How To Date Furniture
Do not depend only on hardware style to date a piece.
How to date furniture. Construction techniques can assist you in dating furniture. Another use for casters is to estimate the date of the furniture. Chairs as we know them have been around since at least the 1700s.
This guide on the types of furniture styles includes two lists of furniture styles encompassing traditional contemporary and modern furniture styles. It can include anything from a valuable antique to a vintage piece of mid 20th century modern furniture. There s no hard and fast rule but hand dovetailing was really no longer done in factories after that date masaschi says.
The style will tell you which period the piece represents but there are literally hundreds of different styles used throughout the centuries. The video above provides a great introduction to dating antique furniture and what areas should be examined. After 1700 mahogany and walnut were very popular.
Hand cut dovetails appeared late in that century and for the next 80 years or so dovetails were wide stubby and crude. Hand dovetails are slightly irregular and the pins are thin and tapered. How to date old chairs.
Hand cut dovetails can date an older american piece to before 1890 although hobbyists and specialty makers still use them. Look to see if the caster is a leathern bowl or roller. The hardware on your furniture can be used to date the piece providing it is original hardware.
First we ll look at historical furniture styles dating back hundreds of years influenced by classical furniture styles that are even older. For example oak was primarily used in furniture made prior to 1700. How to date old furniture.