Classic Hardwood

As I touched on last time, much of the collectability of antique furniture comes from the differences in style, design and construction techniques that developed around the world.

Nevertheless, just as important, and a common factor to all wooden products, is the aesthetic qualities of the timber that is used in the manufacture.

Whether this is hardwood, softwood, stained, polished, or waxed.  If the furniture is well cared for it will increase in both desirability and value.  This applies to a 400 year old musium piece, or brand new high quality wooden furniture.

Over the Centuries, furniture has developed from simple designs cut from one basic section of a tree or bush, with joints held together by wooden pegs, to skilfully constructed and designed pieces made using increasingly more skilful and masterful techniques.

A simple way of telling whether a piece of wooden furniture is of a good quality is to look at the joints.  Cheap products will be glued together.  Better products will have dowels and glued mitre joints, but the best will have dovetails or knuckle joints.  I will explain these in further detail in future posts.

In many ways the 17th century was considered by many to be the golden era as far as furniture was concerned. After all in the UK this was the era of Thomas Chippendale (1718-79). From the 17th Century onwards, many items of furniture became smaller and lighter; seating became more upholstered for comfort. As wood turning skills developed and advanced, heavy, plain styles gave way to elegant designs with intricate carving. In the late 17th Century gilding and lacquering were introduced and the use of more exotic timbers and hardwoods began to increase with their import from worldwide.

The true origins of todays furniture can easily be seen in these antiques.  I would recommend that anyone wanting to buy quality furniture should read up about this period.  A manufacturer that builds using these techniques and timbers will be supplying furniture that will last a lifetime (or maybe more!).