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June 2020 - Antique Shoppe - 5
COMMON SENSE
ANTIQUES
CHEAP TRICKS – FAKE FINISHES
The vertical striped banding below the drawer looks like zebra wood veneer,
but it is printed paper known as “veneerite.”
You can see where it has worn off in the middle section.
Throughout most of the
history of wooden furniture some
attempts have been made to
disguise the true nature of the
wood used. Most attempts are
efforts to make a lesser wood
appear to be a more expensive,
more beautiful or more exotic
species. It may be that the desired
wood is too expensive for the
maker to use or it might be that
it is just not available at any price
- or it could be that the maker just
thought he could do it cheaper
and get away with it. Some of
the cosmetic charades have been
quite artful and ingenious while
some have been heavy handed,
clumsy and obvious.
In the 18th and 19th centuries
some furniture made of lesser
quality wood was just painted to
conceal the actual construction.
But another school of makers used
graining as a method of disguising
the true material. In the late 18th
century the graining of cabinets
was in full swing. Many of these
examples are works of art such as
the chest on chest made by the
Dunlap family of cabinetmakers
in New Hampshire that sold at
auction in North Carolina in 2005
for $276,000. The cabinet looked
like real wood even to the trained
eye. A more common application
was the use of black ink over a
reddish background to simulate
By Fred Taylor
the look of rosewood. This became
especially popular in the mid-19th
century when rosewood Empire
pieces were at a premium. Walnut
Victorian chairs were often given a
red wash and grained with black to
look like the much more expensive
rosewood. Even crotch cut
mahogany was widely synthesized
since it has such an erratic pattern
and almost any graining technique
will work. Many mid-century
crotch mahogany cupboards are
actually painted pine or poplar.
Most of this kind of work was
done by individual cabinetmakers
or artists.
However, by the end of the
19th-century the deception
became commercial rather than
individual. In 1885 an inventor
in Grand Rapids named Harry
Sherwood came up with a system
to mechanically grain just about
any wood to look like the most
popular wood of the time, quarter
cut golden oak. Quarter cutting
oak to produce the prominent
“tiger eye” design is an expensive
process both in material and in
labor time and this new system
allowed Sherwood to open a new
business based exclusively on
his deceptive graining practices.
Flat surfaces were stained and
then grained with large inked
drum rollers that produced the
distinctive pattern. Curved pieces
were grained by hand using small One wood widely used was called
specially carved rollers. Many Oriental or Australian walnut,
furniture manufacturers of the
a uniformly striped wood often
time quickly adopted the technique used on drawer fronts in diamond
patterns. Another popular wood
and it was in widespread use by
1910. The furniture looked “right” used in banding was the closely
striped zebra wood or zebrano.
to the uneducated customer’s eye,
but it was made of significantly But zebrano was costly for the time
less expensive material like and in less expensive pieces it was
softwood pine instead of quarter often successfully simulated with
cut white oak. The surprise would “veneerite”, fake paper veneer
come many years later when one with the grain pattern printed on
of these pieces needed to be it.
refinished. What had looked like After the Depression era, the
a solid oak chest turned out to be need for deception seemed to
a plain softwood chest after it was diminish for a while. It was virtually
stripped. Many refinishers had a gone in the 1950s, 60s and 70s
lot of explaining to do. but it showed back up with a
That problem continued with vengeance in the 1980s sporting a
a vengeance into the Depression new name and a new game. This
era. Hard times result in innovative time the trickery was touted as the
solutions and some manufacturers “engraved” finish. What appeared
took Mr. Sherwood’s approach to to be virtually identical dining
new heights. During the 1920s and tables could be seen on furniture
1930s a line of furniture was mass showroom floors, but the prices
produced that closely imitated were significantly different, often
Sherwood’s concept except in by more than $1,000 for a single
scale. In the 1920s the deception table. Why? Because one table
was much more widespread. The was made with mahogany veneer,
furniture was quickly constructed the expensive one, while the
of inexpensive wood using cheaper model had an engraved
every shortcut known to the mahogany finish. What’s that? It
industry including the absence was back to the old borax trick.
of dust covers inside cabinets, It was a printed finish. And not
the use of quick machine cut only was it a printed finish, it was
rabbet joints or nailed joints in not even printed directly on the
drawer construction instead of wood as the borax finish was. The
dovetails and the use of printed new engraved finish was printed
or rolled grained finishes made to directly on the new substrate
resemble real wood. Then areas known as “MDF.” That stands for
of the flat surfaces were outlined “medium density fiberboard”. It
with thin router lines and the is called heavy duty cardboard by
included areas received another the rest of us. Learn to detect fake
layer of color. The effect was that finishes.
of an expensively and artistically Send your comments, questions and pictures to
veneered piece of furniture. This me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or email
type of furniture was referred to me at info@furnituredetective.com
Visit Fred’s website www.furnituredetective.
as “Borax” furniture because a com and check out the downloadable “Common
cleaning product containing borax Sense Antiques” columns in .pdf format. His book
gave away coupons to redeem for “HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIVE” is now
cheap furniture like this. During available for $18.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Send check
or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box
the Depression the word borax 215, Crystal River, FL 34423
Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “IDENTIFICATION OF
came to mean cheap when used OLDER & ANTIQUE FURNITURE”, ($17.00 + $3.00
in reference to furniture. S&H) are also available at the same address. For
Another great deception in more information call (800) 387-6377 (9AM-4PM
furniture was reserved for the Art Eastern, M-F only), fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail
info@furnituredetective.com.
Moderne (Art Deco) period. Part All items are also available directly from the
of the allure of many pieces of website, www.furnituredetective.com
the period was the wide variety of
woods and veneers used to create
the outstanding veneer patterns.