By Jennifer Garland Ross

Caveat Emptor

“Always know what you’re buying” is truly evergreen advice for any collector. Whether collecting fine art, antique furniture, jewelry, wine, automobiles, or memorabilia, “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) will always be the primary rule to follow. Spotting fake antique furniture and decorative art nowadays is becoming increasingly difficult thanks to modern technology.

Spotting a Fake

Learning to discern real antique furniture from fakes or reproductions is a skill that takes years to master, but many of the essentials are relatively easy to grasp.

It begins by understanding that the craftsmanship that went into building the most valued antique furniture pieces also required skills that took a lifetime for the maker to master- so inconsistencies and imperfections of any kind should raise a red flag. See Fig. 1.

Here are some specific things to look for.

Overall Form – Does the piece feel balanced? Does it have symmetry?

Patina & Finish – It is almost impossible for antiques to escape UV damage over time. Look for faded areas that would have been exposed to sunlight, as well as darker areas that would have remained in shadow. Examine where finished areas would have been handled, as oils from the hands can cause pieces to darken. Bear in mind that a patina is relatively easy for modern forgers to replicate.

Veneer – Any piece crafted before the 19th century will have hand-sawed veneers that are far thicker than modern, band-sawed veneers. Look for veneers that are ⅛ to ¼ inch thick and have a consistency of wood grain throughout.

Carving – Experts can tell when a piece has been hand-carved, and with practice, so can you. The best way is to fully familiarize yourself with the differences between hand carving and machine carving, especially around the intricate details of decorative elements, such as figures or motifs.

Hardware – Hardware rarely ages at the same rate as the rest of the piece because it is more often handled and accrues more wear and tear. Thus, it may have been replaced even if the rest of the piece remains intact. Open a drawer and look at where the handles are mounted inside. Are other holes visible from a previous mount? Is the hardware appropriate for the age of the piece?

Legs & Feet – Antique furniture legs will be hand carved, so you should see a slight degree of variation between them. You will also want to check to ensure that there is ample wear on the underside of the feet to match the piece’s age.

Plank Shrinkage – Wood planks will shrink over time, which is why split planks are often a good sign of authenticity. It’s unlikely that a forger would include a split plank in a fake intended to fetch top dollar. If a table has a round top, you can measure it with and against the grain. If both are equal, it has likely been replaced.

Dovetail Joints – These joints used in lieu of screws or nails to hold corners together are one of the primary ways experts use to gauge a piece’s age and determine authenticity. Pieces from different countries will have different standards, and the wood-on-wood method should make it somewhat easy to detect the wood shrinkage that would be expected for older pieces. See Fig. 2.

Condition – Furniture suffers wear and tear with age, and even antique furniture in pristine condition should show some signs of its age. Often, especially with Italian furniture, boring insects such as woodworms will have caused minor damage. If so, check to make sure that only holes are visible and not trails, as that would indicate that the wood had been re-planed in creating the piece, a good sign of a fake. See Fig. 3.

Marriages – Check to make sure that the wood throughout the piece is consistent. Often, when a piece is repaired or restored, a different kind of wood will be used, or the wood will show a different grain pattern. Consistency in materials and aging is the best indication that a piece is authentic.

Provenance – Regardless of how the piece looks upon close inspection, it is essential that collectors ask questions about where it came from and how it came to be offered for sale. The piece’s origin should precisely align with its observable condition and characteristics.

Exploring the stated history of a piece provides additional context from which authenticity can be ascertained. It can also affect price or value, if a piece is known to have come from a notable collection.

Learning a piece’s provenance will also give collectors a means of better evaluating its condition by comparing it to other known pieces from the same maker.

Fidete, Sed Verificate

Time has shown that styles and trends repeat themselves. So, along with “caveat emptor” as stated above, “fidete, sed verificate,” or “trust but verify,” should be guiding principles for anyone wishing to purchase antiques. Even though the market no longer has the financial incentive to produce fakes, those that have appeared on the market over the centuries still exist. Remember, aside from a healthy dose of caution and awareness, your best defense against falling victim to buying a fake is having the trusted counsel of an appraiser or art consultant that brings a depth of knowledge and expertise to the table like we do at Art Peritus.

Fig. 1. Reproduction carving of a terminal figure from a Late 19th/Early 20th Century Italian Baroque Style Cabinet (left) and Period Baroque Carving of a terminal figure from a 17th Century Italian Baroque Cassone (right). The figures not only show the variations in quality of form from a period piece to a reproduction, but also the difference between a finish of 350 years with rich patination, wear, and woodworm loss, to that of an obviously dark mahogany-stained hardwood with a lackluster finish and very little wear or woodworm, not to mention the ridiculous droopy breasts on a bearded male figure!

Fig. 2. Examples of French dovetail from the drawer of a Louis XV Semaniere c. 1765 (left), an Italian dovetail from the back of a drawer of a Rococo Commode c. 1765 (middle) and an English dovetail from the drawer of George III Secretaire c. 1765 (right). Spot the difference in dovetails from country to country. Both the French and English are very precise with pencil scribe marks, but the French tends to be of more equal proportion while the English are quite slender. In contrast, the Italian, are larger, spaced quite wide apart, and are somewhat crude and “unfinished” in construction.

Fig. 3. A Mid-18th Century Continental Carved Limewood Figure – note the proper wormwood holes on the body, the face, and the wormwood tracks where the arm has broken off. Only wormwood holes should be seen on the surface – if you see tracks on furniture, it was either once broken, once covered with gesso/paint, or constructed of repurposed old wood- and the piece may be a fake!, once covered with gesso/paint, or constructed of repurposed old wood- and the piece may be a fake!

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