Having antique hutch furniture is a prestigious selection. Moreover, real antique furniture will encourage the quality of the decoration with its antique look. This is great answer for anyone who wants to have a special classic style in the room. Unfortunately there are also a lot of disreputable dealers that have been fooling consumers for quite some time with furniture that appears ~antique~ but actually is not as old or elderly as advertised (fake antique hutch furniture). This is not beneficial and bad news for anyone who is really looking for real antique pieces. Perhaps we also have several items in our house that are not as old as we think. So it is so important to know and understand clearly the true age of a piece, particularly if you want to buy or sell antiques so thus you will get a successful deal!
Well, there are some options and ideas to identify fake or not of antique furniture, especially for fake antique hutches:
1. A simple idea is by considering for labels. In fact, real antique furniture (either for 100 years old or even older) shall not have a label! Well, perhaps there are several old pieces that have a label but it is usually a handwritten name from old black pencil. “Co.,” is usually used as Acme in pieces built between 1930s-1950s. It is the modern abbreviation of the word “Company”. This label is usually less brittle, less-yellowed, and more slickly-printed! And as well we know, modern pieces usually use glossy-labels which contain a company name ending (it is usually with ‘Inc’). On other hand, for older pieces which built before ‘30s, the labels were usually more crudely printed on a plain-paper & then glued to the piece!
2. Then check the joint methods carefully. The real antique pieces will not have uniform joints, particularly where 2 panels of a drawer are constructed in a ‘dovetail’ pattern. Moreover they usually will appear hand-carved with complex in shape of dovetail pattern. On other hand pieces of furniture after ‘50s usually have flawlessly uniform dovetailing with a simpler pattern. So the key is between power tools and hand tool which result the difference result (differently dovetail joints). In addition, antique hutches usually use flat-head screws (matte finished) with darker in color. And on other hand modern pieces usually use shinier ~Phillips head~ screws.
3. Take a look at the kind of wood used! Most of old pieces (before 1900) are usually made with high quality solid wood materials such as; walnut, cherry, maple or ‘quarter-sawed’ oak, which also designed with thicker planes of wood! On other hand pieces after ‘50s are usually designed with modern particleboards.
4. Next, consider the finish carefully! Real old pieces are usually finished in varnish –or waxes & also shellac (made with special oil). On the back edges of the old piece, old shellac & varnish may be crudely splashed (this fact is the evidence of ‘not-machine work’ but ‘by-hand work’)! Both also usually have a yellow tinge. Overall, older pieces usually have oil-based finishes (no odor if we smell the finish), and on other hand modern pieces use water-based finishes (like latex acrylic).
5. The last, it is also important to check and analyze any carved-decorations on the furniture. Antique pieces are always hand-carved which usually not-perfectly carved and thick. And for any decorations (after ‘30s) are carved with machine so thus they are more perfectly look!
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