SOME OF you may be fortunate enough to have solid wood furniture,
mostly family heirlooms or picked up at a great price from antique
dealers.
Whether really antique or a good copy, it pays to make sure it
is genuine wood and not just veneer. It is often difficult for
a lay person to tell the difference and wood can be given a finish
to make it appear old. Most older furniture has "dovetail"
joints or use pivots of wood rather than metallic nails in their
joints.
Fittings like knobs and keyholes are likely to be of brass or
iron and not aluminium. Some really old furniture, like sideboards
and chests-of-drawers, may have knobs or handles of ceramic and
decorate glass, combined with metal. These are likely to be genuine
antiques.
Most furniture made in the earlier part of the last century will
have a manufacturer's sign somewhere, like the famed Curzon and
Co of what was then Madras. Old wooden furniture was mostly rosewood,
teak and in a few cases, African mahogany. Irregular grain patterns
and colour that shows even after being scratched, shows it is
genuine wood and not just veneer.
Caring for wooden furniture is not as easy as wiping down today's
laminated furniture. At least once a year, the wooden surfaces
need to be gently rubbed down with fine grained sandpaper and
then carefully given coats of French polish or clear varnish of
the best quality. Clear polyurethane varnishes such as "Touchwood"
are now available in the market and can be applied with a paint
brush. But to really bring out the beauty of a rosewood furniture
with its deep hues and natural grains, several coats of French
polish applied with soft cloth is the best.
Day-to-day caring means preventing scratches and applying spray
polish and wiping down. Genuine wood reacts to heat and teak or
rosewood dining tables will need place mats and coasters to preserve
the surface from hot serving dishes. There are old pieces of furniture
made from lighter coloured wood too, such as jackwood, pine and
white cedar.
Though not as common as teak or rosewood, these too have a beauty
of their own, if lovingly cared for.
They fit in nicely with today's décor because these furniture
are likely to be less heavy and mostly of the Art Deco style of
the 1920s with sleek, streamlined lines.
