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Hand-painted sage-green country nightstand with botanical panels
French Provincial Furniture: History of the French Country Style and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
French Provincial furniture is one of the most misunderstood terms in the antiques world, because it means two very different things. To a collector, it is the furniture the French... Read more...
Solid-wood five-drawer chest of drawers
Shaker Furniture: History of the Shaker Style and How to Identify Authentic 19th-Century Pieces
Shaker furniture is what happens when a religious faith decides that how a chair is made is a moral question. Made by a celibate, communal American sect who believed that... Read more...
Rose-carved Regency-style side chair
Regency Furniture: History of the Regency Style and How to Identify Authentic Early 19th-Century Pieces
Regency furniture is the sound of England discovering the ancient world and deciding to live inside it. For a brief, brilliant window at the turn of the 19th century, cabinetmakers... Read more...
Antique Victorian parlor table with carved scroll legs
How to Date Antique Furniture by Its Legs and Feet (A Visual Guide)
Learn to date antique furniture by its legs and feet — from cup-and-cover and cabriole to tapered, sabre, and machine-turned legs, plus claw-and-ball, pad, spade, and bracket feet. Read more...
Louis XV Furniture: History of the French Rococo Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Louis XV Furniture: History of the French Rococo Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Louis XV furniture is the high-water mark of the curve. In the mid-18th century, French cabinetmaking abandoned the straight line almost entirely, giving itself over to a world of scrolls,... Read more...
Rococo Revival Furniture: History of the Victorian Style and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Rococo Revival Furniture: History of the Victorian Style and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Rococo Revival furniture is the Victorian parlor at its most romantic. In the middle of the 19th century, a prosperous new society looked back a hundred years to the curves... Read more...
Renaissance Revival Furniture: History of the Victorian Style and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Renaissance Revival Furniture: History of the Victorian Style and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Renaissance Revival furniture is the Victorian age at its most ambitious and self-important. Where the Rococo Revival that came before it curved and flowered, Renaissance Revival stood tall and squared... Read more...
Dovetail Joints: How to Read Them to Date and Authenticate Antiques
Dovetail Joints: How to Read Them to Date and Authenticate Antiques
Dovetail joints are one of the best ways to date antique furniture. Learn hand-cut vs machine-cut, the Knapp joint of 1867, and how to read a drawer to authenticate a... Read more...
Should You Refinish an Antique? When Refinishing Destroys Value
Should You Refinish an Antique? When Refinishing Destroys Value
Refinishing an antique that still has its original finish usually lowers its value — sometimes dramatically. Learn when refinishing is justified, when it destroys value, and the gentler alternatives to... Read more...
Antique Windsor Chairs: History, How to Identify Them, and What They Are Worth
Antique Windsor Chairs: History, How to Identify Them, and What They Are Worth
Explore antique Windsor chairs — the solid saddle seat and socketed construction, the comb-back, bow-back, sack-back and fan-back types, English vs American differences, and how to identify and date them. Read more...
Chippendale Furniture: History of the Chippendale Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Chippendale Furniture: History of the Chippendale Style and How to Identify Authentic 18th-Century Pieces
Explore Chippendale furniture — Thomas Chippendale's 1754 Director, the Rococo, Gothic, and Chinese tastes, Philadelphia Chippendale, and how to identify period pieces from later revivals. Read more...
Mid-Century Modern Furniture: History of the Movement and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Mid-Century Modern Furniture: History of the Movement and How to Identify Authentic Pieces
Explore Mid-Century Modern furniture — Eames, Nelson, Saarinen, Wegner, and the makers Herman Miller and Knoll. Learn its materials, marks, and how to tell period originals from licensed reissues and... Read more...