Antique FAQs 2

Why I love early antiques

by Tom Woodard

One of the things I want to share with you is what makes antiques so special to me, especially the ones individually hand-crafted, which, in the case of finer pieces, generally places them prior to the 1850's, but in the case of country and primitive pieces, can go right up into the mid-20th Century. Even with the finer pieces, tho, the advent of furniture manufacturing factories didn't cause individual cabinet makers to just suddenly vanish, and we'll see the occasional hand-made, finely crafted piece even as late as the 1880's or 90's. In fact, this tradition never fully died, has made a comeback in the last few decades, and is alive and well even today.

The thing that makes these long-ago pieces so special is that each one was the individual expression of the individual craftsman, even when he was using pattern books or following a particular style, whether Hepplewhite, Chippendale, Federal, Sheraton, or Empire, just to name the more well-known styles crafted in America. Even when following one of these styles, the cabinet maker would put a little bit of his own individual expression into the piece. And items were made on order, as a general rule, for a particular customer who told the cabinet maker what he, the customer, wanted as well, so that you have the collaboration of maker and customer to arrive at a particular piece for a particular spot in a particular room in a particular house! Thus we can say, with confidence, "one of a kind". And then there's the craftsmanship, not just in the outer details but also in the hidden elements of the construction, which often facinate me even more than the facade of the piece. There's hand-cut dovetails, hand-cut mortises and tenons, held tightly together with hand-whittled wooden pegs, hand-chamfered panels and drawer bottoms, and sometimes the unusual and ingenious use of these and other construction elements, which always surprise and facinate. And don't forget: there were no power tools in those days. Every piece was cut and then planed by hand! Finishes were mixed from scratch, not purchased at the hardware store, and here, too, individuality brought finishes which have often endured for 150 or 200 years, still remaining beautiful and rich. And of course, there's hand carving and hand-cut inlays, and so much more, but it's the fact that the piece was ordered to certain specifications, by a particular customer, and then given birth by that craftsman, with real pride in his creation, and then brought to fruition after countless hours of expert and patient labor. Wow, quite a contrast to our cookie-cutter mass produced machine made furniture and accessories of today! Not to mention the fact that the raw materials they worked with were generally far superior to what things are made of now. Gee, a lot of our furniture now isn't even made of real wood!