One of the first things I do when I am onsite for an appraisal of antiques is touch the furniture. While the owner is showing me what needs to be appraised, I am already feeling the exterior edges looking for a soft touch. Of all the senses, the sense of touch or tactioception can quickly tell you more about an antique than ophthalmoception, audioception, gustaoception and olfacoception combined. If a piece’s exterior edges are soft, then there is a good chance that the piece is old. Old wood loses its crispness and softens as it ages, because of the same natural and manmade factors that produce a fine patina. Much like patina, the most important ingredient in the softening of wood is time. That is why it is often hard to fake. After about one hundred years, all exterior edges should be soft to the touch. Everything from air gently flowing to the repeated dents and dings of a broom slowly erodes the once crisp edges of a piece of furniture. If your fingers find a crisp or sharp edge, then up goes the red flag. The hard edge may be an old repair or restoration, or it may be telling you that the piece is newer than it appears to be.
“You’ve grown soft.” Every edge on this Chippendale mahogany drop leaf table, of Salem, Massachusetts origin, circa 1770, is soft to the touch.
Although Ray may have been singing about the Peach State, I would like to discuss the madness of King Georgian furniture. In antique speak, “Georgian” is a catchall term referring to English (and sometimes American) pieces made during the three successive reigns of George I (1714 - 1727), George II (1727 - 1760), and crazy George III (1760 - 1820). That is a 106 year period spanning from the Baroque to the Neoclassical. Early Georgian often refers to the Rococo and the reigns of George I and George II. Although still heavily influenced by French style, Early Georgian interiors and furnishings reveal the growing sophistication of the English aristocracy who showed their good taste and social status with their beautifully furnished residences. Early Georgian distills the essence of Englishness, tempering aristocratic pomp with the restraint that separates most British styles from the French. The ball-and-claw foot, derived from an ancient Chinese image of a dragon holding a pearl, is a hallmark of Early Georgian furniture. Representing the high point of English design, Late Georgian or George III style interiors fully embrace the symmetry and refinement of Neoclassicism. Without assuming extravagant proportions and showing restraint against the French desire for ornamentation, legendary designers like Adam, Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton created a pervasive and enduring style that can hold its own with the very best of French Neoclassicism. The claw-and-ball and cabriole leg is dropped in favor of strikingly slimmer, more tapered leg. Although the term Georgian can be maddening because it represents over a hundred years of design, at least the terms Early Georgian (= Rococo) and Late Georgian (= Neoclassicism) can assist us in narrowing down this important period.
This Early Georgian side chair is a fine example of the English Rococo in the 1730s. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The shield-back side chair, illustrated in Late Georgian English pattern books by George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton, became one of the most popular American chair forms by the end of the eighteenth century. Brooklyn Museum.
Riddle me this, antiquist…What is the result of care (dusting, waxing, polishing) & the result of neglect (dirt, grease, grime)? What is both man-made (scratches, nicks, dings) & natural (sunlight, chemical changes in the wood & its surface). You guessed it - Patina! The best definition of patina comes from the Godfather of American Antiques, Israel Sack (1883 - 1959) - “Patina is everything that happens to an object over the course of time.” Sack is said to have used the following analogy to help define “patina” for one of his senior female patrons: “Today you are a lovely woman of sixty. However, who you are today is not who you were when you were twenty. The difference is patina.” Patina refers to an antique’s finished surface. Patina is the mellowing of the finish in the wood’s pores. It cannot be faked, reproduced or replicated, because the most important ingredient is time. Patina is what gives an antique character. The soft glow & depth of color of a fine patina will make a collector weak in the knees. It remains the Holy Grail for antiques collectors. And it adds value. Once an antique has been stripped or refinished it loses its patina forever. It may take a couple of centuries for its patina to be built back up. Patina is evidence of the antique’s history & proof of its authenticity. When it is lost, the value of the piece can be a tenth of what it would have been with its original patina.
This Chippendale mahogany card table was made in New York circa 1760 to 1780. It has a choice mellow brown patina & shows us the natural color differences between the exterior & the interior.
Having looked specifically at Chinese Chippendale, let’s take a brief gander at the broader theme of “Chinoiserie”. Modern Western interest in China began with the importation of Chinese ceramics by the Portugese in the 16th century. In the early 1600s, two Portugese ships returning from China were captured by the Dutch. The cargo of thousands of items of Chinese porcelain were auctioned off igniting a European mania for all things Chinese. Both the King of England & the King of France were eager buyers at the auction. Since then, the fashion for Chinese things has played a reoccurring role in Western Decorative Arts peaking in the middle 18th century with the Rococo. No fashionable court residence during the Rococo was complete without its own “Chinese” Room. Although Chinoiserie is rooted in Chinese artistic influences, it is closer to a Western reflection of an imaginary China. During the Rococo, Western designers’ imaginations were allowed to run wild through the creative license offered by Chinoiserie. They took what they needed from their limited exposure to Chinese forms found on imported cabinets, porcelain vessels & embroidery, & then made these Chinese influences their own. As a Western style of interior design, Chinoiserie gives us an escape from European aesthetic expectations & traditions. Chinoiserie’s fanciful imagery, asymmetry in format, & whimsical contrasts of scale continue to offer new tools for artists & designers to express themselves.
Engraving from a series of Chinoiserie by Jean-Baptiste Pillement from 1759. Notice the fusion of European & Asian styles of drawing.
While Chinoiserie had been popular throughout Europe since the middle to late 17th century, Thomas Chippendale’s use of Chinese motifs on his quintessentially English wares made for a new style of design. Regardless of its maker, Chinese Chippendale employs Chinese motifs such as fanciful Chinese figures, pagodas, dragons, temples, palaces, fretwork, glazing, railings, bamboo & bells. While many of the designs published in Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director were not original, Chippendale’s “Chinese Chippendale” designs inspired an entirely individual style. In 18th century Britain, China was a mysterious far-away place. Chippendale drew on this exotic image for his designs. Many of the representations of Chinese themes originated in Chippendale’s imagination, rather than actual Asian objects. Early or period Chinese Chippendale furniture was not made in China, but in the trendy cabinetmaker’s shops of 1750s London. Looking at Chippendale’s designs for chairs, we see not only irregular lattice-work & pierced frets, but also the square leg which was a shocking & extraordinary innovation during the high Rococo when the design world was ruled by The Curve. Chippendale is such a design rock star that he was the first non-monarch to have a style named after him!
Chippendale’s Chinese chair designs from The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director. Note the irregular lattice work, pierced fretwork, & square legs!
I wonder if Sarah Palin knows that American Chippendale differs from English Chippendale out of political-economic protest by the Thirteen Colonies to the taxation measures of Crown? In the 1760s, various colonies passed non-importation resolutions vowing not to import English goods – including London-made Chippendale furniture. By 1765, the flow of the fashionable Chippendale furniture from England to America had practically dried up. But copies of Chippendale’s book of designs had already made it to America & up until the Revolution there was a steady migration of journeymen cabinetmakers from London. However, as our cabinetmakers began to work in the Chippendale manner, fundamental differences between American & English Chippendale began to manifest. While Chippendale’s designs were a pared down, Anglicized version of the French Rococo under Louis XV, American Chippendale retained the strong structural lines of London’s Queen Anne & early Georgian furniture. American Chippendale was less influenced by the more feminine aspects of the Rococo & is characterized by more masculine vigor.
Two animated chipmunks & erotic male dancing aside, Chippendale refers to an 18th century English style of furniture that is often most easily identified by its use of the ball & claw foot. Unlike Rococo or Biedermeier, the term Chippendale honors a flesh & blood journeyman cabinet maker named Thomas Chippendale (1718 – 79). In 1754, he became the first cabinet maker to publish a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman & Cabinet-maker’s Director. His book of designs established the fashion for furniture for that period & was copied by furniture makers all over the globe (especially in the soon-to-be United States). Even though very little furniture in existence can be directly attributed to having been made by Chippendale, he is well remembered for being one of the best designers of his era.
Chippendale’s chair designs from The Gentleman & Cabinet-maker’s Director. Note the tapered back, pierced fretwork, & ball & claw feet!
Often antique furniture may appear to be misshapen or damaged. A round tabletop may look oval. An armoire’s framed panels may appear to have cracked or split. Often this is a result of the wood shrinkage. Wood shrinks when it is placed in an environment of lower moisture content. On average, wood shrinks twice as much “across the grain” as it does “with or through the grain”. The width &, to a lesser extent, the thickness will shrink, because they run “across” the grain pattern. The length will remain the same, because it runs “with” the grain pattern. Certain kinds of subtle distortion due to wood shrinkage are expected in antique furniture. If there is no evidence of wood shrinkage in a “period” piece, then there is a good chance that it is not an antique.
Above is an 18th century tip-&-turn table. If it is a period piece, then the top should measure to be narrower in width (across the grain) than in length (with the grain).
Beginning in 1891, the McKinley Tariff Act required foreign-made imports be stamped or labeled in English words with their country of origin. If the piece was not made for export, then it may not be labeled.
1863-1890 
1891-1926 
Belleek China changed their mark to comply with the McKinley Tariff Act of 1891 to include the word” IRELAND”.