The political unrest in 19th century Germany had a profoundly positive effect on American furniture construction and design for the next 50 years. A large number of German craftspeople made their way to America in the 19th century, but four in particular stand out in the furniture field: John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger and Gustave and Christian Herter. Read More +
Common wisdom in the furniture trade says that anything made in Grand Rapids is “good stuff.” Is that true? Perhaps. But like so many other things, there is always a “but.” In this case the but is “Made when and by whom in Grand Rapids?” Read More +
A piece of furniture described as having a “broken pediment” may cause confusion or concern on the part of those unfamiliar with antiques-related terminology. Furniture Detective Fred Taylor clears up this and more antiques-related terms. Read More +
In the everyday conduct of our affairs in the older and antique furniture trade, we often come across terms and references that we accept as just part of the lingo. But almost just as often we have little or no idea what the reference or term really means or how it got to be called that. Read More +
Duncan Phyfe was one of the rare early century cabinetmakers who actually used paper labels and tags to identify some of his work, but most makers of the early period either scrawled their name or mark under a drawer somewhere or didn’t bother to mark their products at all. Finding a label on a piece of furniture now means that the collector has to know what kind of label it is to decipher its meaning. Read More +
What determines asking or eventual selling prices of antiques or collectibles anyway? The universal answer has four parts: quality, condition, rarity and demand. Read More +
Any antiques shop that has more than three pieces of Colonial Revival furniture is almost certain to have a Mersman table somewhere in the joint because the company made millions of them. Read More +
Is tung oil safe for antique furniture? Furniture Detective Fred Taylor says unless the original finish was an oil finish, then tung oil, like any other oil, has no place on antique furniture over the long term. Read More +
The inventor of the pencil eraser and the first ink eradicator, H.T. Cushman, found his way into the furniture business after developing products to sell through mail order. Read More +
Here’s how you can tell if your Hitchcock chair (a small, rickety chair, perhaps painted black, with leaves and flowers and fruit painted all over) is the real thing, or a reproduction. Read More +