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This article was published in the February/March 2000 issue of AntiquePrime
Magazine & Journal.
For What It's Worth ...
Q. How can you tell the age of a piece of furniture?
A. This is a big topic to tackle and it will not be possible to
cover many details in this short column. I've included a brief list
of references, if you want to begin studying on your own.
To determine age, consider the form and function, tool marks, construction
techniques, and materials used in the furniture. Note the style.
Check for evidence of age.
One thing to determine is the utility of the furniture you're trying
to date. Is it a coffee table or king-size bed? They weren't around
before the 20th Century. Murphy beds? They appeared in the 1870s.
Windsor chairs were not around before the Queen Anne period. Game
or card tables did not exist in great numbers until the end of the
17th Century. Oak joint stools, on the other hand, have been around
for five hundred years.
If you can locate tool marks on a piece of exposed wood, you might
have some clues to follow. Pit saws, used from roughly the 1600s
to 1750, left irregular, slanted, deep rough marks. Up-and-down
saws left vertical, crisp uniform marks and were used from 1700
to the 1860s. Probably the easiest to recognize are the curved marks
left by the circular saw, circa 1840. Around 1860, band saws were
introduced. The vertical, crisp, uniform marks left by the band
saw are not very deep. Use your fingers on drawer bottoms or backboards
of case furniture. If you can feel slight, parallel ridges and hollows,
the piece was hand planed, probably prior to the mid-19th Century.
Construction techniques can assist you in dating furniture. A joint
is where two pieces of wood come together. In the 17th Century,
butt and rabbet joints were used. Hand-cut dovetails appeared late
in that century and for the next 80 years or so, dovetails were
wide, stubby, and crude. There were few (1-4) dovetails in each
drawer. By the end of the 1700s, dovetails became thin and delicate.
Mortise and tenon joints were also used in the 18th and early 19th
Centuries. The use of square or oblong wooden pins that held in
place by the shrinking of the wood was another joinery technique
of that time. Scalloped dovetails can be dated to the 1890s and
were only used for a short time. Machine cut dovetails were made
from the middle of the 1800s onward.
What is the furniture made of? Don't be fooled by plywood! You might
think it's a modern material, but the Egyptian Pharaohs used laminated
wood in furniture and it was used in England in the 1740s. Three-ply
plywood as we know it today was made in 1905. Chrome and Formica
on your furniture? Mid-twentieth century. Plastic? 1960s. Look for
age clues in the hardware used. If you find Phillips head screws
throughout, you don't have an antique. On the other hand, hand forged
nails and screws with off-center slots and uneven threads can be
taken from older furniture and used in a piece made yesterday. Check
for the thickness of veneers. Old veneer could not be cut thin.
If it is 1/32nd of an inch thick, it is Victorian or newer, as compared
to the 17th and 18th Century 1/16" to 1/8" veneers.
Learn to recognize the elements of different furniture styles. If
you find a piece of furniture that seems to combine several styles,
it is most probably not a period piece, but a later reproduction.
Do the proportions and size appear to be correct? Are all the parts
original, or have there been replacements and repairs? Date an object
from its youngest feature.
Since wood is an organic material, it shrinks across the grain with
age. You may not be able to see this with the naked eye, but if
you measure a circular table top with the grain and then across
the grain, there should be a difference if the table is an antique.
On turned parts of furniture, such as chair legs, use calipers to
take measurements to check for shrinkage. Antiques will show evidence
of use and normal wear and tear. Wood will also show signs of oxidation
and patination with prolonged exposure to air and light.
These tips will get you started, but I encourage you to read and
study further. You might want to start with the references below.
Books
Butler, Joseph. Field Guide to American Furniture, Henry Holt &
Company. ISBN 0-8050-0124-7.
Jenkins, Emyl. Emyl Jenkins' Reproduction Furniture. Crown Publishers.
ISBN 0-517-58527-8.
Kaye, Myrna. Fake, Fraud, or Genuine? Little Brown & Company.
ISBN 0-8212-1825-5.
Weinhagen, Robert, Jr. Assume Nothing. Self-published. ISBN 0-918712-16-5.
Video
Bivins, John. Authenticating Antique Furniture. Pilaster Productions,
Charleston, NC.
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