Painted Furniture

Several years ago, I decided to bring a circa 1820 chest of drawers to an outdoor antique show. A country cabinetmaker fashioned its turned legs and square-like shape out of tulip poplar. An artisan then painted it with a base of soft yellow, and highlighted this coat with green bordering, and rows of flowers, and spandrel fan designs in the corners, giving it vigor. Although such a piece was commonplace once, it is rare and valuable today. One of the biggest misconceptions regarding antiques is that our forefathers loved the appearance of the natural native woods in their furnishings. They did not. That is a fad of this century. As a result, most painted furniture has been stripped and fine-finished to the beautiful bare wood by well-meaning dealers and collectors. Although costly mahogany and walnut (employed in city furniture), and to a lesser extant-cherry, was seldom painted, our rural-living forefathers paint-decorated nearly all their birch, maple, oak, gumwood, pine, and poplar furnishings to brighten their dark, oil-lamp lit homes. *Dealers Note  Looking for traces of this original paint in wood pores is a good way to determine whether various furniture components (feet, the top, a desk's lid, etc.) are original or replacements.

Displaying an expensive country painted piece to audience of regular men and women, compared to an armory full of antique enthusiasts like you'd see at the Hartford Antique Show, a posed problem. This was no fancy hardwood casepiece made from mahogany or walnut. There was no carving. The drawers were fitted with wood knobs instead of polished brasses. Even the paint, which was bold and gutsy in design, did not look valuable. It had crackled from age-shrinkage, and flaked in spots due to dryness. It was worn on the top, and on the edges, and near the knobs. This paint looked much like Victorian (1850-1900) cottage furniture paint that is not highly valued. When people picked up the price tag and noticed it was high as a new pick-up truck, it caused most to lose their breath and look at me as if I had made a mistake with my decimal point. "Am I reading this tag correctly?" they said.

"Yes," they replied. At first, I tried politely to explain why I had attached such a high value to the chest; because gutsy untouched original paint on pre-Victorian furniture is rare and can be highly valued for its folk art appeal, but my words seldom made an impression. I decided it was best to remove the tag and wait for the right collector to come along. P.S. - He did!

I tell you this story to make an impression. Even though, to the untrained eye, it looks as if it should be sold off as junk or stripped to the bare wood, early American furniture retaining original paint can be extremely valuable. Don't strip, sell, or dispose of any such piece without first getting it checked out by an authority. When antique hunting, remember that most "old paint" is not old. It is just made to look that way. Look for dependable provenance, a bone dry surface, subtle wear, and age crazing that has shrunk geometrically. The fakers haven't figured out a way to create spider web like lines with chemicals. If you're spending big money, pay an expert for his or her opinion. Good painted furniture has charm, class, and an undeniable integrity that makes it one of today's safest antique investments.