Antique Furniture Identification Marks: Different Ways To Identify Antique Furniture

Different Ways To Identify Antique Furniture

Real antique furniture pieces are extremely valuable, but they also have many limitations. If you are not sure whether an antique piece is really antique, then it is important to be sure before paying for it. In the information given below, the user can find different ways to assess whether a piece of furniture is an antique or not:

Way 1: Look Past The Style Of A Piece

When trying to identify the marks to determine the age of a piece, only looking for the furniture style is not the right way to go. Some of the popular styles have been reproduced from the last few years and also some of the classic styles are still being made, examples include William and Mary or Queen Anne. Once the particular style is determined, then look for the signs of the aging that will help to verify if the furniture is antique or not.

Way 2: Examine Bottoms, Insides, And Backs

Check the joinery exactly at the points in the furniture where the pieces are held together. Simply look at the bottom or at the back of a piece or from inside the doors as well as drawers. This can assist you to find out whether a piece of the antique furniture was crafted by hand or by machine. Most of the handmade pieces will have some of the irregularities on the surface such as minor nicks which were made by the hand plane that was being used for smoothing out the wood. These kinds of the nicks are sometimes even much more evident on the back other than on the finished front surface of the furniture. If in case the looks seem even or perfect, then it is mostly machine-made. Most of the machine-made pieces were crafted after the Industrial Revolution that was after 1860.

Way 3: Check For Matching Elements

The matching elements on the furniture, like chair spindles, wooden drawer knobs, or the feet on a variety of the objects, can have differences in the shape. This in turn means that they were handcrafted before 1860. In the case of the machine-made furniture which will have the components that match more correctly than those that are made by hand. It is almost impossible to create the same furniture element repeatedly without the help of machinery.

Way 4: What Tools Were Used

When the hand planes were used for smoothing out the woods, they mostly left some uneven surface. This is one of the evidence on the back or from the underside of pieces that were made before to the mid-1800s. Hand chisels as well as the wood-shaping tools that were operated with elbow grease left small nicks in the wood. Once the circular saws were used this was not used until the mid-19th century, there will be a circular pattern that was left behind as the evidence. In comparison to the manually operated hand saws usually left a straighter pattern. The furniture is still being made by hand. However, the machine-made evidence does give a better idea of when the furniture could not be from.

Way 5: Wood And Upholstery Fabric

It can be very difficult to distinguish the type of the wood or the finish that's used on a furniture piece, but these are regarded as the important clues. Some types of woods were favored in different furniture periods. For instance, the oak wood was primarily used in the making of furniture before 1700. After 1700, mahogany as well as walnut was popular. In the 1800s, maple and the cherry showed up in the making of the fine furniture manufacture.