Tips on Spotting Authentic Antique Furniture

A collector of antiques, like antique furniture, always feels proud about his collection of precious old pieces. Antiques are never cheap to buy, therefore a collector should be very careful in choosing and in purchasing old furniture to make sure that he is buying an authentic old item.

Just like in the industry of antiques where money is a big deal, some people tend to cheat using their talents to create copies of antique products. These replicas or fakes are exactly what every buyer or collector of antique furniture should be wary about.

The key to spot an authentic piece of old furniture is a knowledgeable inspection of the antique at hand. When you know how to properly expect and which marks to look for, you will be able to identify which are genuine, which are fakes or which are restored. One should check for the style, aspect or craftsmanship on the antique and that style should be appropriate for the time period when the old item is claimed to be made.

Antique Furniture is usually spotted by various factor, on top of them is the wood makes up the piece. Wood is said to indicate the piece's age because different woods were favored and used in every time period by each maker of the furniture. Walnut for instance, is the kind of dark wood which was popularly used by Europeans and colonists before the year 1720, with Queen Anne's chairs and tables and other colonial cupboards and benches. Then in the 1800, mahogany was the first choice in creating formal pieces of furniture for the drawing and dining areas. Both old and new furniture pieces are made of oak so care must be taken in buying pieces that are oak-made.

Maple which is hard, heavy, strong, fine-grained and pale is a wood choice in making functional pieces. Then there is also pine wood which is used for the inconspicuous parts of the antique and second hand furniture like undersides, backs and interiors. Moreover, pine is stained or painted to seem like an expensive kind of wood. Plywood and board are never used in making furniture prior to the period of the 20th century.

The condition and color of the wood also helps in recognizing a real antique. Do not just rely on what the antique dealers tell about the item but see if the wood is shrunken and dark. The thin panels, most especially, found in drawer bottoms and doors are quicker to reduce in size faster than the supporting frame. The shrinking then results to splits and cracks on the nailed panels. The shrinking of the wood is not along the grain but across it and the furniture seem distorted. Suppose the table top is roundly crafted, it may become somewhat oval as it ages.

Another indicator of the furniture's age is the way parts of the furniture are put together. Makers of old furniture use joints that are hand-cut. Dovetails and wooden pegs are also manually cut. Hand cut parts like dovetails are cruder and wider than machine cut parts. The nails used on the old piece is also a useful age indicator. Nails with rose head are each made by blacksmiths during 1700. The body of the nails is first shaped, then placed in a heading tool then blown with hammer to form the head. Around 1880, flat and round headed wire nails with sharp ends started to be produced using machines.