Dead People Furniture
#6
Was reading a few entries from The Norse Woodsmith Aggregator and focussed on one by our Bibliophile (Steve), a book review of Fake, Fraud, or Genuine: Identifying Authentic American Antique Furniture, by Myrna Kaye.  The review is good and owning her book would be informative for a period builder whose goal is imitation. 

For me old furniture is not really antique. If you live long enough, and are possessed of any mild hoarder's disease, combined with some genealogical interest, the diagnosis is simply, heirloom, or "dead people furniture".  My wife announced that title to me one Saturday morning. We went out and bought some new pieces to compete with the inventory of eclectic furniture from dead relatives. The replaced relics are in the basement mausoleum, waiting to trap another generation of relatives, per stirpes, that is. 

My takeaway from the review is that:

 I found well preserved furniture to have a dark character. There is a flaw, or more, which detracts from 'love'.
    
 Pieces can be grossly 'fixed' after damage. We have a child's chair that was at one time a chair with one broken leg.
     
 Sometimes, the finish is not modern enough. Remember Spanish Walnut--black, black..., now ebony? The fashion is recycling, but something's still                  wrong.
     
 I am old enough to see a resurgence of "mid-century" and danish modern. My memories include Stickley (or copies) and the rooms were dreadfully                  dark, somber.
     
 Sometimes, the design is so mutilated, it is bad; so bad, it is unique. We have a phone table-and-bench in black varnish with no straight edge. It is a                style from scroll saw heaven.  It may have supported a rotary telephone late in life, but nothing similar since.

 Then, we have Kaye's 'Old Parts, New Object'. There are piles of wood waiting to rise, Phoenix-like, some rediscovered as pristine pieces fitting a specific           use. I think the private, mini museum vault in our basement can be a source for Kaye's antiques. I will hang on to them, along with the original Barbie Kit my wife keeps tucked away in a closet.
Reply
#7
One of the largest businesses in the Greater Los Angeles area 100 years ago was used furniture stores. Most people who came this way back then came for health reasons. These were mostly upper middle class people (largely from Illinois and Iowa) who brought everything they had. After 10-15 years, the elders would naturally pass and the heirs would often sell off the household goods.

My shop grew because an expertise with Fletcher Aviation desks, circa 1946-'49. They are triangular shaped, art-deco inspired, and built in nearby El Monte. I've done about a dozen of them. Bringing them back into service is different from making them look new.
Just because shooting fish in a barrel is easy, that doesn't mean there are some fish that should remain unshot.
www.WestHillsWood.com
www.HOPublishing.com
FACEBOOK: #WoodShopWednesday
Reply
#8
Glad you enjoyed the blog post! The book is a fun read, to be sure.

I certainly don't have the money to buy decent antique furniture, let alone the kind of high-dollar pieces that Kaye focuses on. But I do enjoy looking at them in antique shops when I'm on vacation.
Steve S.
------------------------------------------------------
Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.
- T. S. Eliot

Tutorials and Build-Alongs at The Literary Workshop
Reply
#9
Old furniture, like old tools, like anything. The worth is what the highest and lowest a person is willing to pay compared to what a person "does" pay and whether it is "personal investment" or "projected profit".
Reply
#10
Seeing the title to this post, reminded me of an old ''quote"

"The way is shut.
It was made by those who are dead
And the dead will keep it
Until the time is here
The way is shut"

Maybe not the exact working, but...
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.