Flower Love
The saying “Old is Gold” can be little misleading for our household products as most of them lose their practical use and value over their life cycle. A lot depends upon the condition, reusability, rarity and age of the product to determine whether it is just scrap or a collectible item worth preserving after a point of time. An ancient collectable item (at least 100 years old) worth to the collector based on its time of existence, magnificence, state, usefulness or any other unique features is known as Antique. We have antiques in most of the products like books, cards, automobiles, coins, clothes, stamps, films etc. but most commonly found item is Antique Furniture. People have traditionally preserved furniture with the hope that its value appreciates with time, at the same time utilizing it for its actual purpose.
Majority of the preserved Antique Furniture is available in form of Chairs, chests, tables, beds etc. with most of them used in the bedrooms. A rough classification can be made by distributing it under the heads of support vs storage vs decorative furniture.
1. Support Furniture – includes chairs, beds and all form of seating arrangements.
2. Storage Furniture – includes drawers, chests, shelves to store books, clothes and other household goods.
3. Decorative Furniture – includes Vase, clocks, lighting equipment, and religious purpose furniture.
Wood comes to our mind immediately when we think of furniture but Antiques could be of even plastic or metal depending on its age. Most widely used Antique furniture wood are Rose wood, Oak wood, Tulip wood, Mahogany, Pine wood, Satin wood and Teak wood. Generally the beds are made of Solid wood i.e. Teak wood whereas other bedroom furniture like drawers, chest etc. can be made of any of the above. The initial years saw simple furniture being developed, just based on the utility front. Over the years we have seen a transformation from simple to lavish to extremely crafted furniture as society started viewing it as symbol of well-being and status. The detailed craftsmanship on some of the Bedroom furniture like beds is exemplary and mirrored the extravagant lifestyles of the individuals of that era.
1. No Sharp edges or corners
2. Teeth patterns depict the saw used which can be dated back to its era
3. Growth rings in the wood
4. Single piece of wood rather than multiple joints
The actual value of antique furniture is quite subjective and is best left to the experts who can calculate the value of furniture dating back all the way to 1960!