Antique Furniture Forensics

One of the reasons that antique furniture is less and less appreciated these days is that few people are left in the business who are "experts" with real "experience" in the field.

40 years ago, when I travelled the country, stopping in every antique shop I could find in every town, I would usually find a dealer in the shop who was an expert in something.  It might be porcelain, silver, art, carpets, books, tools or furniture.  I learned a great deal from those dealers.  They would take the time to explain as much as they knew about what they were selling.

As I gathered data on the regional characteristics of American 19th century furniture, I would pointedly ask "what furniture do you have in the store which was made locally and what features can you identify that prove your theory?"  I gained a real understanding of what made Texan furniture different from Tennessee or Connecticut from Ohio.  Everywhere I went was an education.

A terrible transformation occurred over the next few decades, as individual dealers either retired or closed their stores, due to less demand and more expensive overhead.  What took the place of the owner operated stand alone antique store was the "antique mall."  This new marketing venue was a direct result of the success of yard sales and flea markets, where less knowledgeble sellers would offer items of unknown origin to bargain hunters.  Each mall was managed by a single person at the front, and walking through these "stores" was as miserable and disappointing as you might think.

Each seller would rent a stall and fill it with junk.  After all, it was cheaper than renting a storage unit, and there was always the possibility that someone would want to buy something.  If you, as a shopper, found something interesting you would take it to the front desk and make the purchase.  The manager or sales clerk knew absolutely nothing about the item.  Only which stall and how much.

There was no possibility of learning anything.

Over time, even these pitiful excuses for antique stores became obsolete.  They have been replaced by online sites like Craig's list and eBay.

Antique buyers need help.  I have always believed in educating clients and prospective collectors about the process of understanding how early hand made (pre industrial) furniture was made.  One of the methods is to have lectures, with examples that students can examine and touch.

For over 30 years I have been associated with Nancy Martin, ASA.  Her career began in science, as did mine, and we think alike.  Always looking for evidence, details and facts which can be used to identify the specific origin of an objects.  Looking at tool marks, construction features, wood analysis, hardware, and other materials provides the best basis for determining the origin.  It can be a fake, a reproduction, or an antique that is original or repaired.  It is not always obvious but careful examination will ultimately provide sufficient evidence to indicate the proper date and origin.

Next month I will again be sharing the podium with Nancy Martin.  We are jointly teaching an ASA class for appraisers at the Huntington Library in San Marino.  ASA members as well as non-members are welcome.  Here is the link: Antique Furniture Authentication Presentation

If you are in the Southern California region and wish to learn more about antique furniture in a wonderful environment, send in your reservation.  I hope to see you there.

I guarantee you will learn something useful.

Got Antiques?

Hepplewhite Work Table

Last week, as I perused the Arts section of the New York Times, my eyes landed on a small headline above a small paragraph, buried in the small corners of the page.  It said "New York Antiques Stores Are No Match for the Web".  The first line read "Manhattan antiques shops founded decades ago are vanishing at an alarming rate, unable to compete with online offerings."  The story continued with a list of distinguished dealers who have closed their doors.

I have been reflecting on the current state of the antiques business for the past 5 years and this article was not news to me.  It is just a sad reflection of how this important and historic trade has degenerated into insignificance during my lifetime.  It is not the internet which is to blame.  It is the business practices of the dealers themselves, as well as the general lack of public education in this field.

I remember clearly walking into Albert Sack's shop in Manhattan some 40 years ago and meeting Albert.  He asked me what I was interested in, and I told him.  He then went to some lengths to show me items in his inventory as well as discuss other pieces which he thought might appeal to me.  I probably spent 2 hours with him, and he did not seem upset that I did not purchase anything.  The entire event was educational, informative and pleasant.

Over the years, the concept of a shop managed by an expert in his field was gradually transformed into a flea market mall, where each "collector" filled his mall space with his stuff, which usually ranged from kitchen items to toys and dolls.  If you had a question, there was no one to talk with.  The person at the front desk simply rang up the sale and took your money.  It was exhausting to just walk through the mounds of discards, looking for the "treasure."

That said, I would sometimes find something important.  Like the time my wife and I were on a "date" driving up the coast.  My terms for the "date" were that I would be allowed to stop at an antiques mall where I would usually be disappointed.  This time, however, I immediately noticed a period English Hepplewhite work table, in its original finish, with a skateboard on top and buried in shoes and dishes. I noticed that my hand was shaking as I presented the ticket to the sales person and paid the $185.  She remarked, "Oh, that piece has been here for some time.  We were thinking of sending it out to be refinished."  I mumbled, as quietly as I could, "No problem, I like it fine as it is."

I sold it the next month to a New York dealer for $15,000.  Then I made a copy for myself, which you can see at the top of this post, and sold that for $17,500.  Sometimes you bite the bear, and sometimes the bear bites you.

The television is alive with stories about antiques which all focus on this angle: You can discover something which will make you rich.  In other words, antiques are like the lottery.  Value and money are represented as the primary reason to own antiques, and the first question is always, "What's it worth?"

Well, I did not get into the business of antiques to get rich, and my expectations were rewarded by not having to worry about lots of money in my old age.  Lately I have been telling clients that the antiques business is the classic "Buy high and sell low" business model.  It is a perfect example of the economic theory of market forces.  You need a willing buyer and a willing seller to set the price.  When there is too much inventory and not enough demand, the market collapses, as it has recently.

The Millennials are not interested in antiques.  The current fashion is Post Modern.  The stuff I grew up with: Danish Modern, simple lines, foam upholstery, light woods and plastics, solid colors and minimalism as a decoration.  It's not that they don't have money to spend; this generation somehow has a lot of equity.  They prefer to spend it on electronics, entertainment, food and drink, and small downtown condos, where they can easily walk to their coffee house.

As a result, their parents, who invested in antiques all their lives, cannot give their precious furnishings away.  The kids just don't want it.  Too much trouble.  Doesn't impress their friends.  They don't even know what to call it.  I had a young couple accidentally walk into my shop recently and notice a rocking chair.  When I mentioned proudly that it was a true Shaker rocker, they looked surprised and responded, "What's a Shaker?"  Where to start?

Part of my success in the business derives from the early years of my career when I actively taught classes in American Decorative Arts at adult schools, universities and colleges on a regular basis (4 days a week for 15 years), as well as creating a very popular TV series on CBS, "Welcome to the Past...the History of American Antiques."  In all these presentations, I rarely mentioned values.  All the material presented focused on the cultural significance, historical context and technological evolution of furniture made between 1700 and 1900.

In effect, I taught the Southern California collectors and dealers how to identify period furniture and how to recognize fakes and reproductions.  That generation of students has continued to support my business over the years, and I realize I had a significant impact on their lives.  By teaching over the years, I became a legitimate authority in the field.  Unfortunately, funding for adult education disappeared and classes like Art History and Decorative Arts are no longer popular.

Where are the next generation of collectors going to learn about antiques?  The internet?  Really?

There's another serious problem with the business of Antiques: FAKES.  I have seen hundreds of examples over the years where a dealer or collector valued an obvious fake as a real item.  Either through sheer ignorance, or even worse, the desire to make a quick buck, these poorly made objects continue to be sold and collected at prices that make me cry.  I remember standing in front of a French Buffet Deux Corps in Los Angeles at a very high end shop years ago, when this form was in demand.  The obvious fake Buffet was priced at $65,000 while standing just across the room was an authentic Buffet priced at $15,000.  The difference was that the real Buffet was rather plain, but the fake Buffet was highly decorated with fake carving.

If all the dealers in the business would purge their inventory of fakes, the result would be rather empty shops, but the remaining items in these shops would be real, and their value would rise significantly.  We need Antiques shops strictly for real antiques and Decorative shops for objects which only have decorative value.  They are not the same.  When you mix them together, people get confused.

Another problem with the business is that the dealers typically do not pay enough for good inventory to keep up the resale part of the market.  They are more than happy to sell to clients at inflated prices, but when that same client wants to sell it later, they are not interested in offering a reasonable price.  Clearly, if you have invested in stocks and need money, you just call your broker and the check is immediate.  If you want to sell your valued antiques, good luck.

In the last five years there has been activity which has not been discussed.  This has resulted in a flood of inventory through the auction houses.  High end dealers typically keep surplus inventory in storage units.  Since it is not good business for these high end dealers to paste signs in their windows like "Huge Sale" and "Prices Drastically Reduced!" they simply dump the unseen items directly from storage to auction.  No one knows who is selling the items, and the market is flooded, driving down prices.

It seems to me that this is one of the real reasons high end dealers are closing their shops, not the internet, as the Times writer seems to assume.

I am surrounded by antiques.  My home is full and I work every day with marvelous and beautiful objects.  I am being honest when I say that I look at them as historical artifacts that have survived through wars, floods, clumsy movers and dozens of owners.  I don't think of them as piles of money.

As Billy Pilgrim realized in Kirk Vonnegut's "Slaughter House Five," I have become unstuck in time.

When Is An Antique Fake?

In a few weeks I will be presenting my annual lecture at the University of California at Irvine, in association with senior ASA appraiser, Nancy Martin. We have done this for several years, and the goal is to assist aspiring appraisers in analyzing antiques for condition and authenticity.

I take a truck full of pieces and parts to point out details that make the forensics of furniture fraud into a practical science. Wood analysis, hardware evidence, style, form and function, historical periods and revivalism, popularity of fakes during different eras, and, most importantly, the tool marks left by the process of fabrication all must be considered when deciding how old something actually is.

The economics of fraud play an important factor in the popularity of fakes. If something takes a lot of work and skill to make, and the market does not support the value of the original then it is not likely someone will make a copy and try to pass it off as antique. On the other hand, anything which is made as a copy or a fake will, technically, become "antique" after a century of life.

This is one of the problems with the term "antique". Back in 1800, if you look in a dictionary from that period, "antique" refers to an object of great antiquity. In other words, Greek and Roman objects were considered "antique" to the leaders of the French and American revolutions. During the Victorian period, which lasted over 60 years, the revivalism of earlier styles and fashion changed the concept of antique to include objects made during the previous century.

This idea that something over 100 years old was antique was common, and allowed rich men like Frick, Hearst, Mellon, and their Robber Baron buddies to import tons of stuff from Europe tax free, claiming it was antique. I still think of my son, at the age of 8, standing at the front of the tour at Hearst castle, raising his hand to ask the guide a simple question: "My dad says there are no antiques here." Actually not a question, and certainly not the question I would have proposed. I spent the rest of the tour avoiding eye contact with him.

By 1930 the government stepped in and the Hawley-Smoot tariff act included a definition of antique as "made before 1830". This was intended to reflect the fact that pre-Victorian objects were generally made by hand, and had a higher value than those made later, during the Industrial Revolution. This definition is the one I grew up with.

In November, 1966, President Johnson signed a law which included a change in this definition, designed to reflect the antique dealer's lobbying efforts, and reinstated the 100 year old description. Overnight all the stuff made between 1830 and 1866 became valuable. Tiffany and Belter pieces which had been donated to thrift stores now commanded incredible prices.

More importantly, collectors could anticipate that investing in objects which will "mature" into antiques soon is possible, so people began looking at Stickley and Craftsman furniture as a good purchase.

At the same time, a fake made over 100 years ago is technically "antique" and that creates the problem. Unlike fake money, fake antiques are rarely if ever destroyed. They continue to live in the market place and confuse the consumer. So, "When is an Antique Fake?" has become the title of one of my most popular talks.

I post a picture of two candlestands. One is a fake, made in Italy, designed to look old. The second is a copy of that fake, made last week by a carver in my shop. I added the "patina" and color to match the first. So, we have two objects, a fake which is "antique" by age alone, and a copy which will be "antique" in 2111. Guaranteed.

Always keep your eyes open!