Determining antique age of furniture is mentioned here for comparison purposes only.
Furniture age
Ceramics age
Determining antique age requires before all lots of experience. Over time, after you have seen many genuine and fake antiques you will get the feeling for separating the two. The same happens with antiques' age. Slowly you learn to recognize the signs of age that distinguish an old or antique item from a new or recently made one.
Furniture age (as an example) Additional knowledge is often of great help. In the case of furniture, for example, the best background for determining whether furniture is old or relatively new, vintage, etc., probably is that of a woodworker, or better still a restorer who works with both old and new wood. He can recognize not only the wood type, but also whether it is old, or made to look old. He is also able to recognize whether joints, etc. were made with hand tools, etc., if a piece of furniture was restored and to what a degree. A collector or dealer will only be able to recognize some of the age signs as fake or genuine after many years.
Ceramics age With ceramics this is basically the same. A warning to those who already collect or handle furniture and other antiques. You cannot expect ceramics to have the same old feeling or judge by a patina. 200 year old porcelain can look very new to the untrained eye, and old-looking ceramics often have been cleverly faked to look old. Additional learning is indispensable in this special field to acquire the knowledge to recognize age signs and differentiate them from fake ones. Basic knowledge of ancient kiln firing methods is of advantage. Determining antique age is only possible after the presence of artificial age signs can be excluded.
Yes, china and pottery do age too! Their age is often less obvious, however, and after 200 years some pieces still look pretty new. Many years of experience come in handy when identifying age signs. When it comes to porcelain or cermaics, nothing equals experience made through inspecting hundreds or even thousands of ceramic items, both fake and genuine. Right ... fakes are necessary too! Sometimes you just can't identify age properly unless you know both.
