Antiques are among precious and valuable furniture that add an elegant look to your house. Whether you live in a modern or traditional style, antique furniture can be great in adding glamor to your home decoration.
However, knowing an antique whether it is fake or real can be a difficult task. In this article, you will read tips that will help you in identifying real antiques.
Tips for identifying antiques
- Checking the hidden parts of the furniture: An antique that is real will have more than one material used for making it, whereas an antique that is fake is made using single material.
- Checking the nails: If the antique furniture have nails and other accessories that perfectly look alike, it means that the antique is not a real antique as furniture in past was made by hand and the accessories would not match each other. Also make a note that unlike the present nails, nails in the past had big heads with square stem section.
- Checking the carving on the wood: Antique furniture had hand carvings that are uneven and asymmetric, whereas the furniture that is freshly made uses machines for carving, thus making the design look even.
- Color of wood: The color of the wood darkens as it ages and therefore you can recognize past ones over the present ones. Every wood has its own texture, color and weight. The most commonly used wood to make furniture in old days was oak and walnut. Antique furniture are smooth to touch and the pores are closed completely as they tend to shrink with age.
- Checking the odor : Antique and old objects always have a dusty smell of odor, which helps you in identifying real over fake.
- Checking for Veneer : Wood furniture is coated with veneer since ages. For identifying whether the antique furniture is real or fake, it is better idea to check the thickness of veneer on the wood, because the veneer used in past was thick whereas the layer of veneer is thin in the furniture manufactured today.
These are some tips for making out whether the antiques are real or fake. These tips are likely to help you in buying antiques successfully.