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VALUE REVIEW™
Published by Semler Appraisals & Estate Liquidations
A Professional Service for the Valuation of Personal Property
Fall/Winter 2001 Vol. 3, No. 3
What’s in a Word?
Every profession has linguistic nuances that are unique
to that profession. Appraising is no different. The
terms “fake”, “reproduction”, and “revival”
have special meaning in the world of antiques. Let’s
examine each as it applies to antiques and appraising.
Dictionary definitions of “fake” include: designed
to deceive or cheat; fraud; hoax; and counterfeit. In the
world of antiques, however, there are varying degrees of fake.
Some items may be entirely made to deceive, built from scratch
to fool the unsuspecting buyer. The Henry Ford Museum purchased
a supposedly 17th Century Pilgrim chair that was made by a disgruntled
wood sculptor in the 1920s with the express goal of fooling the
experts. It did. Even after the hoax was revealed,
it took the Museum four years to study and verify the fake.
Another type of fake is a new object made from old parts.
Often, this type of fake is even more difficult to detect than
a totally faked piece because some or most of the parts are genuinely
old. An example is a new chair made from the disassembled
parts of several old chairs. The seat and back may have
come from one chair, the legs and rungs from another, and the
arms from a third—old parts resulting in a new chair.
A variation of the old parts/new object is the made-up
or enlarged set. Chairs from two or more similar sets are
often combined. If you need six chairs for your table, you
might find four of the chairs are an exact match, and the remaining
two vary slightly because they started out as part of another
suite. Another scenario: the four original chairs are copied
and two exact reproductions made. The additions may not
have been made to deceive, but simply to accommodate additional
guests at dinner. The longer ago the set was enlarged, the
more valuable the additional chairs. Two copies added in
1780 to ten chairs made in 1760 will have a higher value than
two reproductions made a century later.
Motive, not method, is the determining factor of a fake.
Reproductions, however, may not be motivated by malicious intent.
Standard dictionary definitions of “reproduction”
include the terms “copy” and “duplicate”
but most furniture reproductions are not exact doubles of the
items that inspired them. Honest reproductions may have
the same overall look as the originals, but will have their own
distinguishing characteristics.
Most reproduction furniture that today’s appraisers
are likely to see is 20th Century reproductions manufactured in
America. Drawers in furniture made today to resemble older
pieces do not use the hand cut dovetails of centuries past, but
have machine-made dovetail joints which are stronger than the
hand-made joinery. Today’s veneer is the fifth layer
of a wood sandwich in which each layer is at a 90-degree angle
to the previous layer. Period furniture with veneer has
a layer of veneer over a single solid core of wood. A reproduction
takes on a life of its own through technology and interpretation
of style. It becomes its own separate entity with ties to
the past.
A “revival” is the borrowing of detail or even
the entire design of a previously popular style. Major revivals
of the 20th Century included Neoclassicism, Gothic, Rococo, Louis
XVI, and Renaissance. The Centennial Revival beginning in
the 1870s produced versions of 18th Century classics. I
wouldn’t be surprised to see in the future a revival of
the furniture of the Depression Era, now becoming popular with
the just-out-of-college crowd. Resurrection of a particular
style or period is the essence of a revival in the antiques and
appraisal profession.
Correction
In the quiz in the last newsletter, the correct answer for question
#6 is “E-none of the above.” Some of the newsletters
were mailed out before this typographical error was noticed.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have
caused.
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sales and auctions. This will increase sales from impulse
buyers and result in higher payouts for clients you refer to us
for estate liquidations.
Our Services
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heirs, equitable distribution in marital dissolution, insurance
coverage and claims, non-cash charitable contribution, bankruptcy.
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we may better serve you.
Happy Holidays to You and Yours
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