Antique Furniture Near Me: A Guide to Finding Unique Pieces (2024)

11 Decorating

Team Kaiyo

May 28, 2024

Terms like ‘antique,’ ‘vintage,’ and ‘retro’ get used interchangeably, but they aren’t necessarily the same. Antique furniture isn’t just furniture that has been used, it’s furniture with considerable age. If you’ve been typing ‘antique furniture near me’ into your browser, it helps to know exactly what it is before you start your search.

In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of ‘antique’ and how to identify antique furniture. Finally, we’ll share some places to find antique furniture locally and online.

What Makes Furniture Antique?

Antique furniture is typically considered to be anything over 100 years old. If you ask a fine antique dealer, they may insist upon 150 years, but most shops will label furniture over a century old as an antique. Some clear distinguishing factors can date a piece as antique, which we’ll explore further in this article.

Quality craftsmanship, high-end materials, and handmade parts generally mark antiques. An antique should be in its original condition. If not, then any restorations or repairs should have been made using period-accurate materials and techniques.

Signs Your Furniture is Antique

Maker’s Mark

One of the easiest ways to check if a piece of furniture is antique is to check for a maker’s mark. Many antique furniture will come with a mark on the bottom or inside a drawer indicating who made it and when. You may need to cross reference it to other pieces online, but you’ll likely be able to figure out when a piece of furniture was manufactured by its mark or tag.

Wood Type

Antique furniture is often made from two or more types of high-quality, solid woods, including oak, mahogany, walnut, cherry, maple, and rosewood. In America, you’ll also find pine furniture.

Wood Finish

While you might not be able to spot the difference between shellac, lacquer, and varnish, they are indicators of the age of a wooden furniture piece.Here are some common finishes by date.

• Before the 1800s: Oil, wax, or milk paint
• Early 1800s-1930s: Shellac
• After 1920s: Lacquer & Varnish

Drawer Dovetails

Until the Industrial Revolution, furniture was cut and assembled by hand rather than by machines. While the revolution made it possible to mass-produce furniture and serve a lot more people for less, it did mean some significant changes to the way furniture was produced.

On an antique piece that is pre-Industrial Revolution, you’ll be able to find joints that have been dovetailed by hand without exact precision. If the dovetails are close together, evenly spaced, and cut perfectly, then they were likely made by machine.

Straight Vs. Circular Cuts

As the circular saw was also invented during the Industrial Revolution, any furniture piece with circular marks will date to after the mid-1800s. Earlier furniture will have straight cuts.

Lack of Uniformity

Finally, as mentioned above, precise uniformity of construction is a clear indicator that the piece was made after the Industrial Revolution. Handmade furniture will always have some details that are slightly different in size and shape.

Where to Source Antique Furniture Near Me

Forget searching blindly for ‘antique furniture near me.’ Make a plan to find distinctive pieces and stick to it. If you’re a beginner at antiquing, we recommend first browsing around local antique stores. See what you can find and ask questions about pieces you are interested in. The benefit of shopping at antique stores is seeing the piece up close before purchasing. However, you won’t always get the best deal buying from a store. For those with a bit more knowledge of antiques, websites like 1stdibs, Chairish, Ruby Lane, and Invaluable are great for sourcing high-end pieces.