How to Tell If Something Is an Antique Or a Replica?

Many people today have the hobby of buying antiques and proudly displaying them in their houses. Antiques do make for an excellent décor, and with the amazing number of excellent finds still available for reasonable prices at different sales throughout the country, it is a wonderful pastime indeed.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of disreputable sellers that often sell the modern replicas as antiques, and with the replica market growing significantly over the past years, the replicated pieces seem so realistic that even an expert might find it difficult to tell them apart. You can browse www.modterior.com/Barcelona-Chair-Replica.html to know more about Barcelona chair replica.

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Replicas while impressive are beyond any doubt not in the same league as the antiques and definitely not worth the same value, and many a time innocent buyers’ end up getting home with something they paid a fortune for, but are actually worth very little. To avoid being taken in for the purchase here are a few pointers for you to take a look at.

Telling an antique from a replica is certainly a difficult art, you must know what to look for and what questions to ask. But most importantly what you need is a keen eye that can spot the clues which reference the materials and manufacturing process during a particular era.

Examining the materials closely is very important; antiques are known to use cheaper woods in places that aren’t visible while replicas use the same material all over. Similarly, upholstery stuffing can also shed light on the authenticity of a piece, while horse hair and hay were used to stuff furniture previously, synthetics took over in the early twentieth century.

Wear and tear features in antiques are often uneven owing to the years of use. Some parts show more signs of wear than others, for example, the arm piece of a chair; however when it comes to replicas, being artificially distressed, and the wear of the piece is uniform throughout.

Another important factor is the handmade details. While handcrafted pieces are uneven and asymmetrical, having jagged edges, those made from machines are smooth and have more regular features. Furthermore, hardware used in antiques is very different from the ones used in replicas, and so are the manufacture processes.

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