The Original Miami Beach Antique Show, sponsored by WorthPoint this year, is the largest indoor antique show in the world, with many treasures from all over the globe. Visitors are sure to discover some of the finest things they’ve ever seen on exhibition here.

Take peek at this great show, attended by celebrities, royalty, museum representatives and collectors from all walks of life, and make plans to attend next year’s show, scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 4.

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Martin Willis is Worthologist and auctioneer who owns Seaboard Appraisal Service. You can hear his podcasts at the at Antique and Auction Forum, featuring interviews with key players in the antiques and collectibles trade.

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The Catherine Goddard Chippendale block-and-shell carved and figured mahogany bureau table, attributed to John Goddard (1724-1785), Newport, circa 1765, sold for a world-record price of nearly $5.7 million Jan. 21 at Christie’s in New York.

NEW YORK – An 18th-century mahogany bureau table carved by Newport, Rhode Island’s most celebrated cabinetmaker sold for a stunning $5.7 million at Christie’s New York on Jan. 2, placing it among the highest auction prices ever realized for an item of American furniture.

Expected to sell for between $700,000 and $900,000, the table was pursued by multiple bidders, who rapidly drove the price to the $3-million threshold. From there on, two dedicated bidders in the saleroom battled back and forth for the handsomely carved table before a hushed audience of clients and onlookers, until auctioneer John Hays dropped the gavel at $5 million. With premium, the final price realized was $5,682,500.

The table, known as the Catherine Goddard Chippendale Block-and-Shell Carved and Figured Mahogany Bureau Table, is attributed to the Newport, R.I., cabinetmaker John Goddard (1724-1785). Masterfully designed and crafted, the table is an outstanding example of the celebrated Newport style of block-and-shell carving. Goddard was widely recognized as one of early America’s most talented cabinet-makers and his creations were sought-after by the port city’s most well-to-do merchants.

A handwritten label in the top drawer of the table indicates that Goddard made the knee-hole bureau around 1765 expressly for his daughter, Catherine Goddard, and may have given it to her as a wedding present. The table remained within his daughter’s family through several generations until it was sold by the cabinetmaker’s great-great granddaughter, Mary Briggs (Weaver) Case, in the early 1900s. The table last sold at auction in January 2005 for $940,000.

“This desk bears all the unique characteristics and quality of construction that make Newport furniture of this era so highly prized among collectors,” said Hays, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas and lead specialist in American Furniture. “The quality of the mahogany in particular is stunning in this piece and shows that Goddard had his pick of the wood coming into the port during that era. We are honored to have established such a strong price today for this table, which represents a new world auction record for the knee-hole desk form.”

For more information about the item visit the Christie’s Web page for the bureau table (lot 92).

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This vintage late-19th-century cast-iron bank featuring an eagle with eaglets from the Carl and Barbara Moulton estate will be among the items up for auction on April 17, 2010.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. – The third part of the Carl and Barbara Moulton estate sale—comprising the couple’s lovely Chesapeake home, plus over 700 lots of antiques and collectibles—will be sold at the home itself in an on-site auction slated for Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010.

“I’m not going to say we saved the best for last, because there were some truly outstanding items sold in Parts 1 and 2,” said Tom Perry of Tom’s Auctions & Appraisals, which will facilitate the sale. “But when you add the home itself to the mix and still have wall to wall merchandise, it’s hard not to get excited. Folks need to mark their calendars. This will be one sale they don’t want to miss.”

The house, which will come up for bid at 1 p.m., is a 2,800-square-foot structure situated on a large, 0.65-acre corner lot in the Great Bridge area. It has seven rooms—including three bedrooms and 2 ½ baths—plus a two-car garage and a detached garage. Features include antique stained glass windows, beautiful ceilings, leaded glass kitchen cabinets and a stone fireplace.

Bidders will be treated to dolls, toys, Black memorabilia, pictures and prints, sterling silver, furniture, jewelry and more.

“We’re talking about 55 years of collecting,” said Perry. “Mr. Moulton was an antiques dealer, an auctioneer and a pawn shop owner.”

The merchandise is eclectic, ranging from a rare cast-iron eagle with eaglets mechanical bank to gorgeous Bradley & Hubbard lamps to a group of porcelain piano babies (marked and numbered) to an original Civil War-era print titled “Our Heroes” to an outstanding walnut cylinder roll secretary.

Furniture will include a beautiful Hinkle Harris dining room set table with six chairs, an exceptional burl mahogany sideboard, marble-top washstand, a drop-leaf end table, an oval walnut table, an inlaid tilt-top tea table, matching pairs of Victorian chairs, a marble-top coffee table, a marble-top hall tree, two oak curved glass curio cabinets, an oak center post kitchen table with leaf and four arrow-back chairs, an oak child’s rocker, a Victorian stool, an antique Chippendale-style mirror and a cherry twin bed.

Decorative accessories will feature a cast-iron Scottie dog doorstop, a trunk made by the Norfolk Trunk Co., a signed Lalique figural piece, some nice rugs (area and Oriental), signed paperweights, glassware, Roseville, steins, ivory pieces, canning jars, stoneware clocks, vintage telephones (stick and wall), a Grey Telephone Co. 1909 pay phone, a pitcher and bowl and a panel glass lamp.

Coca-Cola collectors will have a field day. The list of Coke items includes buttons (one featuring Santa Claus), thermometers (one dated 1939), fishtail advertising signs and other advertising signs, a “Coke Is It” clock and a “Drink Coca-Cola” sign. Also offered will be Pepsi-Cola advertising items, Royal Crown advertising items and Dr. Pepper advertising items.

The list of collectibles is just as impressive. It includes Hummel figurines, Bunny Bread and Sunbeam Bread advertising signs, a Texaco sign, a Georgia state flag, a Norfolk restaurant picture with “Seasons Greetings,” a Ford advertising sign, a Route 66 sign, antique license plates, a Bell Public Telephone porcelain sign, a U.S. Navy bell and a 1903 framed calendar.

Also offered will be a pair of Hood’s calendars in early walnut Victorian frames (one from 1893, one from 1900), a framed picture of Robert E. Lee taken from a 1940 “Saturday Evening Post,” four battle prints, an 1834 50-cent piece, a tiny Bradley & Hubard lamp with shade, walking canes, bottles, old marbles, iron handcuffs, decoys and about 12-15 wind-up toys, some in boxes.

Silver pieces will include a highly decorated footed bowl made by Jenkins & Jenkins, Inc. (Baltimore, #504), teaspoons, forks, baby spoon and fork sets, a food pusher, serving spoons, a sugar spoon and a knife. Also sold will be a “Little Black Sambo” book, daguerreotypes, silver dollars, around15 antique dolls , a Kool Cigarettes display, a set of Willie & Millie salt and pepper shakers, an Aunt Jemima note pad and original artwork.

Rounding out the day’s offerings: several railroad watches (some 14kt gold: Bunn Special, Hamilton, etc.), a Virginia Civil War button stick pin, gold and silver watch fobs, a Dick Tracy Detective Club badge, a Mickey Mouse bank, Shirley Temple items, a group of chauffeurs’ licenses from Virginia and West Virginia, about a dozen quality name pocket watches and a Presidential mug.

Mr. Moulton (known as “Colonel” Moulton to his friends and business associates) was a larger-than-life figure who owned and operated Carl’s Antiques in Chesapeake. He also kept booths at several area malls, in addition to being an auctioneer and pawn shop owner. He specialized in jewelry, coins, period American furniture, stoneware, collectibles and militaria.

For more information about this auction, call 757.539.2498, e-mail to tombuys [at] tomsauction [dot] com or visit Tom’s Auctions & Appraisals Web site.

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As early as the 15th century, curved runners or skates were added to cradles so they could rock the baby. Skates were added to the occasional English chair in the early 18th century, and by the 1740s, the Windsor chair had sprouted rockers for use as outside garden seating in southern England. At the same time, the Swedes were making their own version of the rocker; a six legged affair with curved skates known as a “gungstol.”

On the other hand, we can rightly take credit for the successor to the regular skate mounted rocker: the platform rocker. Platform rockers came about because of several problems inherit in the design of the standard rocker. The first problem is that if the rocker is used on a plank floor, the rockee has to face in the direction of the length of the planks in the floor or the rocker will uncomfortably bump along across the joints in the floor boards. And if the rockee pursues a vigorous rocking motion, the chair will creep across the floor, moving forward in the direction of the rocking motion. Finally, if the rocker is used on a carpeted surface the constant motion of the skates, added to the weight of the inhabitant, will eventually wear a telltale path into expensive floor covering. The platform rocker solves all of these problems, allowing the rockee to face any direction without discomfort and remain in the same vicinity without wearing out the rug.

A Lowentraut rocker, featuring a springless rocker mechanism designed by George F. Hall. This kind of rocker produced a flatter arc and was ideal for nursing and general recuperation, as well as being plain old comfortable in its motion.

Late in the century, along came a New Yorker named George F. Hall. Hall devised a springless rocker mechanism that was actually more of a glider than rocker. It produced a flatter arc for the rocker owner and was ideal for nursing and general recuperation, as well as being plain old comfortable in its motion. Hall patented his design on May 29, 1888, but assigned half the patent rights to Peter Lowentraut of New Jersey. For some reason, the mechanism and the style of the chair thereafter was known as a “Lowentraut” rocker.

An arm on the Hall/Lownetraut mechanism. The patent covered only the mechanism, not the design of the chair itself, and its pattern was copied extensively by other manufacturers.

The Hall/Lownetraut mechanism was a pair of arms at the end of a cross spindle that allowed a gliding rocking motion but the patent covered only the mechanism, not the design of the chair itself, and it was extensively copied by other manufacturers.

But as with all technological advances—which the platform rocker certainly was—there are always technological problems with the equipment. In the case of the platform rocker, the weak link in the chain is the spring mechanism that keeps the rocker rocking with minimal effort. There were some very innovative approaches to the spring problem just after the middle of the 19th century, but eventually the standard spring became the coil steel spring in a cast iron mounting plate. Coil steel springs were first used in furniture upholstery in the US in the mid 19th century and it was not a long step to adapt them to the platform rocker.

One of George Hunzinger’s rockers. Hunzinger probably held more patents on chair parts and designs than any other American designer/inventor and he held his share for platform rocker designs.

George Hunzinger probably held more patents on chair parts and designs than any other American designer/inventor and he held his share for platform rocker designs. He started making his own design of platform rockers with fairly conventional mechanisms around the time of the Centennial Exposition in 1876. But George was never one to let it rest. In 1882 he patented his “duplex spring” mechanism that looked and operated like no other system to date.

Hunzinger’s rocker mechanism used a series of metal brackets called a combination hinge attached to relatively thin, longer coil springs.

Hunzinger’s rocker mechanism used a series of metal brackets called a “combination hinge” attached to relatively thin, longer coil springs. The result was an almost effortless rocking motion with no noise as long as maintenance was performed. Paper labels on his chairs stated: “One drop of oil from your Sewing Machine can in every joint of hinge will prevent noise.” Good advice.

But the problem was that eventually, like all springs, the rocker springs lost their tension and the chairs became sloppy seats sitting atop a platform with the feeling that they are about to tip over. That is a common problem with almost all platform rockers from the mid to late 19th century that have survived into the 21st century, especially if they have been ridden hard over the years.

This type coil spring rocker was patented in 1897 by a man named A.H. Schram of Sheboygan, Wis.

If the rocker is just meant to be a showpiece and not for human use, forget about the springs and just show off the rocker. However, if the chair is meant to be used as a rocker, the problem with the old springs must be addressed before somebody tumbles headfirst out of the seat. Since there is no commonly known way to rejuvenate the old springs, the answer is replacement. But most of the old springs are a single heavy coil on an iron base. New springs don’t look like that. Most new springs come as a two coil unit mounted on a stamped steel frame. They are available from almost any upholstery supply house or from a number of supply houses such as Van Dyke’s Restorers.

When they lose their “starch,” old style single coil platform rocker springs (top) can easily be replaced by modern double coil units.

Installation is fairly simple if you know the trick. It is very important that you do not change the pivot point at which the rockers reach equilibrium on the base. The center point of the original springs identifies the optimum pivot location. Measure and mark this point on both sides of the platform and the rockers before removing the old springs. The new springs come as set with two springs enclosed in frame as opposed to the open spring you are replacing. This means you will need to drill new pilot holes for screws in both the rockers and the base. Place the new spring unit on the base, centered over the pivot point, with the edge of the spring frame slightly below the top of the base. Mark and drill your pilot holes on both sides of the base and install the spring unit securely, parallel to the top edge of the base. Then, with the chair on its side, place the top part of the chair in position on the base and mark and drill pilot holes where the rear screw hole of the spring unit lines up.

Now comes the tricky part. The location of the front screw holes must be identified while the spring unit is under tension. Otherwise the chair will just flop back over when you are done. Use a small crowbar or a screwdriver inserted into the middle of the front coil of the spring unit and open the spring ¼ to ½ in. With the spring open under pressure, mark where the front screw hole is. Release the pressure, drill the pilot hole and install the spring unit after opening it back up with the crowbar. Repeat the procedure on the other side making sure you open the spring the same amount on both sides. Be very careful and get someone to help you if needed. Those springs can really pinch you if you are not in control at all times.

Installing springs by this method may result in the chair appearing to tilt too far forward at first. This will cure itself over time as the springs loosen but if the tilt is too severe just relocate the forward screw positions.

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Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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How many times have you heard an appraiser on TV or an auctioneer in person use the term “patina” in describing an antique piece of anything, be it furniture, jewelry clothing, whatever? But if you were able to stop them in mid-sentence could they, in fact, precisely define the word for you? Probably not. As it turns out, the definition of patina is a lot like the definition of pornography. It’s hard to say what it is but you know it when you see it.

There is even discussion about how the word is pronounced. My ancient “American College Dictionary” by Random House places the emphasis on the first syllable so the word is “PAT-ina.” So does the “Columbia Encyclopedia,” Sixth Edition, 2001. In everyday use however, many people—including me—rightly or wrongly, put the emphasis on the second part of the word so it is “pa-TINA.” It doesn’t matter as along as we all know what it means. Or don’t know what it means, as the case may be.

So what does it mean? To some people, the answer is a simple two words: “old dirt.” But that is too simple and not entirely correct. My antique dictionary defines it as a film or encrustation on the surface of an object indicating great age. That’s a good start, but with furniture I think it involves a great deal more than that. The “Encyclopedia of Furniture,” by Joseph Aronson, defines it as “Color and texture of the surface produced by age and wear. In wood furniture the varnish, shellac or oil has a tendency to deepen yet retains transparency; edges wear smooth and sharp outlines are softened.” Now we are getting somewhere.

The crackled old shellac finish on this early 19th-century drawer is certainly original and probably qualifies as “patina,” but is it desirable?

But that still doesn’t quite cover it. All of those characteristics can be duplicated to some degree by an experienced finisher, so there must be more to it than that. But at least Aronson tried. Many antiques reference books either avoid the subject altogether because it is so hard to handle concisely and accurately, or else they just gloss over it. An example of that treatment can be found in “American Furniture,” by Marvin D. Schwartz, which states that patina is the “Mellow and worn aspect a surface acquires through age; highly desirable quality on most antique furniture.” That steps nicely around it.

The color on the arm of this birch chair with a mahogany finish is certainly worn. Is this patina? Would you like it on your chair?

John Obbard, in his recent book “Early American Furniture” (Collector Books, 2000), gets a little more precise in saying “Patina is the cumulative effect of age, sunlight, wear and grime on old surfaces of wood and metal …” The “Antiques Roadshow Primer,” by Carol Prisant (Workman, 1999), takes a more humanistic approach. It says patina is “the sheen on a surface caused by long handling …” and that it is “… the accumulation of wax, soil, stains and oils that human hands have left on furniture over the course of many years, have created a smooth film of, well, dirt.” There we have the short of it again—dirt, and we humans are to blame; not sunlight, humidity or atmosphere.

This turn-of-the-century oak table top sure looks-well worn by long handling – and abuse. It still probably qualifies as having patina.

So, by the definitions of the trade, a piece that has patina is dirty, oily, grimy, worn, beat up, faded, rounded and generally disagreeable. By those standards, I have some extremely patinated sneakers. Surely that can’t be the whole thing.

It turns out that patina, whatever it is, has not always been universally desirable. Surely Goddard, Phyfe, Belter and Jellif did not send out their masterpieces all dirty and grimy. They were shiny and clean, new and fresh, and 20 or 30 years ago that was the way much of the antiques trade—including some museum curators—preferred their antiques. And that’s the way many buyers wanted their new old pieces to look. They didn’t want all that dirty old stuff in their new dining room or bedroom, with a crackly old dark finish that could be hiding almost anything, especially the beauty of 200-year-old mahogany. The current emphasis on originality and patina is just that; current. It wasn’t the case 30 years ago and may not be the case 30 years from now.

Perhaps the definition of patina is not as important as we thought it was. Perhaps patina, which, in and of itself, is not always a beautiful thing, judging by the industry definitions, should just be regarded as one more tool of the inquiring collector, used to verify the apparent age of a piece.

Next time you are tempted to discuss the patina of a piece with a dealer or auctioneer, just ask yourself, “Does the piece LOOK, SMELL and FEEL old?” That may be the best definition of all.

Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Brimfield, Mass., is a small New England town with a population of about 5,000 or so. Settled in 1706, it shows its traditional New England quaintness rather well. It has its large, steepled church, and with the leaves of autumn or the snow of winter, looks the part in any Norman Rockwell painting. And then for one week every spring, fall, and summer, the population doubles with 5,000 antique dealers converging on Brimfield to create the “Antique Capital of the United States.”

I had the most unique opportunity to go antique hunting with Will Seippel, CEO and founder of WorthPoint.com to learn about furniture and other things that caught his eye. Will is quite the collector himself and the things he sees is often nothing like what I see at all.

It’s a small table he notices first. “What we have here is a beautiful New England work table dating from about 1820, in what they call the Sheraton style,” Seippel says.

Now to me, it was just a small table, but Will notices the brass knob on the front of the small drawer and the birch top. The legs, though, draw his particular attention.

“Generally in New England, you can tell the difference from the southern tables, because the legs were much thinner, which was really more the Puritan ethic to save material. The southern tables would have large legs which they would flaunt how much material they would use, kind of the opposite,” Seippel says. “A very, very nice table.”

We keep moving down the line until he notices an entire table of furniture accessories, such as Victorian hand carved walnut drawer pulls for cottage furniture, door knobs, and even claw feet for a table. “Fred Taylor, our Worthologist for all things Victorian to 1920s to 1950s Grand Rapids furniture, can tell you more than I can, but these are hard to find and they are great to use on your furniture,” Seippel says.

Lastly, we came across a rather large wooden bed. “Here is a nice bed here that’s made out of walnut. It’s a little bit higher end of Victorian furniture. These are very functional beds, and is a great piece to recycle and use. Very comfortable, and saves cutting down a tree to make a new bed. Something like this I would really recommend,” Seippel says. He particularly notices the hand-carved fruit decoration on the headboard and at the foot of the bed itself. “It’s a very nice piece of furniture,” Seippel concludes.

WorthPoint’s Worthopedia auction prices put the door knob at only a few dollars within a large lot, the Victorian bed frame sold at auction from $110 to about $200, while similar small Sheraton work tables were auctioned from $50 to more than $1,200 for an 1830’s walnut southern Sheraton-style work table.

Just to be able to walk alongside Will as he points out the kinds of important antiques and collectibles that would just pass me by is a lesson in itself. After “antiquing” with Will Seippel, I now understand more fully how he was able to pay his way through higher education through the buying and selling of antiques. I certainly will not be able to look at furniture legs quite the same way again.

To watch a video of Will Seippel’s tour of Brimfield, click here.

Tom Carrier is a general Worthologist, with an expertise in a wide variety of subjects, including vexillology, or the study of flags.

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Clues to Antique Chairs

By Fred Taylor

Some pieces of antique furniture are like an open book. A casual familiarity with the trade allows you to readily identify the period of a piece of Golden Oak or to correctly label a Victorian Rococo Revival couch. A number of technical elements can easily tell the age of a drop front desk and a bed is a dead giveaway based on the hardware of the siderails. But what about a chair? Chairs are not quite so open about themselves, and like a friend’s skittish pet, it may take a while to get to know it— and for it to know you.

The first thing to know about a chair is what kind of chair is it? Chairs and similar seating platforms have been made for thousands of years, but in modern times in the Western world chairs boil down to one of three types—turner’s chairs, Windsor chairs and cabinetmaker’s chairs.

Turner’s chairs are exactly what they sound like; they are assembled from pieces turned on a lathe, and usually employ a round mortise and tenon joint for the construction. Everything is round in the eyes of a turner. This type of chair was one of the first that was mass produced because of the simplicity of the elements and the construction.

A Windsor chair consists of a more or less flat seat, into which legs are inserted from below, again using a generally round mortise and tenon joint. The upper section of the chair consists of turned spindles inserted in the seat and topped, usually, by the bent hoop that composes the equivalent of a crest rail. The distinguishing feature of a Windsor is that no element of the chair is continuous from top to floor. Almost everything has a terminus in the seat except the lower stretchers which connect leg to leg, back hoops that form arms, and crest rails that sit impaled on stiles which are implanted into the seat but do not contact the floor.

Cabinetmaker’s chairs are made from sawn and shaped elements, often elaborately carved. The normal joint in this type of chair is the rectangular mortise and tenon and in the later incarnations of the industrial age, the dowel joint. The most commonly seen chair in today’s market is the cabinetmaker’s chair.

Cabinetmaker’s chairs, at first, seem to be the hardest to read. No joinery is visible except the occasional through tenon peeking out the rear stile or the apparent presence of a pin, the “true nail” or “trunnel,” securing a mortise and tenon joint. Without these scant clues and without performing some destructive testing, like opening a joint, it is very difficult to tell if the chair was assembled with mortise and tenons or dowels.

But there very often is another clue that can be used if it can be seen. That is the manner in which the corners of the seat frame are blocked. Since most cabinetmaker’s chairs are upholstered, access to corner blocking is not always easy unless the chair has a removable slip seat or unless you are able to remove some of the bottom dust cover to see into the interior. But if you can get there you may find some real help in identifying the chair.

The blocking in mid 18th century chairs was almost always done using a soft wood with several small blocks in each corner. The grain of the blocks usually runs vertically and since all fasteners of that period were handmade, very few 18th century corner blocks have original nails or screws in them. In keeping with the concept of “workmanlike manner,” i.e. if it doesn’t show don’t spend any time on it, most original 18th century corner blocks are unfinished, just like the insides of the seat rails.

By the beginning of the 19th century, many cabinetmakers were no longer using the corner blocks and instead relied on a type of cleat to span the corner and connect the front rail to the side rail, bypassing actual contact with the corner altogether. These narrow cleats were usually a hardwood with the grain running horizontally and were glued into notches cut into the tops of the rails. They were fairly shallow and did not extend the full depth of the rails.

By mid century, with the Industrial Revolution reaching maturity and the factory system in full swing, corner blocking became more elaborate. Many Victorian era pieces, especially later in the period, had blocks shaped to cover each corner completely, securing two rails and the leg. In addition to being glued many blocks of the time also had the newly introduced, machine made, readily available gimlet screw to help hold it fast.

At the beginning of the 20th century, another technological innovation influenced corner blocks. That was the development of commercial plywood. This new type of surface became the seat bottom of choice in much of the mid grade furniture production of the first half of the century. Some way was needed to secure the new seating material to the chair and screwing it to the corner blocks was the logical step. Corner blocks of the Depression era emulated those of 100 years prior in that once again they did not actually cover the corner but only connected rail to rail. But this time they were glued and screwed and had another hole in the center to accommodate the seat bottom fastener.

With the advent of strong dowel joints, reinforced with new resin glues, corner blocks almost became superfluous to the structure of the chair. Their new job focused primarily on holding and supporting the seat.

So the enigmatic chair does have something to tell you after all. You just have to get to know it a little better.

WorthPoint: Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles
Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or email them to me at info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How to Be a Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17.00 + $3.00 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor, ($25.00 + $3.00 S&H) are also available at the same address. For more information call (800) 387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

Danish Modern or “American” Danish Modern?

By Bradley Downs

Scandinavian design, also referred to as Danish Modern, is quite hot right now. So hot that a certain design by famed Danish designer, Finn Juhl, has fetched upwards of $40,000.00 for just ONE chair! (That would be the Chieftain Chair, pictured). Other noted designers from Denmark include, but are definitely not limited to, Hans Wegner, Niels O. Moller, Arne Jacobsen, Borge Mogensen, IB Kofod Larsen, Peter Hvidt, Grete Jalk and the list literally goes on and on.

True Danish furniture and objects of design mainly consist of either solid Brazilian rosewood or solid teak and some oak. The choice for rosewood was obvious as the grain and figure of the wood made a statement of its own, not to mention the strength of the wood itself. But, even in the early years of its use, furniture manufactures knew it would soon be discontinued due to the fact that it was not an easily renewable resource. Teak, on the other hand, was a great choice for many Danes as it is an extremely durable, hard wood resistant to moisture and certain insects such as termites. It is also quite strong, assuring the designer that his/her work would endure for many years and that is exactly what we are seeing at this time, 50-plus-year old teak furniture hitting the market with another 50-plus-years of use left in it.

I like to refer to Danish Modern as the first true “green furniture” to come to market. It was mass-produced but on a scale where it was still handmade and often designed as “knock-down” furniture. Produced in Denmark, disassembled, shipped to Canada or the U.S., and then easily reassembled by the store owner or purchaser.

In contrast, many American furniture manufactures of the 1950s and 1960s attempted to emulate the Danes quality and craftsmanship with no such luck. The American manufacturers used cheaper fruit woods, pine and sometimes solid walnut. Some got it almost right, and their popularity has grown to this day. One of which is Adrian Pearsall’s company, Craft Associates, of Burkesville Indiana. Adrian was head designer for this company which was headed up by him and his brother during the 1950s and 1960s and they were eventually bought by Lane, another U.S. company attempting “Danish Modern” and using high quality materials and craftsmanship, but failing in the vicinity of true “design.” Some out there would call the work of Vladimir Kagan “Danish,” but in fact, his designs were very far left of Scandinavian and too avant-garde to fit in with the convention of Danish design.

Other American companies, many of which were old, established names in the furniture industry, jumped on the bandwagon using heavy, mottled stains, Formica, visible screws and other poor techniques calling it Danish Modern. Not to say that American furniture is bad, quite the contrary. But, when it comes to true Danish style and quality, nothing compares to the manufacturers of Denmark, Sweden and a small few in England.

How do you compare these pieces when found? First off, if it is a vintage item and it is teak, then it is most likely from Denmark or Sweden and will be marked as such. If the piece carries serial or model numbers and does not appear to be teak, then it is most likely American. Teak wood carries a tight, very straight grain and the color carries a reddish, almost cherry tint. Older teak furniture can be very dark in color but will still carry the tight grain. Walnut or ash is a dead give away to being a piece made in the U.S.. Always look the item over with a fine toothed comb as labels, burned signatures and metal tags often reside on pieces made in Denmark. I have found signatures in drawers, under drawers and on the back or bottom of the piece itself.

Danish Modern furniture is warm, inviting and very well designed. It is also very functional and pieces can be found for every room of the house. If you are planning on decorating a room in your home “ala mid century,” then pieces from Denmark are an excellent choice!

Worthologist Bradley Downs is owner of www.odd2mod.com in Atlanta, Ga.

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Antique Furniture Glass – Is It Original?

By Fred Taylor

A question that invariably pops up during the examination of an older or antique piece of furniture is: “Is that the original glass?” It’s relatively easy to determine if a piece has been refinished—it lacks the normal wear and tear evident on an old finish. And it’s also easy to determine if a piece has been re upholstered. New fabric, new stuffing and new gimp are undeniable in appearance and smell. Even well done wood repairs can be detected with an exacting enough inspection, but how can you tell about glass? After all, glass is glass isn’t it? And it doesn’t wear with age, doesn’t smell when its new and you can’t repair it, so how can you tell?

Actually there are two basic inspection techniques you can use to determine if a piece of glass, or a mirror for that matter, has been replaced. The first technique looks at the support structure around the glass and the second looks at the glass itself.

Glass incorporated into a piece of furniture has to be supported and attached in some manner. The most common method of securing clear window glass in a cabinet is with wooden strips nailed into the case or door frame that hold the glass in place. In older furniture these wooden strips are very often brittle and can tell you if they may have been removed to replace the glass. Carefully inspect the strips for signs of removal which might include indentations left by the screwdriver or knife used to pry the strips from their original home. Also look for jagged breaks in longer strips that may indicate some rough use somewhere along the line. Lastly, look for a second set of nail holes in the strips. Very often a good repair person will put the original nails back in the original holes but sometimes that can’t be done for a variety of reasons and new nails in new holes have to be installed. These will be obvious with a close, critical look.

Another, older method of securing glass in place is with the use of original muntins, not to be confused with the plywood cutouts of the same name used in 20th century reproductions. Original muntins are strips of wood which surround a piece of glass in the center of a door and hold several individual pieces of glass in place to make a glass paneled door. Usually the glass is held to the muntins with a tiny headless nail and then the exposed edge of the muntin is covered in putty or glazing material. Look for signs of new putty around the muntins and tools marks in the surrounding areas, indicating the nails may have been removed and replaced.

Checking for original mirrors is usually even easier than looking for new clear glass. Most mirrors have a backing material of some sort over the frame in the rear. It may be just paper glued over the frame or it may be wood. If the old paper has been replaced you know right away that there is a good chance the old mirror has been replaced also. If the back panel is wood make sure it is consistent with the purported age of the frame. For example, a mid 19th century mirror will not originally have had a plywood back panel. It should have a solid board or several boards nailed in place to make the panel. Again, the nails are important. Mid-19th century nails are different from mid-20th century nails, so new nails are a big clue. So are the nail holes. A second set of holes or holes of the wrong shape or size could mean the panel has been removed and the mirror replaced or resilvered.

Then take a look at how the mirror itself is held in place in the frame. Most older mirrors are held in by triangular-shaped blocks, which were glued in place with the point of the triangle facing in toward the frame and the base of the triangle sticking out toward the back panel. Look for evidence of the blocks having been moved and reglued or renailed. Many repair people, professional and amateur alike, will not even fool with the old triangular glue blocks. They just cut square blocks and nail them in or use modern metal glazier’s points, flat, diamond shaped pieces of metal driven into the frame so that it hold the glass in tightly. Flat metal glazier’s points are 20th century technology, so they cannot be original to a 19th century mirror.

Finally, examine the glass itself. Make sure it is consistent with other glass in the piece if there is any and see if it matches the glass in other pieces from the same period. Keys points to compare are the color, is it clear or does it have a greenish tint, the number of seeds or imperfections and the clarity of individual panes of glass. Different glass-making techniques from different periods leave their own distinctive patterns of distortion in the glass, and if you know the patterns you can tell the age, more or less, of the glass.

Glass made prior to the 19th century was called crown glass, made by spinning a disk of molten glass until it was more or less flat. Crown glass has a circular swirl pattern in it from the spinning motion. Glass from the 19th century was mostly cylinder glass, made by swinging a blown bubble of molten glass rather than spinning it. Swinging the glass produced a cylinder which was cooled, scored down one side and reheated. As it reheated it laid itself out in more or less flat sheet. Cylinder glass has an evenly distributed mottled, dimply distortion pattern. Early 20th-century glass was pulled from the kiln and passed between iron rollers to flatten it. That produced the parallel wavy lines of distortion in old clear glass. Perfectly flat glass (within 1/25,000 of an inch) was perfected in the late 1950′s by pouring molten glass on a still bed of molten tin. This is called “fire polished” glass and is the most prevalent today.

A middle-aged friend recently told me the story of her visit, with her sister, to her grandmother’s house. While they were there, they decided to help spruce up the place beginning with the old rocking chair in the front parlor. It had a broken rocker, the springs were falling out, and it was black with age and neglect. The sisters stripped it, replaced the broken rocker, refinished it and had new upholstery put on.

My friend said it looked really good after all that work, and she and her sister were so proud of themselves until a neighbor rained on their parade by telling them they had destroyed the value of the chair by doing all that work. I asked my friend what the nosy neighbor did for a living. Was he an antiques appraiser? A dealer? A knowledgeable collector? No, just a nosy neighbor giving unsolicited and ill-informed information.

One of the most common phrases in any conversation regarding older and/or antique furniture is “destroy the value.” This can be a valid concern in some cases, but it is not a universal truth that restoration or repair, if properly done, “destroys the value” of anything. In order to make the decision to embark on a restoration or repair project, you must determine two important points, current “value” and ultimate objective.

This Eastlake chair, circa 1880, has original finish, original woven-hair upholstery and is missing the top of the crest rail. Current value—essentially 0 by any measurement.

Determining the value of a given piece of furniture is, at best, difficult. For example, value to whom and value where? Prices in Detroit are different from prices in Birmingham, Ala., and Phoenix. And is price the best way to determine value? To a dealer, it probably is, but to a family member, it probably is secondary or not even a consideration at all. Value, like beauty, is highly subjective and sensitive to current styles and events.

For comparison purposes, three main categories of “value” might be defined as a) Market Value, b) Utilitarian Value and c) Sentimental Value.

MARKET VALUE—If you decide that monetary value or market price is to be your guiding principle in a project, then you have to get out in the market. Go to shops, and see what things sell for. Call a few reputable dealers, and ask if they have an item similar to yours and what it sells for. Read the newspaper classifieds in your area to get a feel for the market. Especially read trade papers that carry auction results from sales IN YOUR AREA. Check realized auction results on Worthopedia.

Above all, be realistic about comparisons. Be sure that you are comparing apples to apples in terms of age, provenance and especially condition. A rocking chair with a broken rocker is not worth as much as an identical chair that is not broken. If you are unsure about the details, ask someone. Most knowledgeable dealers are willing to help you determine value on an informal basis.

The springs are falling out of this Depression-era rocker. A good fix will enhance all of the types of value.

Time spent at the library or perusing the shelves in a good bookstore can often be very enlightening by helping you determine style and period for use in price comparisons, but use these facts only as a general guide. Remember that the market places a higher price on things that have intrinsic value due primarily to their age and rarity. Market price, by definition, is what someone is willing to pay for an object in a given time and location, NOT what is listed in a so-called “price guide.”

UTILITARIAN VALUE—If the piece is not old or rare, it still may have significant value based on its utilitarian functions. For example, a Colonial Revival china cabinet from 1935 may not have the intrinsic collector’s value of, say, a Georgian breakfront, but it will serve as a place to display your cut-glass collection as well as or maybe even better than a brand-new curio cabinet from the local furniture store, provided, of course, that the older cabinet is in good working condition and the finish is decent. In addition, the Colonial Revival piece has already proven itself to be durable by surviving 70-plus years so far, and it probably will last a good many years yet, and someday may even attain some collector’s value.

Another popular item in this category is the armoire converted to an entertainment center. As armoires, few pieces have much collector’s value, but when conversion is completed in a craftsmanlike manner and no great violence is done to the piece, the utilitarian value is actually enhanced by finding a new use for an old piece. If you have to do some restoration work on a piece in this category, you probably will not reduce the value at all but rather enhance the utilitarian value in the long run if the restoration, including refinishing, is well done.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE—Going back to the opening paragraph about the sisters, why did they spend all that time and money on a broken-down chair? For the market value? For the utilitarian value? Probably not. They did not intend to sell the chair, and there certainly were other chairs in grandma’s house. They did it for the sentimental value of the rocker. Grandma probably remembered the chair when it was new, and it looks that way again. The sisters will always have the chair to remember grandma by and their time together working on it. What is that worth? It’s priceless. Sentiment is a very expensive hobby.

– Fred Taylor is the American Furniture Worthologist and an expert in furniture restoration. He’s published numerous articles on antiques on WorthPoint and in “Antique Trader,” “Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine,” “Northeast Magazine, “Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles,” “Professional Refinishing” and “The Antique Shoppe Newspaper.” Read more about Fred on his Worthologist profile, and check out his book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” and Fred and Gail Taylor’sDVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture” on their very informative Web site, Furniture Detective.

Other articles by Fred Taylor:

Identifying Wood Species—Part I

Identifying Wood Species—Part II

Identifying Wood Species—Part III

A Fortune from the Kitchen Table

Understanding Antiques—the Arts and Crafts Movement

Understanding Antiques—the Arts and Crafts Movement Pt. 2

Antique Seating: What Are You Sitting On?

Dating Antiques? Check the Joinery

WorthPoint—the premier Web site for art, antiques and collectibles

“Man…. That chair sure is ugly!”

I’d love to have a nickel for every time I’ve heard that phrase! It seems the new generation of “antiquers” does not want Golden Oak, Depression Glass or Victorian pieces. The pop-culture style today is Mid-Century Modern, which is a widely used term that pretty much covers anything modern, decorative or “ugly” dating from the 1940s-1970s. The age range for most of these buyers/collectors nowadays is 25-45. They are snatching up pieces by Herman Miller, Charles Eames, Knoll, Finn Juhl, Tommi Parzinger and the list goes on. These are items that can be used in everyday life, mainly furniture, as “form follows function.”

Although MCM has been somewhat collected and traded since the late 1970s and early 1980s, you can thank the internet, design shows on television, interior designers and the numerous design magazines for causing this recent explosion of desirability related to the post-war era. It is also trendy in some respects, but this appears to be a style which is here to stay for some time. Just ask Leigh Keno. I would have placed a million dollar bet that a Keno Brother would not have touched a piece of furniture made after 1800. Now, Leigh has added a Mid-Century Modern section to his website!

I am sure many of you reading this have a grandmother or mother who dabbled in the “new modern” look of the 1950s, whether it was one piece of furniture or an entire house full. I am also quite certain many of you reading this still own or know someone who owns a piece from that era.

That brings me to these questions…. What do you think of the future antique? Will it be Mid Century Modern? Do you have parents or grandparents still using furniture, lighting and accessories from the 1940s to 1970s? Why has this style grown so popular? Nowadays the future is hard to see and that is much thanks to the television media, newspapers, Wall Street and internet, but one thing is for sure–modern items from the post-war era seem like a great investment!

Bradley Downs is owner of www.odd2mod.com in Atlanta.

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One of the first things to be looked at when trying to determine the age of a piece of older or antique furniture is the type of joinery used in its construction. Knowing the history of the technology of various periods goes a long way toward explaining clues about the age of furniture, and none is more important (or accessible) than the type of joint used to secure a drawer.

Mostly what we see are dovetails of a sort. The interlocking dovetail joint came into general use in the William and Mary period in the late 1600s and very early 1700s, and for the first time, allowed the construction of reliable drawers, a device with extremely limited use or convenience until then. Before this innovation, most furniture consisted of simple boxes called coffers or some type of open-shelving arrangement and cabinets with shelves behind doors, such as the old court cupboard.

Dovetail drawback

As useful as the dovetail joint started out to be, it did have a serious drawback—it was hard to make by hand, and of course, everything of that period was made by hand. By the end of the 18th century, some progress had been made in furniture technology. Rotary saws were on the horizon, and all nails were no longer made one at a time by a blacksmith. The early 1800s saw lots of advancement in woodworking machinery, and by the Civil War, mechanized furniture factories were on line, but the dovetail drawer joint was still a holdup.

While the joint had been refined and perfected, it was still too difficult to be made by a machine. Some progress had been made by the use of jigs to help guide the hand-powered saws in their cutting, but essentially, the dovetail was the last holdout of handwork in a machine era.

Several inventors were hard at work on the problem in the 1860s, and most concentrated on trying to duplicate the handmade dovetail using a machine—that is until Mr. Charles B. Knapp of Waterloo, Wis., applied himself to the task. He did some creative thinking and solved the problem not by duplicating the dovetail joint but by inventing another type of joint entirely that was at least as good as the dovetail and could be made by machinery.

The joint he came up with has several colloquial names—scallop and dowel, pin and scallop, half-moon—and all describe the new joint, which looks like a peg in a half-circle on the side of a drawer. If you look at much old furniture, you undoubtedly have seen this unusual-looking arrangement and wondered what the heck it was. Now you know—it is a Knapp joint.

In real life, the Knapp joint is often obscured by wear and dirt on the drawer sides.

And knowing that, you also get some very valuable information about the age of the piece on which you saw the joint. Mr. Knapp patented his first joint-making machine in 1867. In 1870, he sold the rights to an improved version of the patented machine to a group of investors who formed the Knapp Dovetailing Co. in Northampton, Mass. The investors proceeded to make further refinements in the machine and actually put it into production in a factory in 1871 where it proved to be a technological miracle. Where a skilled cabinetmaker could turn out 15 or 20 complete drawers a day—on a really good day—the machine, on any day, could turn out 200 or more and work more than one shift if required. The drawer department had finally caught up with the rest of the factory.

By the mid-1870s, the great factories were in full swing turning out late-Victorian creations consisting mostly of Renaissance Revival and Eastlake furniture. While not all the great factories used the Knapp machine, particularly those of Grand Rapids, Mich., most of the Eastern factories and other mid-Western areas were faithful customers of the Knapp company. Over time, maintenance on the machines became a chore, but they were still a better alternative to handwork.

In the late 1800s, the Knapp joint was commonly found in the less-expensive version of the Renaissance Revival style called “Cottage Renaissance.” These pieces were made of inexpensive lumber and were cheaply decorated and finished.

At the very height of its greatest popularity and use, the death knell of the Knapp joint was being sounded by a new movement afoot in the furniture-design industry, and it had nothing to do with the soundness or the economy of the joint. Like so many things, its demise turned on sentiment.

That sentiment was the beginning of the Colonial Revival—the resurrection of things in style during the era of the founding of our country. And a round, technical-looking, obviously machine-made drawer joint just did not fit that image. At about the same time, machinery that did simulate the handmade dovetail was perfected, and by 1900, the Knapp joint had almost completely disappeared from the American furniture scene.

So now you know that a piece of antique furniture with those odd little drawer joints was made between 1871 and around 1905 without a doubt.

Paris and antiques—can it get any better?

Ah, to be in Paris in September. Ah, to be in Paris any time of the year. For antiques collectors, September has the added appeal of the Biennale des Antiquaires running through September 21 in the Grand Palais.

The New York Times reports that there are 94 exhibitors with an incredible selection of classical furniture. But not necessarily for those of the faint of heart and paltry funds. One dealer has an André-Charles Boulle writing desk from the 1690s. Price? You can have it for $9.1 million.

Other notable antiques up for sale are a Louis XV Rococo commode, what the Times deems as a “fantastic” 17th-century Melchior Baumgartner cabinet, a bronze Chinese water buffalo from the fifth to third century B.C., and much, much more.

Oh, to be in Paris—with a sizable bank account.

Strumming collectibles

On a more affordable note is the upcoming auction of Martin guitars.

The Morning Call of the Lehigh Valley, Pa., writes that Christie’s, New York, will be selling 49 Martin-made guitars as the company is celebrating its 175th anniversary.

There are those, such as Scott Pavloty, who swear by the quality of this manufacturer. “Martins are just really big and booming sounding,” he says. “They’re great for strumming.

Among the instruments being sold at the October 10 auction are Eric Clapton, Woody Guthrie and Graham Nash signature guitars, prototypes and experimental editions.

Proceeds will go to the Martin Guitar Charitable Foundation.

Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a Superman auction.

Brad Meltzer is a writer of novels and comic books who loves, really loves Superman. So much so that two weeks ago, he started an online auction to raise money earmarked to save the home where Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, grew up.

The Cleveland house was, to put it mildly, a wreck. “The house where Google was founded is preserved,” Meltzer wrote on his Web site. “The garage where Hewlett Packard was founded is protected. But the house where Superman was born? I was in shock.”

He set about coming up with $50,000 to repair the roof and exterior. TV station WKYC in Cleveland and Akron reports that to date $53,455 has been raised. And the online auction goes to 11:59 p.m. September 30.

There are a lot of incredible collectibles left. How about the original cover artwork for “Final Crisis: Superman beyond 3-D” Number 2? Or an original Bizarro painting by Felipe Massafera? An original Superman color illustration by Matt Wagner, creator of “Grendel” and “Mage”?

The complete auction list of these collectibles can be found at Ordinary People Change the World.

Starting from the top, there is a good collection of Asian antiques, particularly bronzes. Look particularly at Lot 433 and Lot 434, two fine examples of Tibetan gilt-bronze statues of a monk and a figure of Buddha. Estimates range from $4,000 to $6,000 for Lot 433 and $6,000 to $8,000 for Lot 434. And, if you are into Chinese calligraphy, look at Lot 425, a really fine example of 18th-century calligraphy attributed to Huang Shen.

Porcelain has all the usual suspects with a nice showing of continental porcelain. For you Majolica collectors, look at Lot 637, a pair of Wilhelm Schiller, late-19th-century Majolica urns done in traditional tones of brown, yellow, pink and green. These 12-inch urns are decorated with satyr masques and delicate swag work. Estimate: $900-$1,200.

Exuberant Victorian foyer stand

Furniture makes a good showing with a variety of American and continental pieces. Look at the really fantastic Victorian brass, marble and glass foyer stand, Lot 1446. This over-the–top example of Victorian exuberance has it all—super structure with anthemion and mask crest; mirrored back plate and various shaped slab top; a breakfronted lower case with arching open work; turned columns; mirrored back plates; glass shelves and scrolled feet—this piece is unsigned with no attribution and has an estimate of $1,200 $1,500. Why buy? Because it’s one of the better pieces of Victorian furniture that I’ve seen come up for sale in a long time.

For the collector of period clothing, check out Lot 1074. This ball gown made by Jennings and Co., New York, New York, and worn by Jane Cleveland to a reception at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1916 in honor of the crown prince of Russia, Grand Duke Alexei, consists of skirt and bodice of floral silk with trim in black velvet and lace and has a low estimate of $250 to $400.

To wrap up, take a look at the decorative-arts collection. One item in particular is especially fine, Lot 1519 an apple-shaped George III tea caddy, original finish and in mint condition. The estimate may seem high, $2,500 to $3,500, but it’s worth it.

– Christopher Kent is a member of the WorthPoint board of advisers and director of evaluations for WorthPoint. He is also an antiques and collectibles generalist, fine-arts broker and president of CTK Design.

More auction news:

Sept. Art, Antiques & Collectibles

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WorthPoint’s CEO and founder, Will Seippel, has been a collector most of his life. He put himself through college buying and selling antiques, and there are few things he enjoys more than walking the fields at Brimfield hunting and gathering collectibles and antiques.

Videographer: Scott J. Shactman
Editor: Sharon Levy

WorthPoint – the premier Web site for art, antiques and collectibles

More likely than not, it is not bamboo. Bamboo is what old fishing poles look like, brownish with large segments and obvious growth joints every 10 inches or so. Some furniture is made of bamboo that is bent to shape and wrapped with natural fiber binding or leather strips to secure the joints, but usually, the seating portion is upholstered or has a loose cushion on it because bamboo is not very comfortable. So unless you are sitting in a bamboo chair, you don’t have a bamboo seat.

What it also probably isn’t is rattan. Rattan is the stem of a type of tropical palm tree most often found in commercial quantities in Borneo. The stem has its leaves removed and the outer skin scraped off. It can then be bent to shape to make furniture. Larger pieces are steam bent, and smaller ones are merely soaked to provide flexibility. Larger pieces of rattan look like bamboo with the hard outer shell removed. Rattan furniture closely resembles bamboo furniture. It also usually has wrapped joints, but in newer pieces, the wrapping is often plastic made to look like leather or fiber and actually conceals a nailed or screwed joint. Seating in rattan closely follows the pattern of seating in bamboo furniture.

Perhaps it’s wicker. Perhaps. Wicker furniture has been around for centuries, and some of it is quite sturdy. Old wicker is made of small diameter (1/4 inch or less) but long lengths of willow or small rattan palms. These lengths are wrapped around a structural frame of maple or birch to create the impression of a woven piece of furniture, which often features elaborate embellishments made of individual stems rolled or curled in patterns.

Usually, only true wicker chairs like this have wicker seats.

This type of wicker furniture is all hand made and is relatively expensive. On the other hand is “paper” wicker. This is a late-19th-century invention of brown craft paper wrapped tightly around a wire core and can be woven on a special loom in a factory, which accounts for the proliferation of Victorian wicker around the turn of the 20th century. But again, wicker is almost never used as seating material except in a wicker piece of furniture.

Next is rush. Rush is a seating material made by twisting some substance into long strands of about the same diameter as wicker. It is then woven in a pattern around the top stretchers of a chair seat, creating a type of suspension seat with no wood visible around it. In some chairs, it is woven around a flat wood frame that sits inside another frame in the chair. Rush, like wicker, comes in two basic varieties. The original form was made of very tightly twisted, wet cattail leaves and gets very brittle after a number of years. This is called “natural” or “cattail” rush. The newer version, euphemistically called “fiber” rush, is similar to paper wicker in that it is essentially twisted brown or variegated craft paper but without the wire core. It usually requires a top coating of some sort to protect it from moisture. Many newer pieces of furniture imported from the Far East are once again appearing with natural rush in the seats.

The seat of this chair is made of twisted rush woven in the standard four-section pattern.

Cane is just that—cane. It is the outer skin of cane cut in very thin flat strips that can be woven almost like fabric to make a seat surface. In woven form, it is very durable and has been known to last centuries. An earlier form of cane seating is called “seven strand hand cane,” “hand cane” or “hole cane.” After soaking in glycerin or water, seven (more or less) individual strands are woven in and out of holes drilled through the wood of the seat, creating any number of patterns. If you turn the chair upside down, you can see the loops of cane under the seat going from hole to hole. The most common pattern has a series of octagonal-shaped holes in the material. After installation and drying, the cane can be stained and finished to match the chair or to match other older seats within the same set. This type of handwork is relatively expensive, and fewer people in the U.S. do it every year. It is a dying art here but is still common in European-produced furniture.

On the left is a 19th-century chair seat made of hand cane woven through holes in the seat. With the chair turned upside down (right), it is easy to see the individual loops of the cane through the seat.

Another type of cane is called “sheet cane” or “pressed cane.” This comes from the manufacturer (in the Far East) in prewoven sheets in a variety of styles and sizes and is installed in a groove cut near the edge of the seat. It is worked wet after soaking awhile so that as it dries, it becomes very tight and strong across the seat opening. It is held in place by a glued-in border called reed spline.

Pressed cane is easily identified by the reed spline that holds the woven cane into a groove in the seat.

Since it has no holes drilled through the seat, it leaves a stronger seat frame than does hole cane. It, too, can be finished to match something else. The newest twist in cane seating in inexpensive furniture is paper cane. It looks exactly like natural cane except it is made of woven flat strips of paper embedded with a nylon cord to give it strength and is finished to look like real cane.

So what do you have in your chairs?

WorthPoint — the premier Web site for art, antiques and collectibles

– Fred Taylor is the American Furniture Worthologist and an expert in furniture restoration. He’s published numerous articles on antiques on WorthPoint and in “Antique Trader,” “Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine,” “Northeast Magazine, “Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles,” “Professional Refinishing” and “The Antique Shoppe Newspaper.” Read more about Fred on his Worthologist profile, and check out his book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” and Fred and Gail Taylor’sDVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture” on their very informative Web site, Furniture Detective.

Other articles by Fred Taylor:

Identifying Wood Species—Part I

Identifying Wood Species—Part II

Identifying Wood Species—Part III

A Fortune from the Kitchen Table

Understanding Antiques—the Arts and Crafts Movement

Understanding Antiques—the Arts and Crafts Movement Pt. 2

Saturday & Sunday, July 12-13: French Library Cabinet
Neal Auction, Summer Estates Auction

New Orleans-based Neal Auction Co., the South’s pre-eminent auction house, is not feeling the summer’s heat. Instead, it is raising the temperature with its Summer Estate Auction. Estate collections from New Orleans, Natchez and San Francisco make this particular sale a connoisseur collector’s dream come true.

Take a look at Lot 62. Going in with an $8,000-$12,000 estimate, and believe me that estimate will be blown out of the water within minutes, this period Louis XIV, carved, ebonized, inlaid and paint-decorated library cabinet is definitely one of a kind. Strongly architectural with a variety of exotic inlaid woods, interior compartments, panels paint-decorated with saints Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Barbara and Faith, in pristine condition, this is the investment piece to buy. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000.

Keep your eye on the movement of this interesting piece in Lot 357, an 1885 American aesthetic-brass and mixed-metal pedestal jewel casket made by Charles Parker in Meriden, Conn. This fascinating piece of American design is similar to one in the Dallas Museum of Art and to one that sold at the Doyle New York February 7, 2007, sale for $15,600. These two facts alone, plus the uniqueness of the piece, will influence the hammer price. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000.

Lot 475 offers an excellent opportunity to purchase a late-17th-century reprint of English mapmaker John Speeds’ version of the most famous parts of the world. Estimate: $5,000-$7,000.

Friday, July 11: Porcelain Figurines
Freeman’s Fridays: Furniture & Decorative Arts

Freemans’ Furniture and Decorative Art Sale is something of a mixed bag collection but is well represented in silver, porcelain figurines, retro collectibles, paintings and furniture. For you Royal Doulton figurine and figural group collectors, there’s a nice collection with good estimates in Lots 65-67 that you should consider. Estimate: $200-$350.

The estimates for Boehm porcelain birds, Lots 68-73, seem, in comparison to sales results of Boehm from other auction houses, to be showing a slowing trend. It will be interesting to see what these do. Estimate: $150-$350.

If you’re into retro collectibles or if you are intrigued by this form of collecting, I’d say jump on Lot 88, a Danish Modern light fixture. Estimate: $300-$500.

My particular favorite is Lot 90, a 1970s chrome, Weeping Willow table lamp. Why buy? These are our next generation antiques. Estimate: $100-$150.

A more serious antique contender is Lot 215, an American School, 19th-century portrait titled, “Child in a Red Dress,” artist unknown but inscribed S F Campbell, done in oil on canvas in what appears to be its original frame. Why buy? There is a finite number of American 19th-century portraits out there, and there will always be a market for them.

Twentieth-century modern is nicely represented in the furniture line with Lot 313, a Tobia Scarpa Bastiano lounge chair, just one, not a pair, going up with a low estimate. Scarpa was an important 20th-century Italian designer, so add this one to your cart. Estimate: $200-$400.

Last but not least, is Lot 25, a fine example of an early 19th-century, classical, mahogany serpentine-front card table, made in Philadelphia, with a “lure you in” estimate. Estimate: $400-$600.

h3> JULY AUCTIONS

July 11: Cowan’s Auctions —Historic Americana

July 11: Freeman’s —Freeman’s Fridays: Furniture & Decorative Arts

July 12: Kaminski —Antiques & Collectibles Auction

July 12-13: Neal Auction —Summer Estates Auction

July 14-18: Coach’s Corner —Monthly Sale

July 18: Harlowe-Powell — Modern Design Auction

July 19: Cowan’s Auctions —Cowan’s Discovery Auction

July 19: Harlowe-Powell — Gallery Auction

July 19: Ivey-Selkirk —July Jackson Rooms Auction

July 31-Aug. 2: Mebane Auction

by Christopher Kent
Director of Evaluations, WorthPoint
– Please send your antiques, art and collectibles news about auctions to news [at] worthpoint [dot] com, and put “Auction News” in the subject line.

Every stick of furniture has a purpose. We sit on chairs and eat at the dining table. But if decorating was merely about making a room functional, we would all shop at IKEA and be done with it.

We spend years accumulating art, antiques and collectibles to enhance our spaces and express our values and interests with things that are rare, interesting and beautiful. Or, in some cases, a little eccentric.

Then what to do with it all? When it comes to art, antiques and collectibles, it’s not all about the finding and the acquiring. Presentation is the step that is frequently forgotten. Your collection’s potential is diminished if it is displayed carelessly.

Many times I’ve walked into the home of a veteran collector and suffered the bends as I pick this up, or move that over, just so I could enter the room. It’s as if they were living in a warehouse rather than a home, with their collectibles still in their original newspaper wrappings. Or, some people hide their collectibles under the bed, in a closet or up in the attic—anywhere except where they can be seen and appreciated. It’s as if collecting was a guilty pleasure for them.

It’s time to bring that collection out into the light (not direct sunlight!) and celebrate it.

Here are some guidelines for decoration and presentation that will highlight your collectibles while also making the room work better for the people who live in it:

• Less is always more. Spare is best. Hanging one large painting creates drama; 14 teeny ones create confusion.

• Don’t shove furniture against the wall where it looks like it’s waiting to be invited to dance. Pull it into the space. Place a sofa so it flanks a fireplace, and position a long large table behind it. Now you have a table on which to display your collectibles where people sit.

• Display your collection of arrowheads on an end table by the sofa. Position a lamp so that it illuminates your collection. Leave some space; you don’t have to show all your arrowheads at once.

• Create interest with size and scale. Instead of a lamp, place two weathervanes from your collection on the end table.

• Collections of small, fragile objects, such as snuffboxes, should be secured in a glass-topped case. Position the case beneath a lamp on the table to illuminate it for proper viewing.

• Why do people display hundreds of books they will never read again? An open credenza or bookcase placed between the windows is an excellent way to display your collection of cast-iron toys.

- Christopher Kent is a member of the WorthPoint board of advisers and director of evaluations for WorthPoint. He is also an antiques and collectibles generalist, fine arts broker and president of CTK Design.

– To post your design question for Christopher, click on the words “Add a new comment” in the left-hand column.

Related articles by Christopher Kent:

How to Clean Antique Table Linen

How to Clean Silver – Buyer Beware

With college loans to be repaid, and that less-than-adequate starting salary, some of you will depend on family ‘hand-me-downs’ for basics like a bed, dresser or desk and kitchen necessities. While discount furniture can be purchased online, very often items can be found for less money and lots more personality and craftsmanship at local antique stores and garage sales.

Take furnishing a bedroom for example.

At IKEA— a Hemnes black bed runs $249. A matching dresser sells for $249 with a mirror for another $50 – a total of $550 for a basic bedroom set up.

At the Winchester Wishing Well, an Antique and Gift store, in Winchester, Tennessee a solid pine bed was on sale for $160 and a tall highboy dresser, including a mirror could be had for $325 – for a total of $485. While the antique pieces did not match, they have so much more character and personality and the veneer on the dresser has deep and warm wood tone missing from some of the more modern offerings.

Just a few miles away, at Reminisce Antiques in Tullahoma, Tennessee (931-461-9973) antique beds were available at a wide range of price from $40 to over $1,000 but all of them were unique and beautifully carved. A five foot high oak bed, with carved embellishments was priced at $675 but the store frequently has sales and mark downs to make way for new items. Reminisce Antiques also had many lovely antique dresser and mirror combinations for about the same price as the IKEA example, but again, at least for my tastes, with so much more personality.

Even a single piece of antique furniture for a young man or woman starting out can add warmth and personality to that first apartment.

“We often have parents or grandparents come in to buy something for their children,” said Betty McCormick at Reminisce Antiques. “I think they really want to get something of quality that their child can have forever; and it makes a wonderful graduation gift.”

The Wishing Well Antique store’s owners make several purchasing trips a week and offer to find that “one of a kind” piece. Their motto is, “just ask.”

A few hours spent shopping the flea markets and antique shops, could pay off in longevity, style, personality, and long-term price.

Finally, with so much concern for our planet, buying a used piece of furniture or two could help both preserve trees as well as hold down the volume at our landfills.

Basic bedroom furnishings
Ikea
Hemnes black bed $249.
Hemnes dresser $249.
Mirror $ 50.
Total $550.

Reminisce Antiques Tullahoma, Tennessee
Beautiful antique beds $40.-$1,000.
5′ high oak bed with carved embellishments $67.
Lovely antique dresser with mirror $299.

Resources:

Reminisce Antiques
101 N Jackson St
Tullahoma, TN 37388
(931) 461-9973

Winchester Wishing Well
112 1st Ave NW
Winchester, TN 37398
(931) 968-0532

You can also find furniture on line. For example, I found a very affordable and attractive table by clicking on WorthPoint’s auction tab.Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is auctioning furniture and other items in their 2008 Spring Fine Art, Antiques, Jewelry & Rare Coin Auction May 31st and June 1st.

DINING TABLE – Early 19th c. Sheraton mahogany drop leaf dining table. Rectangular top with turned legs terminating in ball foot. 28 3/4″H x 42″L x 19 1/4″W, with 12″ leaves, old worn surface. Low Estimate: $250.00 High Estimate $350.00

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