Collecting Antique Furniture for Beginners

 

QUESTION: I really admire the workmanship and beauty of antique furniture, but I live on a budget, so collecting it seems to be out of my reach. How can I start purchasing antique furniture to begin my collection?

ANSWER: Even though you’re on a budget, it’s still possible to buy some antiques. The place not to start is in antiques stores and shows. Instead, search out consignment and thrift shops for pieces from the late 19th to early 20th century. And since the legal definition of an antique is an object that is at least 100 years old, that means that furniture dating to the early 1920s falls within the antique realm.

Another place to search for pieces is in used furniture stores. While there are fewer of them today, it’s still possible to find one or two. Look for pieces that can be used or repurposed to fit into today’s lifestyle without changing them significantly.

If you’re a beginning collector interested in antique furniture, the old saying holds true: "Buy what you like and can live with, buy the very best you can afford, buy from reputable dealers with experience, and if you do all these things your investment will continue to appreciate."

Antique furniture covers a wide range of types, designs, historical periods and styles—American, English, Continental (German and French) and Asian. All have their following, and within each of these classifications are sub-classifications indicating both style and historical period. Practically, antique furniture can be considered as English, European, American, and Chinese.

Wood type-mahogany, walnut, oak and pin predominate—significantly affects value in antique furniture. The type of furniture, practicality, hardware and construction details are also important in determining value as is the originality of all the composite parts. Many pieces of antique furniture have replacement panels or have had hardware added due to breakage. This lowers the value of a piece considerably. Also, many owners of antique furniture use lemon oil under the misguided belief that it helps preserve the wood and therefore enhances its value. This can’t be farther from the truth. All lemon oil does is dry out the wood, darken the patina, and decrease a piece’s value. The only polish that should be used is pure beeswax. Before purchasing a piece of antique furniture, rub it to see if an oily film is left on your hand.

Begin by purchasing small pieces, gradually building up to larger more expensive—and thus more valuable—pieces as you expand your collection and your budget. While antique furniture made before 1830 should be purchased with its original patina. However, it’s acceptable to buy Victorian and later pieces with their finishes cleaned or restored. Some furniture styles, like Biedermeier from Austria, actually increase in value once they are restored.

But most antique furniture collectors don’t buy for investment potential alone. Most pieces can still be used, so buying a piece of furniture that will not only fit into your decor but will have some use adds to its enjoyment. And while a few collectors purchase furniture from a particular period, most mix styles and periods based on their personal interest. To help varied pieces fit better together in the same room, you should try to use similar wood tones.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "In the Good Ole Summertime" in the 2024 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Beauty and Strength from Paper

 

QUESTION: When I think of papier-maché, I remember my days in school art classes soaking strips of paper in a mixture of flour and water from which I made a variety of shapes, including puppet heads and fruit, and weird sculptures. But I just saw some rather elegant objects made of papier-maché at a recent antique show. These looked nothing like my crude art class creations. How did they get papier-maché to look so good? And are these objects worth collecting?

ANSWER: During the early 19th century, every household had a least one useful object made of papier-maché.

The Chinese invented papier-maché soon after they invented paper in the second century. In Europe the industry developed in France in the 1650s with small decorative objects, such as boxes made of used paper gathered during the night by billboard strippers. By the early 1760s, Germany had its first papier-maché factory. Russia gained world renown for its lovely hand-painted papier-maché boxes, decorated with landscapes, peasants and scenes taken from Russian folklore.

The term papier-maché is French and means crushed paper. Papier-maché consists of several layers of thick damp paper and vegetable matter pressed together into sheets in an iron mold and then oven dried. After workers took it out of the mold, they coated it with multiple coats of varnish—a process called “japanning,” thus waterproofing it and making it ready for decoration. After artists decorated the item, they applied a final coat of clear varnish to protect it.

In England the papier-maché industry quickly followed the introduction of paper making around 1690. At first people used the pulped paper for interior decoration and architectural ornaments because it was a less expensive than other building materials. Then they applied it to picture and looking glass frames and small ornamental moldings. By 1766, John Taylor of Birmingham had begun to make buttons and snuff boxes.

In 1772 Henry Clay, also of Birmingham, patented a process for making heat-resistant, hand-smoothed panels of papier-maché. These stronger panels could be sewn and dovetailed just like real wood and were perfect for making furniture. 

In 1816, Aaron Jennens and T.H. Bettridge purchased Clay’s factory, which had become the top producer of high quality papier-maché. Jennens developed a technique in which panels could be softened with steam to enable manipulation into a heated metal mold. Workers then screwed a counter mold into position and heat-dried the steam-molded panels. The result was a hard, pre-shaped product of even thickness. By reducing the number of steps and the amount of time required to mold furniture, Jennens revolutionized the process and opened the door to mass-production.

Jennens and Bettridge expanded the traditional repertoire of salvers and snuff boxes to  produce papier-maché household furnishings on a larger scale for the English Victorian home.

One of the earliest and most popular papier-maché items was the snuff box. The habit of taking snuff began in England in the 17th century and by the beginning of the 18th century over 7,000 shops in London sold snuff.

Papier-maché was an ideal material for snuff boxes because it was cheap and maintained the snuff at the correct humidity. The earliest boxes had no rim, but makers added them later, making a frame for the decoration. They were rectangular or circular in shape, and many snuff  boxes had hand-painted ' decoration, usually scenes from famous paintings. Top quality ones came from the workshops of Samuel Raven, who signed most of his work on the inside of the lid.

By the late 18th century, papier-maché trays had become popular. Before long, middle class families didn’t think their homes were complete without a nest of papier-maché trays. Jennens and Bettridge presented a set of three elaborately decorated trays to Queen Victoria on her marriage to Albert in 1840.

The great interest in papier-maché trays resulted in the development of new shapes with a variety of elaborate designs. Shapes were rectangular, octagonal, oval and a form called Gothic. One variety of the Gothic, known as the "parlor maid tray," had one side curved to fit the maid’s waist for support when the tray was heavily laden with tea service items. George Wallis of the Old Hall Works at Wolverhampton created an oval scalloped tray which he called the "Victoria" in honor of the young queen.

Letter writing was of great social importance during the Victorian period, and a complete set of writing materials was provided in the guest rooms of wealthy homes, often made of papier-maché. Lap desks were popular with Victorian ladies. The writing board lifted up to expose stationery and compartments for ink bottles, pen and postage stamps. When the user closed the beautifully decorated cover, the compact lap desk could be kept anywhere as a decorative piece.

Inkstands were also frequently made of papier-maché. They usually had a box for sealing wax placed between two crystal ink bottles with a slot for pens in front. Other papier-maché items used for letter writing were blotters, desk-folio's and letter racks.

True lacquer comes from the resin of a tree of the sumac family indigenous to the Orient, and in the Far East this resin dries quickly upon exposure to sunlight. Since the lacquer didn’t set properly in the wet English climate, its effect had to be duplicated by various varnishes in a process referred to as "japanning."

Japanning is a British imitation of Oriental lacquer, pioneered by Henry Clay. He dissolved resin  in alcohol, then added sizing from boiled parchment along with a whitening material. He applied this to a wooden base, then polished and decorated the surface..

From the beginning, makers of papier-maché housewares japanned them.  At first the decoration was simple, with a black or red ground embellished with a guilt border. But in the 1790's, they began to decorate the entire surface. Not surprisingly, Chinese scenes were popular.   

During its early days, makers of papier-maché items decorated them with metal powders and alloys, applying them with a swab, rather than a brush. Typically, most pieces have a painted floral decoration on a black ground, a characteristic look of Victorian papier-mâché, 

Jennens and Bettridge changed the way they decorated their papier-maché, especially with the extensive use of mother-of-pearl as an in-lay material. Inlaid mother-of-pearl then became the most popular method of decorating papier-maché items, along with painting and gliding.

Manufacturers used landscapes, flower designs, animals, and insects to decorate their pieces. Geometric motifs were also very popular. Artists hand-painted miniature portraits and pictures of castles and famous buildings on some pieces of papier-maché, especially small snuff boxes.

Decorations varied almost as much as the many articles made from papier-maché. Although manufacturers of papier-maché items usually japanned them, some items had green, red or yellow backgrounds. To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The  Vernacular Style" in the 2024 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Art Deco vs. Art Moderne

 

QUESTION: I’m a great lover of all things Art Deco, although I don’t know much about it. I’ve heard some people refer to this style as Streamlined Modern while other call it Art Moderne. Can you please tell me a little about this style? And what about Streamlined Modern? Is it related to Art Deco?

ANSWER: Art Deco and Art Moderne overlap, both stylistically and chronologically. Both were in vogue in the first half of the 20th century. But it's more a question of style than dates. While Art Deco emphasized verticality and stylized, geometric ornamentation, Art Moderne was a horizontal design, emphasizing movement and sleekness;.

The Art Deco style made its debut at the 1925 World's Fair in Paris—the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes or the International Exhibition of Modern and Industrial Decorative Arts—but the term Art Deco wasn’t used until 1966. A group of French architects and interior designers, who banded together to form the Societe des Artistes Decorateurs, developed the style to incorporate elements of style from diverse modern artworks and current fashion trends. Influence from Cubism and Surrealism, Egyptian and African folk art can be seen in the lines and embellishments, and Asian influences contribute symbolism, grace and detail.

Art Deco was already an internationally mature style by 1925—one that had flourished in the years following World War I and peaked at the time of the fair. The enormous commercial success of Art Deco ensured that designers and manufacturers throughout Europe continued to promote this style until well into the 1930s. 

Sometimes Deco designers applied ornamentation to the surface of an object, like a decorative skin, but at other times the utilitarian designs of bowls, plates, vases, and furniture were themselves purely ornamental. These objects weren’t intended for practical use but rather created for their decorative value alone, exploiting the beauty of form or material. Among the most popular and recurring motifs were the human figure, animals, flowers, and plants. Abstract geometric decoration was also common. 

Victorians loved to apply ornamentation onto furniture, to embellish basic frames and shapes. With Art Deco, the texture and embellishment came from contrasts in a variety of colored woods and inlays or in the material itself. Designers often used burled or birds-eye or visibly grained woods, tortoise shell, ivory, tooled leathers. Lacquered glosses accentuated color differences. Animal skins and patterned fabrics in bright colors were also popular as upholstery.

Though it spread to other countries, Art Deco was a distinctively French response to the postwar demand for luxurious objects and fine craftsmanship. French designers utilized lavish materials and such rich, traditional decorative techniques as inlay and veneer on streamlined geometric forms.

Art Deco reflected the general optimism and carefree mood that swept Europe and the United States following World War I. Hope and prosperity are represented in sunburst designs, chevrons and references to the good life in the elegant figures depicted in casual, sensual poses, often dancing or sipping cocktails. The modern influences heralded a bright and shining future outlook that found its way to architecture, jewelry, automobile design and even extended to ordinary things such as refrigerators and trash cans.

Exoticism also played a role in Art Deco. During the 1920s and 1930s, the French government encouraged designers to take advantage of resources—like raw materials and a skilled workforce—that could be imported from the nation's colonies in Asia and Africa. The resulting growth of interest in the arts of colonial countries in Asia and Africa led French designers to explore new materials, such as ivory, sharkskin, and exotic woods, techniques such as lacquering and ceramic glazes, and forms that evoked faraway places and cultures. 

Art Moderne
 Moderne, also called Streamlined Modern, was an American invention that first appeared in the 1930s and lasted into the 1940s. Although taking its design concepts from Art Deco, it was a completely different style It was bigger and bolder. While Art Deco placed an emphasis on shape, Art Moderne was streamlined. Unfortunately, this is the style most Americans confuse with Art Deco.

Think of Art Moderne as Art Deco on steroids. Moderne was positively streamlined—at the time a new scientific theory that shaping objects along curving lines to cut wind resistance would make them move more efficiently. The furniture in this style was much more pared down, making its outline more geometric in sleek curves like a tear drop or torpedo. Moderne designers often conceived pieces as a series of escalating levels- similar to a staircase or the setback effect of skyscrapers that were rising in every city.

While rich colors, bold geometry, and decadent detail work characterized Art Deco, evoking glamour, luxury, and order with symmetrical designs in exuberant shapes, Art Moderne was essentially a machine-made style focused on mass production, functional efficiency, and a more abstract look coming from the Bauhaus in Germany.

Much of it was designed to be mass-produced, but even if it wasn't, it looked as if it could be: Art Deco's balance and proportion extended to regularity and repetition. Much of the decorative interest in a Moderne piece comes from the precision of line and duplication of functional features. Art Moderne designs often conveyed a sense of motion.

Art Moderne designers favored simpler, aerodynamic lines and forms in the modeling of ships, airplanes, and automobiles. In the modern machine age smooth surfaces, curved corners, and an emphasis on horizontal lines came into fashion. Streamlining appeared on everyday objects and buildings such as roadside diners, motor hotels, movie theaters, early strip malls and shopping centers, seaside marinas, and air and bus terminals. Trains, ocean liners, airplane fuselages, as well as luxury automobiles all sported the Moderne look.

People often refer to furnishings and buildings from the 1920s through the 1940s as Art Deco. Understanding the difference between Art Deco and Art Moderne isn't always easy, especially since Art Deco was originally called Moderne.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Inside Out

 

QUESTION: While browsing a recent antique show, I discovered a delightful little copper box with what looked like an embossed design. The dealer told me it was probably made around the turn of the 20th century or at least before World War I. She said the design was repoussé on copper. I’d like to know more about this repousse technique. Can you give me a bit of history and an explanation of how it’s done?

ANSWER: There are two techniques for hammering copper—chasing and repousse. The difference between the two is that chasing pushes the metal in from the front side while repousse pushes the metal out from the backside.  Both techniques frequently employ a backing to support the work material and confine the movement of the metal to the immediate area around the tool.

While the word repoussé comes from the French word repoussage, meaning "pushed up," the word chasing, which also derives from the French word chasser, meaning ”to drive out.” Repousse is a metalworking technique in which an artisan shaped a malleable metal by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. Chasing is a similar technique in which the piece is hammered on the front side, sinking the metal. The two techniques are often used in conjunction. Many metals can be used for chasing and repoussé work, including gold, silver, copper, and alloys such as steel, bronze, and pewter. Tool marks are often intentionally left visible.

With the simplest technique, sheet gold could be pressed into designs carved in intaglio in stone, bone, metal or even materials such as jet. The gold could be worked into the designs with wood tools or, more commonly, by hammering a wax or lead "force" over it.

Both techniques date from antiquity and have been used widely with gold and silver for fine detailed work, such as the burial mask of King Tutankhamun, and copper, tin, and bronze for larger sculptures, such as the Statue of Liberty. Both methods require only the simplest tools and materials, and yet allow great diversity of expression. They’re also more affordable, since there’s no loss or waste of metal, which mostly retains its original size and thickness.

Before the use of repousse, ancient artisans pressed gold sheet into a die to work it over a design in cameo relief. Here the detail would be greater on the back of the final design, so some final chasing from the front was often carried out to sharpen the detail.

In 1400 BCE, ancient Egyptians used resin and mud as a softer backing for repoussé. The use of patterned punches dates back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE  Craftsman made the simplest patterned punches using loops or scrolls of wire.

By 400 BCE., the ancient Greeks had begun using a combination of punches and dies on a beeswax backing to produce repousse on their bronze armor plates.

The resurgence of repousse and chasing first occurred in England during the late 19th century as part of the British Arts & Crafts Movement. Most notably was the work produced at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, founded in 1884 by Canon Hardwicke and his wife, Edith Rawnsley, as an evening class in woodwork and repoussé metalwork at the Crosthwaite Parish Rooms, in Keswick, Cumbria. Hardwicke designed the curriculum to alleviate unemployment. The school  prospered, and within 10 years more than 100 men had attended classes. 

The school prospered and swiftly developed a reputation for high quality copper and silver decorative metalwork. By 1888 nearly 70 men were attending the classes. By 1890 the school was exhibiting nationally and winning prizes; Its students numbering over 100,  it had outgrown its cramped home in the parish rooms, forcing Rawnsley to raise funds for a purpose-built school nearby.

The Newlyn Industrial Class, later renamed the Newlyn Art Metal Industry, established in 1890 by John D. Mackensie, was similar to Keswick and shared a common purpose with it. Inspired by the teachings of John Ruskin, they aimed to provide a source of employment in small communities where work came and went with the seasons. At the Newlyn classes, held in a net loft above a fish-curing yard, the pupils were mainly fishermen, while at Keswick students were pencil makers, laborers, gardeners, shepherds, and tailors.

Both metal workshops specialized in the production of repoussé copper work, This technique and material was popular with amateur craftsmen and women across the country because it was easy to learn. A student placed a flat piece of copper face down on a bed of pitch, or, as in the Newlyn workshops, lead. These materials were chosen because they would yield to the force of the blows of the punch but would still support the metal. Once a student had punched the design out from the reverse, he or she turned the metal over and chased finer details on the front.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Clock is Ticking on Clock Collecting

 

QUESTION: I’ve been interested in clocks for a long time but only recently have I had enough extra cash to start a serious collection. How do I know what clocks to collect? I have a limited budget.

ANSWER: One of the quirky things about collecting clocks is that, depending on the size, they can not only take up space but also time–the time needed to keep them running. Clocks are precision instruments, even the smallest alarm clock has tiny working parts that need regular maintenance. 

However, not every old clock is worth collecting. In fact, collecting clocks can be a challenge because of the amount of space they take up. So people who do collect them are very particular. 

With antique clocks, condition is prime. To be worth anything, an antique clock needs to be in working order—in other words, it needs to tell time almost as good as it did when  first made.

From 1680 to 1840, tall case clocks was popular in America. Master clockmakers produced fewer than two dozen of these clocks a year. Eventually, these clocks became known as grandfather clocks. 

While these early clocks demonstrated the finest quality of workmanship, the cost of $50 or more excluded anyone but the very rich from owning one. Today, these same clocks can sell for four or five figures. While clockmakers produced the clockworks, coffin makers made the cases. Until about 1770, the brass dials had silver decoration. Painted dials and those coated with white enamel didn’t appear until 1790. Cheaper models had plain paper dials pasted on an iron or wooden background. While clockmakers produced the clockworks, coffin makers made the cases. Until about 1770, the brass dials had silver decoration. 

Next in the timeline of clockmaking came wall clocks. In 1802, Simon Willard patented his improved Timepiece," a wall clock shaped like a banjo. This style would be copied many times. Years later, the Waterbury Clock Co. manufactured a .umber of banjo clocks and used the name "Willard."

While the Willards introduced new lock styles, it was Gideon Roberts, a Revolutionary War veteran from Bristol, Connecticut., who began to make the clock more affordable. Roberts replaced he brass movements used to that point with less expensive wooden movements and also used painted paper dials. Imitating the German styling known as wag-on-the-wall, Roberts would also make clocks without a case. The exposed works could be encased for an additional fee. Using these methods, Roberts was able to produce 10 or more clocks at a time.

Clock manufacturers produced an infinite number of styles of mantel clocks from 1810 to 1860. These included papier-maché clocks, as well as pillar-and-scroll clocks with wooden movements.

Eli Terry been has generally credited with bringing mass-production to clockmaking in America. In 1797, Terry was granted the first American clock-related patent. In 1807, he signed a contract to make 4,000 clock movements within three years. Legend has it that Terry spent the first two years designing and constructing the machinery, which would allow him to fulfill his obligation. In 1810, with the help of apprentices Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley, Terry's pillar-and-scroll shelf clock became the first inexpensive, factory-produced clock available to the American public. Thomas and Hoadley purchased Terry's factory that same year and worked together until 1813. Thomas eventually became one of America's best-known clockmakers.

The cuckoo clock dates back to 1730 when Swiss and Bavarian clockmakers developed the pendulum striking mechanism and the cuckoo concept. Unfortunately, cuckoo clocks never became popular with American manufacturers, but many American travelers purchased them in Germany and Switzerland, as did soldiers returning from World War I and II..

By 1850, technology would change most movements from weight to spring-driven, and brass coiled springs would be replaced by cheaper steel springs. Among the most popular clocks were the schoolhouse clock, the pressed oak "gingerbread" kitchen clock, the steeple clock, and the OG clock, which featured a double continuous S-shaped molding.

Novelty clocks have become another popular collectible category. There have been flower clocks, animated animal clocks, advertising clocks, and even dancing girl clocks. 

Researching an antique clock’s origins can be challenging. Those made in the 18th and at least the first half of the 19th century bore no labels. Some clockmakers did sign their works, especially those that made tall case clocks. Generally, they signed them somewhere on the dial. Many of those that did have labels in the latter part of the 1800s, lost them over time.  

The key to acquiring museum quality clocks is learning how to research, properly identify, and evaluate antique clocks. Rarity, provenance, originality, quality of manufacture, and quality of restoration all affect value.

An antique clock isn’t always as good as it appears. While a clock may look great from the outside, the condition of its works is what counts. Over time, abuse and bad repairs can add up, rendering what could have been a great find nearly worthless. 

The sad thing is that many antique clocks cannot be repaired. Even the best horologist can’t work miracles on many old clockworks. The reason is that most cannot obtain the parts needed to do the repairs. And the few younger clockmakers just don’t have the skills necessary to make the parts themselves. 

Because of the wide range of antique clocks available, many collectors choose to specialize, collecting one type of clock from different makers or a variety of clocks from the same maker, perhaps Seth Thomas. Another possibility is to collect a fine example of each type of clock. Some collectors assemble collections of clocks with different types of movements. 

But unlike a piece of antique furniture that has been restored, an antique clock that isn’t running isn’t worth collecting. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.