PP421-OOO - Understanding Antique Furniture Today
Category: Personal Property
Continuing Education: 16.8
Registration
Please see the "Upcoming Classes" tab for class offerings and registration information.
Course Description
This class will focus on identifying the age, country of origin and
authenticity of furniture produced in Europe, Britain and America during the
18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Such furniture may look similar at first glance,
but accurate identification of specific woods, hardware and manufacturing
techniques can aid the careful observer in documenting the age and country of
origin. The course will also address realities of the current market and
credible ways to support professional opinions with facts. Participants
will:
- Compare industrial and pre-industrial construction
techniques, tools and materials;
- Review social, political and economic issues that
influenced furniture making;
- Recognize how these social, political and economic
factors aid in identifying and dating furniture;
- Identify common and not-so-common fakes, forgeries
and “enhancements”;
- Make direct comparisons between 20th-century
reproductions and period originals;
- Integrate visual connoisseurship with scientific
evaluation;
- Note current guidelines for conservation and
restoration;
- Practice deductive reasoning techniques to develop
confidence in identifying furniture;
- Improve description-writing skills; and
- Practice preparing condition reports.
Note: Non-flash photography is permitted in the galleries.
Instructional
Methods
In this two-day class, Nancy Alison Martin, ASA and furniture conservator W.
Patrick Edwards will provide lecture, interactive discussion and hands-on
insight into the styles, woods, hardware, upholstery and construction techniques
employed in American and European antique furniture. Methods of
instruction include:
- Lecture, in-class discussion and a PowerPoint
presentation;
- Two-hour tour of the museum’s furniture collections
with The Huntington Library’s Curator Catherine Hess and conservator W.
Patrick Edwards;
- Hands-on participation using period furniture, parts of
furniture, various upholstery foundation and period hardware; and
- Thorough review of valuable resources.
Pre-Course Preparation
View the 1-hour 2016 ASA Webinar: Basic Furniture
Construction from the 17th to the 20th Century by Susan Golashovsky (No charge
to course participants.) - Once you purchase this class, it will be available in
the “My Downloads” tab immediately following registration, next to “My
Purchases” when the registrant is logged into ASA Central (the same general area they go to navigate to
“My ASA Courses”. That’s where they can access the recording and any accompanying
PPT PDF files.
Required Reading
- Kaye, Myrna. Fake, Fraud, Or Genuine?, Little Brown and Company, Canada,
1987.
ISBN#: 978-0821218259 - Miller, Judith. A Closer Look at Antiques,
London, England: Marshall Publishing, 2001.
ISBN#: 978-0821227343 - Read/review
the entire furniture section of the book, focusing on Style and
Terminology.
Suggested Reading
- Fitzgerald, Oscar P., Four Centuries of American
Furniture, Wallace-Homestead Book Company, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 1995.
ISBN #0870697412Payne, Christopher, European Furniture of the 19th Century,
Antique Collectors Club, Suffolk, England, 2013. ISBN #1851496262
- Payne, Christopher, European Furniture of the 19th Century, Antique
Collectors Club, Suffolk, England, 2013. ISBN
#1851496262
No prerequisites for this course.
Agenda
Classes will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with morning
and afternoon breaks and time for lunch (on your own). Please note that the
Huntington grounds do not open until 8:30 a.m.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, student will be
able to:
- Distinguish between original antique furniture,
revival antique furniture and modern reproduction;
- Examine changes in furniture-making techniques over
three centuries;
- Differentiate various woods commonly used in the 19th
century vs. those of the 18th and 20th-centuries; and
- Build vocabulary concerning furniture anatomy and
ornamentation.