WEDNESDAY WICKER WISDOM–4 Tips on Buying Antique Wicker
Out buying antique wicker furniture? Looking for the good quality antique wicker piece like the rocker on the left? Not sure how to tell antique wicker from a reproduction?
Here are a few simple tips to help you know what to look in antique wicker and what to watch out for:
1.) Lift the piece up. Is it heavy or lightweight? Generally speaking antique wicker with its hardwood steam-bent frames will be heavier than the reproduction rattan pole framework. Even the rockers on the antique furniture are made of hardwood, but the reproductions are made using large dimension curved rattan poles.
2.) In most instances, antique wicker seats were not made in the circular basketweave design. So if you see a round seat that looks like the bottom of a round basket, you can be reasonably sure that it’s a reproduction, like this one to the left.
3.)Workmanship is by and large, better on the antique wicker than the reproduction; curlicues are all perfectly shaped and uniform without creases or bumps; all the surfaces of the woven reed are smooth to the touch, not hairy and rough.
4.) Under-seat braces are usually made of hardwood dowels in the antique wicker, whereas on the reproductions they are frequently made with twisted wide binding cane and have a thin plywood sheet (or even stiff cardboard) under the seat between the seat and the twisted cane braces.
Visit WickerWoman.com for the free How-to article on “How-to Care for Antique Wicker Furniture”
Happy Antique Wicker Hunting!
