Years ago, before the introduction of plastics and resins, even animals’ indoor homes like antique bird cages were considered beautiful pieces of furniture. Of course, some were plain and utilitarian, but many more were actually created in the popular furniture styles of the times. Bird cages were designed to fit into the home’s aesthetic and enhance a room rather than stick out because they were different, or worse, be an eyesore.

Antique bird cages can be quite valuable, depending on the material, the style and the age. An important thing to remember about these cages is that years ago, materials were used that we know aren’t exactly healthy for pets today. Some cages may contain lead-based materials or paint that isn’t healthy for anyone, let alone the occupant of the cage. If you’re looking for a cage that’s not just for decoration, but will be home for your feathered friend, choose a modern cage. You can find bird cages today in many different styles and designs. Just look beyond your local pet shop or pet superstore to the more niche stores and you can find bird cages just as ornate as those from 100 years ago.

If you’re looking at antique bird cages as purely decorative and collectible items, then you can worry much less about the materials and concentrate on the design, instead. You can pay hundreds of dollars for some cages, so it pays to know what you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to spend before you start.

You can be eclectic and collect several different antique bird cages, representing many different styles and cultures, or you can focus on a particular country of origin, or furniture style. You might want to buy only those bird cages that look Georgian or Victorian, with ornate designs and scrolls popular in the furniture of the time. Or you might want only very exotic Tunisian-style bird cages with their recognizable shape and curvy wire design. Wooden bird cages that look like large mansions, or small ones with ornate wire and beadwork—it’s your choice, and you have lots of variety to choose from, especially if you search through online auctions.

Unfortunately, many auctions will say little other than “old bird cage” or “wooden bird cage, looks antique.” If antique bird cages don’t bear a manufacturer’s name, artist’s name or date, it can be difficult to tell how old they are, what materials were used, and even where they came from. Some styles are pretty obvious, as with most Asian bird cages, but other times it can be very difficult to tell a reproduction bird cage from an actual antique. And sometimes the country of origin is just a best guess depending on the style and materials.

Antique bird cages can be stunning pieces of art as well as interesting conversation pieces. In the end, you’ll want to purchase them for their beauty and how much they interest you, rather than their age or whether they’re made of wood or bronze.

Originally posted 2008-12-02 05:00:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Antique doors have much to offer the private collector and many of these, depending on the materials used, and the designer may actually be worth quite a lot of money. Whether you are looking for a collectible that you can put to good use right in your own home, or you are seeking an antique door to complete a period house, there are many different types of doors available.

Pocket Doors

These were very popular in the Victorian era and were commonly used to separate parlors and dining areas from the rest of the house. Typically made of wood and highly ornate, they would slip into a recess in the wall when they were not in use. If you do plan to purchase pocket antique doors to use in your home, be advised you will need to have a niche carved out of your wall and a track system installed in order for it to work properly.

Stained Glass Window Doors

During the arts and crafts period and particularly several hundred years before that era took place, having stained glass windows in doors was incredibly popular. The antique doors you can find today range from simple and elegant to incredibly ornate. The stained glass may even be worth a small fortune in its own right. These doors can add value to any home and they are a beautiful example of craftsmanship.

Carved Doors

The Victorian era and the preceding eras brought us ornate carved wooden antique doors and many of these are still available today. Typically quite large and heavy, some range over twelve feet high, depending on the house where they were installed. These are a beautiful collectible and many are very valuable, especially the ones that are more ornate.

Bar Doors

Believe it or not bar doors, or saloon doors as they were commonly called are actually very popular. These swinging antique doors may have once graced a saloon from the 1800’s when the west was wild. These are a fun collectible, and very useful if you want to block your kitchen off from the rent of the house, but don’t want to go to the trouble of installing a brand new door system.

French Doors

A common fixture in homes in the South and throughout Europe, French doors are a great collectible to have if you are interested in antique doors. Many will still have their original glass panes still intact. These are a great solution for homes where the owner needs to block off a room from the rest of the house without breaking up the visual flow. Commonly, these are used in bedrooms, dens and offices.

These are just a few examples of the types of antique doors you can find today. Head on over to a second hand store, a garage sale or you can go online to find some great deals and rare finds. You never know what you may come across and you may end up with a very valuable antique door.

Photo Credits: René Ehrhardt

Originally posted 2008-09-27 05:29:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Though its peak popularity was during the late 19th century in America, Victorian furniture still holds quite an appeal for many people today. This style of furniture is distinguishable by the time period in which it was created and the methods that were used. The name is given to furniture made during Queen Victoria’s reign from 1836 to 1901, though that time period actually gave way to different styles of furniture that all fell under the umbrella of “Victorian.”

Early Victorian furniture pieces were done in the Rococo style, which copied this period in France. This style is recognizable by the many intricate carvings in the wood. Extensive scrollwork, flowers and animals decorated the furniture—sometimes every inch of it. Scroll feet were very popular in these Rococo revival pieces, as were cabriole legs, which were legs shaped almost like an ‘S.’ Rococo pieces were ornate in a way not commonly seen in American furniture, but these pieces became very popular in American homes.

The newly created mechanical tools that allowed these ornate scrolls and carvings were responsible for much of the intricacy of early Victorian furniture, as was craftsmen’s new ability to used laminated wood. During lamination, one-inch thick stripes of rosewood were glued together to make wood that was 6 to 18 layers thick. Solid wood wasn’t the best medium for detailed engravings and carvings, but the lamination procedure lent itself well to the rococo style.

This Victorian furniture also marked the first time furniture was sold in America in sets, with matching pieces, and the first time furniture was mass produced. Though rococo style is probably the most recognizable style of furniture from this era, gothic style was popular too, with its more medieval look. Most gothic revival Victorian pieces were produced from about 1840 to 1865. Renaissance revival style reigned from about 1860 to 1875, with highly polished and parquet patterned furniture, often featuring brass findings and ornaments to give it a distinctive style.

Victorian furniture was popular in every room of the home, from the bedroom to the dining room, and still enjoys popularity today with antique lovers and interior decorators. Antique pieces can range in price from the reasonable to the expensive, depending on the rarity of the style and the condition of the furniture. If you find an antique piece for sale, be sure to ask whether or not is has been refinished or reupholstered as you’ll want to purchase furniture as close to its original condition as possible to make a good investment.

If it’s the beauty of Victorian furniture you’re after more than the value, then these things matter less. You might even want to look into reproductions. Either way, be sure that the joints are sturdy and the item is in overall decent condition. A refinished and reupholstered piece of this furniture can look gorgeous in your home, so if you don’t mind doing that yourself or having it done, a piece in less than perfect condition might be a great purchase for you.

Originally posted 2008-12-06 14:00:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Dealers -> Furniture -> Desks

When you’re shopping for antique desks, a secretary desk is just one of the many different styles of furniture you’ll find. There are standard desks, of course, elaborate (and now amazingly expensive) Wooten desks, old rolltop desks and variations on all of those. How do you tell the difference between these types of desks and secretary desks?

A secretary desk is distinctive from all these, even though it does have similarities to them all, because of the way the writing area is disguised when the desk is not in use. When the area is covered and the desk is closed, it’s closed off by a piece of flat wood that usually sit an angle when it’s closed. Sometimes this angle is as much as 45 degrees. The rolltop desk has the cover that actually rolls up into the desk, and the Wooten desk very rarely has a flat front, the front is usually curved, carved and very elaborate.

The size of a secretary desk can vary a great deal. The more modern reproductions or even less antique secretary desks tend to be smaller than the ones a hundred years old or more. Many of these desk are quite tall and very heavy. Newer ones might even be built in such a way that they can easily be taken apart, but antique desks were built solidly as a single piece of furniture meant to stay together for hundreds of years.

The hinged panel that hides the open area within the desk actually creates the actual writing surface. There are typically wide drawers on a secretary desk, and sometimes small drawers and small cubbies on the piece of furniture as well, to allow storage for a variety of different items. Older secretary desks might have a tall bookcase above the writing area or even a glassed-in bookcase or set of shelves. The top of these desks often look more like a china cabinet or a curio cabinet than anything belonging on a desk, and when the desk area is closed, it does often look like nothing more than a piece of display furniture.

Unlike a rolltop desk or other type of desk where the panel slides into the desk, everything must be removed from the writing area in order to close the desk, which makes the needs for the drawers and cubbies apparent. While a Wooten desk is similar to a secretary desk, a secretary desk has a more plain appearance. It will look more like a nice curio cabinet, china cabinet or even armoire or dresser on top, with drawers and the hidden work surface below.

Wooten desks are similar to these desks but they simply have a more fancy appearance—and typically sell for thousands of dollars. Secretary desks are the most prevalent type of antique desk available today, a type of desk once so popular it was commonly referred to as simply “a secretary.” You can find an antique secretary desk in antique shops, at flea markets and in online auctions like eBay.

Originally posted 2008-11-15 05:00:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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A curio cabinet is a piece of furniture that encompasses so many different varieties that it’s hard to sum up in a short space. The thing each one has in common is that it allows for “curios” to be displayed. Knick-knacks, trinkets, collectibles and other small, and sometimes fairly large, items can be displayed in a curio cabinet. Some will have glass fronts on the doors so that the items are protected from dust while on display, in fact most will have some sort of glass-fronted display on at least part of the cabinet. Others have open shelves, or some open areas for trinkets alone with the glass-covered main portion of the cabinet.

If you’re looking to buy a curio cabinet, obviously you can look for an antique or vintage cabinet in antique shops or flea markets, or maybe even yard sales. Often people won’t realize that fine piece of furniture might be valuable and worth hanging onto simply because they’re tired of it and want something new. Online auctions like eBay are a great place to look for a curio cabinet because you’ll find such a wide variety of different sizes, shapes and styles there at one time, instead of being limited to the few you might find in an antique shop each time you visit.

And you have the option of purchasing a new curio cabinet through a store or eBay as well. The newer cabinets are sometimes made to look like a brand new, modern piece of furniture and other times they’re made to look as vintage as possible. Very cheaply made curio cabinets don’t seem to reach for either of those, they’re simply cheap or pressed wood cabinets that allow for display, with very little character as a stand alone piece of furniture.

The best way to approach the purchase of a curio cabinet is first to decide what you’ll do with it. If you already have a collection you want to display, that will narrow down your choices and make it easier. Plan where you’ll put the cabinet. Then you’ll know about how large the cabinet needs to be and how much room it will need to have in order to display your collection. Then you’ll need to decide between vintage or new, depending on your personal tastes.

If you want a curio cabinet for its own beauty, then you’ll almost always want to shop for a vintage cabinet. Many of these cabinets, even though they might be well over 100 years old, were display pieces in their own right, quite beautiful even before the knick-knacks were added to them. If it’s the appearance of a fine, vintage piece of furniture you’re after, then the size and shape of the cabinet will be less important to you. Decide where the cabinet will go in your home and you’ll know whether you want a short, small cabinet or a large, tall one with lots of room for your favorite collectibles to be displayed.

Originally posted 2008-11-19 05:00:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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A sideboard is a piece of furniture used to display China or to set food out while dining. The sideboards we’re familiar with first appeared in the 1700s, but became more popular in the 1800s when more people had dining rooms to eat in, and fewer people ate in their kitchens. Today, sideboards are often referred to as servers, buffets and credenzas.

Commonly made of oak or pine, a sideboard can be just a column for food to be placed on top of with some drawers for things like silverware, or it can be taller with shelves, sometimes glassed-in rather like a hutch. Home’s today will usually have a China cabinet or a hutch, but sideboards seem to have gone out of vogue in modern dining rooms. Some people still have vintage furniture that was used as sideboards back when more people ate from good dishes or China in a dining room, rather than using everyday dishes for most meals like is common today.

A sideboard can vary in price and value depending on the type of wood used, the style, the time period and the condition. Some Arts & Crafts period sideboards can cost well over $1000, and some Victorian period pieces can go well above that price, while some smaller and more modern sideboards can be had for only a few hundred dollars. Estate auctions are great places to find a sideboard. You can probably find one cheaper at an estate auction than you’ll ever find in an antique store.

Online auctions offer a huge variety of furniture, more than you will probably ever find in one estate auction or antique shop, but the size of the items can make shipping costs prohibitive. Still, if it’s worth it to you to pay fairly exorbitant shipping costs for such a large and usually heavy item, then you might enjoy browsing the dozens and sometimes hundreds of different sideboards available at places like eBay.

An oak sideboard from the early 19th century will most like be more valuable than anything produced in the 20th century, but it’s possible to find a situation where that isn’t true. Spending some time learning about the different furniture styles and manufacturers can only help you in your search for a valuable vintage sideboard.

If you can talk to an antique dealer or a seller and sound knowledgeable about revival styles like Arts & Crafts, Mission, Victorian, Gothic, Spanish and Renaissance style, you’ll be much less likely to end up paying far too much for a piece because the seller will guess that you know about what a piece might be worth. And knowing these furniture periods will help you estimate the value of a piece. Not only will you know if a seller is charging far too much for a sideboard, but you’ll also know when they’re charging far too less. Always ask about damage, whether it has replacement hardware, and whether the piece has been refinished, all things that can drop the value drastically

Originally posted 2008-12-08 05:00:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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• Art Deco Furniture Antiques -> Periods and Styles -> Art Deco Art deco furniture antiques are highly sought after and are often very unique pieces. If you love this time period, or if you are simply looking for furniture that transcends the every day mundane design, art deco furniture is the perfect choice.......
• Barrister Bookcase   Dealers -> Furniture -> Bookcases Patented in 1892, a barrister bookcase is a special type of bookcase that's enclosed with clear glass covering the front, differentiating it from a typical open-shelf bookcase. These bookcases got their start in the UK, but became popular worldwide because of their unique stackable......
• Antique Collection Some people falsely believe that the passion for accumulating a variety of antique treasures in an antique collection is an addiction, such as being a pack rat, but this is not actually true. The truth about going antiquing is that while it may be infectious, it is certainly not a......
• Antique Bird Cages Dealers -> Antiques -> Decorative-Arts Years ago, before the introduction of plastics and resins, even animals’ indoor homes like antique bird cages were considered beautiful pieces of furniture. Of course, some were plain and utilitarian, but many more were actually created in the popular furniture styles of the times. Bird......

• Learning How to Deal with a Coin Collector: 4 Tips to Success The world of coin collection is interesting and full of connections, with each coin collector working with other coin dealers to get the piece that they want. Those who are interested in serious coin collecting need to be well versed in the art of the sale, understanding what they should......
• How to Distress Furniture Perhaps you own a dresser that isn’t quite your style.  Or it could be that you have a pair of end tables that are looking rather ragged.  In either of these cases, you may be considering purchasing new furniture replacement pieces.  But, that isn’t your only option.  You may want......
• Pay Attention to the Amish if You Aspire to Build Furniture Lasting Generations Once upon a time, there was no such thing as IKEA. Furniture didn't come in boxes and it wasn't made out of painted particle board. It meant that a table or a book shelf wasn't a cheap afterthought: furniture was valuable property that could easily cost a fortune. But this......
• Finding Great Coins at Coin Auction There are many different ways you can add coins to your collection. You can purchase them through other collectors. You can purchase them through coin shops. You can even have them handed down to you from people you know including family members. One of the ways which is becoming more......
• Things to Avoid When Collecting Rare Coins and Old Money The world of coin collecting revolves around many types of currency, including rare coins and old money. These types of coins and currency are the hardest to find, and are the most sought after. People will make brainless decisions about these types of currency simply because they want to be......

• Victorian Vintage Greeting Cards Paper Collectibles
• Vintage Gun Parts Vintage Hunting
• Compotes, Dishes, Jars Glass Decorative Arts Antiques
• Benches Childrens Furniture Furniture Home Store
• Correspondence, Mail United States Original Period Items WW II (1939-45) Militaria Collectibles