Antiques

A question which I am frequently asked about antique furniture concerns what, exactly, is meant by the term “centennial.”

In recent years, with the astronomical rise in prices for fine period furniture, there is more heard about centennial pieces being sold in shops and at auction. These pieces are, for the most part, marketed as good, affordable substitutes for the real thing. But just what is implied by the description “centennial” when applied to furnishings?

By definition, “centennial” means that something was made roughly one hundred years after the original. It is obvious that this definition is very loosely applied in the marketplace because it is not unusual to see a copy of a Queen Anne or Chippendale case piece made in the first quarter of this century described as “centennial.”

The term was first and most correctly used to describe copies made in the late 19th century which in style and workmanship closely resembled pieces executed in the late 18th century. Several fine furniture companies, as well as small workshops, specialized in high-quality copies which could hold their own with the originals and these are today’s true centennial pieces.

A whole array of other terms and euphemisms have been used in recent years to describe non-antique furniture which looks like the real thing. Words such as “revival,” “classic” and “neo” are variously used and accepted as clear-cut terminology in the antiques marketplace.

The use of “neo” and “revival” to describe furniture in the style of another period has been common for several hundred years, but it was the explosion of demand and productivity in the Victorian era which really established these terms in the vocabulary of furnishings and decoration.

Besides the neo-classical and many revival styles of the 19th century there were the mass-produced copies of furniture of the colonial period. The popularity of the centennial revival styles can be in part attributed to the heightened awareness of these designs brought about by the 1876 Centennial celebration. This was the beginning of the first American colonial revival which saw the mass production of Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Queen Anne and other styles for the broad-based American market which could not afford the originals and in many cases could not distinguish them from copies.

Quality and materials varied greatly. Many manufacturers, such as the top-of-the-line Grand Rapids firms, produced expensive copies which were authentic in virtually every detail of design and construction. Other manufacturers took pure forms and combined them with details of later styles. Not only are these pieces anachronistic, but they often showed poor craftsmanship and odd combinations of wood.

During this same period there came into vogue many of the forms prevalent in the reign of Louis XV of France. Many of these late 19th century copies are beautifully executed and true to the originals in spirit and construction. In fact, the vast majority of pieces attributed to Louis XV period are centennial copies.

Some prominent collectors chose to purchase only fine centennial furnishings when they could easily have afforded period pieces. Today, when some of these collections are dispersed it becomes obvious that there is great demand for centennial furniture. The best examples are hard to distinguish from their period counterparts with only cursory inspection. They are a good affordable alternative for the less-well-heeled collector, but as demand increases prices are on the rise.

Other eclectic copies and revival pieces loosely referred to as centennial are the colonial revival furnishings of the 1920’s, when collectors such as Wallace Nutting inspired popular demand for everything from Jacobean tables to Windsor chairs. Nutting and others produced lines of high-quality reproductions which are prized by today’s collectors and are seen by many as being desirable antiques of a future generation.

As the money follows the best of the 19th century colonial revival and the Nutting period, it is easy to understand how the average homeowner could get discouraged in search of handsome furniture representing good craftsmanship. For this market there is a wide selection of good-quality factory-made furniture produced from 1890-1950. Pieces can be found in every style from the neo-Jacobean of the 1920s to the re-interpreted designs of Chippendale turned out in the ’30s and ’40s.

Good design and construction is timeless. What has become obvious with the strong demand for classic and centennial furniture is that buyers will increasingly turn to good copies as the better antique pieces become scarce and are priced out of the range of the average buyer.

In making such purchases it is still important to be aware of true dates of manufacture. Centennial should not be allowed to mean any copy between 25 and 100 years old. Because there is a premium attached to true centennial furniture such as the high-quality Louis XV and Chippendale copies of the late 19th century, it is important to establish dates of manufacture. There is a lot of room in interpretation between “centennial,” “late copy” and especially “in the style of.”

Robert Croul, the NEWS antiques columnist, lives in Newburgh.