was primarily used in furniture made prior to . After , mahogany and walnut were very popular. Moving into the s, maple and cherry showed up in fine furniture manufacture quite often. Many Victorian furniture manufacturers used mahogany and rosewood through the late s. Then, around , oak became popular again.
The type of wood used is not an exact indicator of age, but when you tie in the other factors like style and construction technique, you start to get a better idea of the date of the piece.
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Original upholstery materials like silk, wool, or cotton were spun and woven into a variety of damasks, satins, and brocades with many different patterns. A wide variety of materials and fabric designs were favored for upholstery during different periods. "American Furniture: Tables, Chairs, Sofas, and Beds" by Marvin D. Schwartz is an upholstery guide that can help you decipher the styles that align with furniture periods.
Investigate the Screws and Other Hardware
Closely review the screws. Screws were not made completely by machine until . So if you find a furniture item using screws that have completely rounded shafts, pointed ends, and perfectly finished heads with matching cuts (much like a screw you would purchase today), the piece likely dates to the mid-19th century or later.
Screws made from about through the mid-s were partially machine-made giving the threading a more even appearance. But the heads were still finished with hacksaws to add the groove to fit a screwdriver, so no two are exactly alike.
The first screws were crafted during the s by blacksmiths using square nail stock that was heated and pounded until it was somewhat round. The tips were blunt and each one was unique. If you find these hand-finished screws in furniture, investigate other aspects of the pieces to see if they appear to match the screws in age. One similarly-dated element is brass hardware.
Early 18th-century hardware was cast from molten brass using molds made of sand. This hardware often has inclusions or marks left behind by grains of sand or odd colors from impurities. The backs of the hardware were often left with these pockmarks, while the outward-facing surfaces were polished. Early 19th-century brass also has a rough texture, finish, and threading.
From the s up until the Eastlake period during the s, brass hardware fell out of favor in furniture manufacture and was sparsely used. If you have a piece with brass, it's most likely pre-s or a revival piece from the late s on.
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When you want to refinish old wooden furniture, the best place to look is the family storeroom: Check the attic, basement, garage, or wherever unwanted furniture has collected. You may also discover a real antique or two -- pieces handed down through the family for generations. Other good sources are secondhand stores, household auctions, and garage sales. With furniture, as with anything else, one person's junk is another another's treasure.
Antique stores are a good place to find furniture to refinish, but expect to pay for these pieces. If you're interested in antiques, recent or old, research before you buy anything. Real antiques and many reproductions are extremely valuable, but there are also many imitations. If you aren't sure an antique is really antique, pay for an expert opinion. Never buy an antique, or try to refinish it, until you know what you have. In this article, we'll discuss how to assess whether a piece of furniture is an antique and whether it is worth saving through the refinishing process.
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There are many different styles of furniture, and each type has distinguishing features. For the most part, the furniture you'll encounter will probably be limited to traditional English and American Colonial styles; you aren't likely to find a Louis XV chair at a garage sale. The basic English and American styles run the gamut from ornate to severely functional, from massive to delicate. Just remember, if you like it, the style is right.
Technically, an antique is a piece of furniture with special value because of its age, particularly those pieces embellished with fine artistry. The age factor is subjective: general antique stores label objects 50 years or older as antiques. Fine antique dealers consider objects 150 years and older to be antique.
In the East, an antique is Queen Anne or earlier; in the West, it's any piece of furniture that came across the mountains in a wagon. A southern antique is a piece made before the Civil War. Wherever you look, it's a sure bet that you won't find a genuine antique from or . What you may find is a genuine reproduction, and these can be extremely valuable.
There are several ways you can spot an antique. The first giveaway is the joinery; machine-cut furniture wasn't made until about . If the piece has drawers, remove a drawer and look closely where the front and back of the drawer are fastened to the sides of the drawer. If a joint was dovetailed by hand, it has only a few dovetails, and they aren't exactly even; if it has closely spaced, precisely cut dovetails, it was machine-cut. Handmade dovetails almost always indicate a piece made before .
Look carefully at the bottom, sides, and back of the drawer; if the wood shows nicks or cuts, it was probably cut with a plane, a spokeshave, or a drawknife. Straight saw marks also indicate an old piece. If the wood shows circular or arc-shaped marks, it was cut by a circular saw, not in use until about .
Exact symmetry is another sign that the piece was machine-made. On handmade furniture, rungs, slats, spindles, rockers, and other small-diameter components are not uniform. Examine these parts carefully; slight differences in size or shape are not always easy to spot. A real antique is not perfectly cut; a reproduction with the same components is, because it was cut by machine.
The finish on the wood can also date the piece. Until Victorian times, shellac was the only clear surface finish; lacquer and varnish were not developed until the mid-s. The finish on a piece made before is usually shellac; if the piece is very old, it may be oil, wax, or milk paint. Fine old pieces are often French-polished, a variation of the shellac finish. A lacquer or varnish finish is a sure sign of later manufacture.
Testing a finish isn't always possible in a dealer's showroom, but if you can manage it, identify the finish before you buy. Test the piece in an inconspicuous spot with denatured alcohol; if finish dissolves, it's shellac. If the piece is painted, test it with ammonia; very old pieces may be finished with milk paint, which can be removed only with ammonia. If the piece of furniture is very dirty or encrusted with wax, clean it first with a mixture of denatured alcohol, white vinegar, and kerosene, in equal parts.
The wood itself is the final clue. Very early furniture -- before -- is mostly oak, but from on, mahogany and walnut were widely used. In America, pine has always been used because it's easy to find and easy to work; better furniture may be made with maple, oak, walnut, cherry, or mahogany. But because the same woods have always been favored for furniture, workmanship and finish are probably a better indicator of age than the wood itself.
Let's look at the differences between basic English and American furniture styles in the next section.
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