Antique Love: Is This Real?
Recently after a day of sourcing antiques in Barcelona I met a friend for dinner. We were catching up over a glass of wine and she asked me “how do you know that what you are buying is real?” I replied with a laugh and something along the lines of it doesn’t really matter as long as the piece is interesting or beautiful. My quick answer, one that was more about moving out of work mode and into an evening out wasn't really an answer.
I mean it’s an important question and deserves a thoughtful answer:
“How do you really know it’s real?”
The truth is that authentication is difficult. In fact, at times it can feel downright impossible. There’s very little in the way of actual iron-clad proof about a vintage piece. If you assume the hypothesis that the item you love is an antique, then the next step is to find as much supporting evidence available to validate your claim. Sometimes there are clues along the way that help further support your hypothesis that a piece is “real;” however, those clues are rarely proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Back to the Beginning: It’s Elementary my Dear Watson
Get out the magnifying glass, it’s time to start sleuthing. Using all your powers of deduction, ask questions, investigate and inspect to uncover additional clues. You’re looking for factoids about age, construction and provenance, that's a fancy word for the chronology of ownership. Think of it as the genealogy or the life story of a piece. Ideally when collecting, you want to trace the history of an item back to the original owner.
To do that, it’s helpful to develop relationships with reputable dealers. Ask questions about the provenance. If the piece is being sold as an original, then the dealer you are working with should be able to talk about its history and provide documentation. These documents can include certificates of authenticity, bill of sale, auction records, gallery and exhibition labels. If available, another important document is the “catalogue raisoneé.” This is a comprehensive list of all the works created by a specific artist. It shows the works acknowledged as original to the artist. If the piece you are considering is NOT included in an artist’s catalogue raisonee, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not authentic, however it’s definitely a big red flag for me.
For pieces that were part of a museum or corporate collection an accession number is used as identification. This is a number that is typically attached directly onto a piece when it was added to the collection. When the piece is removed from a museum or collection and placed in the private market, the number stays with the piece to assist with provenance and can be cross-referenced for verification.
Discovering What’s Below the Surface
Provenance isn’t easy: records get lost, pieces are handed down to family members and people forget. Which leads us to the question, what do you do when the story hasn’t been documented?
To answer, I started reflecting on how I gather information on the authenticity of a vintage item and when that information becomes conclusive, or at least conclusive enough for me to pull out a credit card. It starts with understanding design, the styles and methods of construction through history. Does the piece appear to be constructed using methods that you would expect from the time period?
Seek Imperfection
Perfection is usually the enemy of vintage. Perfect symmetry is a sure sign of a machine made piece of furniture. Embrace the imperfections. Dovetailing is an aspect of construction to look for when inspecting a piece. Uniform joints were likely cut by a machine, meaning the piece is likely more recent. Irregularly shaped joints point to work that was done by hand.
Another seemingly imperfection is the use of multiple types of wood. Mismatched woods are actually a good thing to find in an antique piece. Take the time to inspect the drawers, backing and below/underneath furniture to see if the wood is all the same. If the wood is all the same, then it’s likely not authentic. Again, not always true, but another possible red flag. In vintage pieces, using the same wood wasn’t common. It didn’t make sense to use more expensive woods in places where people would not see them.
Nails are another item that should be inspected and noted. For example, if a piece is supposedly from pre-1880 you would expect to see square or rectangular nailheads. Round nailheads weren’t used until the 1890’s.
These are just a few of the construction details that I examine on a piece. Once I’ve gone through a seemingly exhaustive list and the details appear to be in order, I move on to a thorough search for marks or stamps. This involves removing drawers, looking underneath and behind as well as the lower edges and hidden corners of a piece. Often furniture companies or makers signed their work with names, locations and year of production. One of the clues to cross-check is that the maker was in business and creating work during the time period. If the piece is being listed as from the 1840’s, but the maker that is being attributed to the piece was not in business at that time, then walk away my friend, walk away.
Know Their History
More specific historical accuracy is necessary to date a vintage piece more narrowly. Is the piece constructed in a style that is historically appropriate? This is more complicated and requires an in-depth understanding of the specific designs throughout time. And the designs throughout time and geography. Styles in the Americas were often different from those in Europe during the same time period, and we have a whole set of different clues when working to authenticate Asian antiquities.
There are many methods of identifying antiques by year. A place to start is an examination of its feet. Yes, the feet. For example, if a piece of furniture has a simple round ball or bun feet, it would likely date from the 1600s. If a piece is being listed as an antique from the 1600’s and has ball and claw feet, then that isn’t historically accurate. Another red flag, and definitely a reason to use your own feet to walk away.
While interesting, the feet method is an oversimplification. You could spend years studying architectural history in an attempt to understand the entirety of design since time began. (I do enjoy attempting this impossible task, however, I’m a bit of an architecture nerd.) Even that is just a beginning. It’s more palatable to focus narrowly on a specific historical time period, dive into the deep-end and learn the identifying shapes and styles, well known makers as well as their construction methods, materiality, identifying marks and where those marks were typically placed on a piece.
If you have a specific piece that you want to collect, say it’s a DeSede sofa. Get familiar with the construction, dimension, colors, etc. Basically anything that you can learn and know about an authentic DeSede sofa. Knowing what to look for, helps you make an educated decision.
It’s still an overwhelming amount of information. And at the end of the day, I remind myself of a few personal rules:
Assume it’s not authentic until proven otherwise
If it seems to good to be true, it probably isn’t authentic (not always true)
You have to love what you bring into your home. No matter its story…or provenance.
Enjoy looking to the past to find more #EverydayBeautiful