Color and Patina in Antique Furniture
A wonderful way to detect fakes or alternations!
Most antique furniture isn't the same color all over, grooves and carving will look darker, surfaces exposed to sunlight may be lighter. A patina is the glow the wood develops over the years from an accumulation of wax polish and dirt.
That unique 'glow' is also one of the most important elements to detect fake or alternated furniture, because it is next to impossible for the faker or restorer to simulate. A surface which carries an undisturbed and uniform color suggests repolishing, which may have been carried out to facilitate a customer's requirement or hide some alterations, or both.
Experts recognize a good original surface, it is no accident that the homes of dealers who collect antique furniture are full of beautifully colored and naturally patinated pieces. When such a piece comes up at auction the price realized usually goes well over the estimate.
So to summarize the importance of an original patina:
1. Aesthetic appreciation
2. Protection against fakes and improvements
3. The extra value which is increasingly involved
Human patination
Color and patina are sometimes assisted by people in a more direct manner than polishing. It is important to look at the places where fingers will have deposited oily sweat, where dirt will have accumulated to provide a black layer on unpolished surfaces. The underside of a flap of a Gateleg table should have a 'crossbanding' of such dark patina and if it is absent then questions arise. This human patination on unpolished as well as polished wood is usually present when a piece is in untouched condition. Small tables and chairs are lifted and carried, drawers are handled.
When examining furniture, look for other forms of wear and use. The gate of a Gateleg table will form a scratched arc on the underside of the table. Does the arc conform to the present movement of the leg?
Below are a few examples that illustrate the importance of recognizing original colors and patina in antique furniture.
Example 1:
A mahogany George III tallboy of the late 1760s but more desirable than most, because it has an attractive curved pediment with a fretted decoration.
However, the top moulding has faded much more than the rest of the piece which suggests a later 'improvement'.
The implication here is that it was improved some years ago by the addition of a carved pediment replacing the original plain one. But the cabinet maker used a different quality of wood from the rest of the piece which was probably completely repolished at the time and sold with a uniform color. The piece was placed in strong light which gradually bleached out the stain used to match up the color of what was probably a softer, less dense wood. Now the difference is blatant and the improvement exposed.
Now don't get me wrong, the chest-on-chest is a perfectly good, usable object of antique furniture. All that is necessary is that the collector should be aware that he is buying a piece which has been altered in an attempt to enhance its desirability and hence value!
Example 2:
Example 2 is an elegant mahogany breakfast table of the first years of the 19th century. It has stood in strong light over a period of time. In the middle was placed a square or rectangular object which has protected the surface from light and left a light brown patch. The rest of the table has gradually gone down to a silver grey, as has the crossbanding.
What will be dealer who buys this do? He has a range of choices;
1. Rub down the top hard and repolish - perhaps even repolish the whole table so that the color matches the present color of the legs.
2. Rub down gently attempting to make the whole top the light brown color of the centre piece.
3. Break the hard edge of the brown area on the left so that it merges in with the silver grey gradually, as does the color on the right foreground.
4. Give it a good polish as it is, leaving the shades of silver grey.
What actually happens will depend on the dealer and the tastes of his clients.
Example 3:
Example 3 is a Georgian mahogany double-sided desk of the very end of the 18th century. Strong light (but not necessarily sunlight) has concentrated on the front, particularly on the left-hand side where the surface has gone grey and is starting to acquire the silver grey patina which we saw on the tripod. The right-hand side has not had the same exposure and retains the deep dark polish which, perhaps in darker form, was the color of the piece originally. The right-hand door, particularly at the bottom, has not had the same degree of exposure to light and retains some color.
The purchaser will be faced with the same range of alternatives as on the previous example, but there are some complications.
First he will have to make a plinth to go round the base. He will have to patch the left-hand side and take a decision on
how to deal with the extra holes made by the later wooden handles. The preferred solution - to the admirer of patination anyway - would be to make the plinth out of old wood and bleach it down artificially, clean the bottom of both doors gently and try to achieve a gentle gradation of color from the dark bottom to the silver grey top.
That leaves the patching and the piece missing on the top left. Old faded wood, if it were available, would be ideal. If not, a piece would have to be bleached right out in an attempt to simulate the silver grey.
The handle holes remain an intractable problem and might well dissuade a purist from attempting the restoration. Almost
certainly this piece will be stripped and repolished.
Silver grey is only one of several colors to which mahogany can fade. As a broad generalization, the earliest used mahoganies like the dark, heavy Spanish San Domingo fade to a silvery grey. Cuban mahogany, which became popular in the mid-century, because of the fine line of the grain, goes down to grey-yellow and then almost white, while Honduras, which is a poor, inferior, grainless wood used extensively towards the end of the century, goes down to an unattractive yellow patina.
Example 4:
Example 4 is in fact a good Regency mahogany sideboard of the 1820s with carefully chosen decorative veneers; by putting two consecutive curls opposite each other a 'feather pattern' is produced, a typical use of Cuban mahogany. You can see this dark swirl effect clearly on the edges of the low recessed central drawer where the effect of light has been least strong.
The dark color has now gone from the bottom of the drawer fronts. (Incidentally, it is not unusual for time and light to lift and crack the dark areas and this should be seen as a plus, not a minus.) The edges of the curved side drawers show the light yellow patina with a touch of grey where the less dense grain has lost the most color. Notice also the bleached lighter color of the lions' pale noses, and the dark round the handles and where the projecting legs have shielded the wood.
This piece has clearly not been altered or restored. For one reason, up until the mid-1980s it would have been worth only a few hundred dollars and been more likely to have been seen as a 'breaker' (broken up to provide wood) than 'improved'. With the move to the neo-classical the picture is very different.
Example 5:
Example 5 is a double-sided library table, c.1820, in what auctioneers traditionally describe as 'distressed condition'. As it now appears the color is not attractive, ranging from a dark reddish brown on the right-hand side drawer to a pale color on the bottom rail.
This piece has probably been French polished and the materials used have corrupted into a thick opaque layer which, instead of highlighting the wood as was intended and providing a shiny polish, now obscures it.
At the rounded ends there are two distinct shades - the dark color where the old polish still clings and the lighter where it has been dislodged.
Also you can see in the area where the later Victorian knobs are now missing a lighter color which is probably nearer to the original French polish finish.
In this case there is no option but to clean and refinish.
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