WEBVTT - How Antiques Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:17.520 From House stoff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.919 the podcast. Yes, it's about antiques on Josh Clark. There's 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:25.040 a very eager, strangely eager Charles W. Chuck Bryant, uh, 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.640 and this is stuff you should know. The podcast, the 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.280 hundred year old podcast at least makes us an antique. 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.360 Do you can tell though from the hair in my 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:39.800 ears that I'm getting up there? Yeah? Nose hair, ear hair. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.400 That's That's the joke about man, right, is that hair 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.920 leaves the places you want it and accumulates where you 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:51.919 don't want so, Chuck Um, you know how you think 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.920 about certain things, and uh, you come across like a 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:00.320 concept like antiques. You're collecting and buying and selling of 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.240 old stuff. That's my definition. But I think it's pretty 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.479 much dead on um And you think this has always 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.400 been around and you stop and think, no, that's probably 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.399 not true. So when did it start? And I am 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:17.280 very gratified to say we know when the popular obsession 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.959 with antiques began? Isn't that weird? I didn't know this 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.000 until I read this, and it actually ties in with 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.920 the other one recording today, Volcanos. So here's a little 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.120 piece of trivia for you that will eventually appear on 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:36.600 a quiz. How are antiques and the volcanoes podcast related? 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:42.759 Strange glue Herculaneum and Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius binds these two, right, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.560 So tell them about it, Chuckers. Well, there was a 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.800 big old eruption in seventy nine, a d of Vesuvius, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.800 and it pretty much buried Pompeii and the sister city, 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:58.480 Herculaneum between about twenty ft of junk of ash. Well, 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.240 we'll get to that in the vault, which is not 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.520 you know, that's a bad thing for all the people there, 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.840 but the bad thing who died screaming, but it preserved 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.959 them dying screaming. I used to be so obsessed with that, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.959 with national anything I could get my hands on, and 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.040 it was like, look at that skeleton crawling towards the sea. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.080 Look at this guy who was caught in a boat's yeah, 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.480 I loved it. So uh many years after that, Charles 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.760 the third of Spain and the seventeen early sevent undred 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:32.399 said hey, let's go dig this stuff up and see 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.000 what we can find. And it turns out they found 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.919 a bunch of well preserved antiques and they became like, wow, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.600 old stuff is cool. Right, So these two entire cities 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.880 were basically frozen in time and protected from looters, and 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.880 they started bringing these treasures up and it actually sparked 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:53.240 the neo classical period or movement, I guess in Europe, 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.760 and that was like the antiques right, and then in America. 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:02.000 So that's worldwide antiques or at least western uh popularity 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.600 of antiques. Right, what about American? Right? We can actually 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.320 trace the moment where Americans get interested in antiques too. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.639 It's it's I love this very cool. Once again, our 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.040 our seventeen seventy six. You know, America is a young, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.480 budding country. A hundred years later, we celebrate our first 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.240 little centennial in Philadelphia and they said, hey, you know what, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.200 We've got a hundred years worth of stuff we've been 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.079 making and let's let's showcase this. And all of a 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.320 sudden people were like the same thing, like wow, this 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.080 is kind of cool. I like this old stuff that 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.040 we've got. That's exactly right, And that sparked an interest 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.280 in early American furniture, I think to start with, right, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:40.360 I'm gonna start buying it and I'm gonna start collecting it, 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.040 and it became a commodity. Right. So, Um, the the 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.960 eighteen seventies six exposition was what sparked an interest in 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.760 antiques in the US. Uh. And if you so, we're 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.680 going to focus mostly on American antiques, and by mostly 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.120 I mean exclusively, right, Well, a little Europe thrown in, Okay, 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.040 so not exclusively, but mostly was. Um. But if you 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.640 are an antique collector today, and you are a very 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:09.240 puritanical one could say antique collector, um, you're probably going 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.120 to say that anything prior to eighteen thirty, UM, in 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:19.280 America and probably anywhere is an antique. Anything after it's 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.360 kind of up in the air. And the reason being 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.720 is around eighteen thirty the Industrial Revolution started. People stopped 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.800 using like dovetailed joints that they sawed by hand or 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.040 whittled down by hand and using wooden pegs and started 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.120 using machines. Stopped. But yeah, well it fell for mass 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.960 manufacturing exactly. So this advent of mass manufacturing led to 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.279 a huge boom in um in in production. Coupled with 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.080 this new interest post like eighteen seventy six in early 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:54.440 American furniture, and so a revival of these styles, right, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.239 So you have mass manufacturing and a revival of interest 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.680 in early American styles mean that you have a lot 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:05.080 of reproduction furniture being produced. Yeah, but reproduction furniture is 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.760 is what you want us the real deal, right, which 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.200 is period. So period is something made in the style 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.240 of the period in the age in that age like 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:18.720 Queen Anne. Sure not Queen Anne reproduction or Chippendale reproduction, which, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:23.040 by the way, is the sexiest furniture period in American 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.159 history if you ask me. Those uh the little cuffs 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.279 and nothing. But yeah, yeah, I'll a picture when I 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:34.679 hear that is swayzy and what a classic one. Heppa White, Cheriton, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.760 Duncan Fife, just a name of you, Yes, of our heroes. Yeah, 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.680 those are the those are the big ones. And I'm 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.400 sure if you're really into this you could you can 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.400 be like Duncan Fife. Yeah. I go for Duncan Hines. Yeah, 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.760 Duncan Chic. Remember that guy. It sounds really familiar. He 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.080 hes a singer. He had a song which one I 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.960 can't remember he was. He's a one hit guy. Well, Chuck, yes, Uh, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:02.760 if you are getting in do antiques, right, you probably 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.920 already know all this stuff. Um way into it. But 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.880 let's say let's say that you are you really uh no, 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:14.080 I'm into walking around antique flea markets, but I'm not. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.480 I don't know you know what I'm doing. I just 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.320 like tooling around and poking things. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Um. 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.520 I think Billy Bob Thornton wrote possibly one of the 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.120 greatest lines in the history of film, and he said 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.320 something about he made um Dwight yoakum saying sling blade 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.320 that he can barely drink a glass water around a 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:36.560 piece of antique furniture. So awful and so funny in 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.080 that movie at the same time. It's a good line. Um. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.560 I like walking around antique places too. I don't like 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.880 encountering antique wheelchairs or antique medical equipment. I love that stuff. 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.560 It's so freaky. Well, I don't use it. But yeah, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:55.279 well you really shouldn't like probably not sterile any longer. Um. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.760 But okay, so let's let's say that you are not 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.880 completely versed in in antiques what to look for. We're 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.680 gonna give you a brief primer here, and since we 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:08.039 are owned by Discovery Communications aka the Discovery Channel, we 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.880 get to draw from the company well and talk to 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.360 people once in a while who have shows on Discovery, 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.360 specifically in this one, a guy named Paul Brown who 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.080 heads up a show called Auction Kings. Right, he owns 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.200 a Gallery sixty three which is literally just up the 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.320 road a piece from a San Roswell road. I'm gonna 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.840 have to visit that. And he is a an auction king. 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:30.960 I've seen it myself with my own eyes, and we 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.760 talked to him actually, so he's gonna come in a 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.880 little bit um here there. When you hear someone that 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.920 sounds like they're on the telephone and it's not us, right, yeah, 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.760 well we'll we'll teake him up a little better than that. 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:44.320 But that to give rule of thumb I think for 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.320 this one. Um. But what Paul says and what it 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.800 what it expresses in this article how antiques work, um, 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.880 is that the first way to differentiate a real antique, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.520 a period piece from a reproduction piece, um and kind 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.600 of get an idea of how much value this thing 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.520 is gonna hold ultimately is just by looking it over. 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.040 That's the first best thing you can do is take 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.440 a really good hard look at it, right, So, uh, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.960 what are some of the things we're looking for? Well, uh, 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.720 just at first glance, I would say overall condition, like 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:19.840 what kind of shape it's in. And this is not 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.880 to determine whether it's real or fake. This is just 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.760 if you're assuming it's a real antique because apparently high 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.000 quality fakes. Don't be afraid of that, because it's pretty 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.079 rare to to pass one off, to try and pass 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.360 one off, although Paul said in an interview that he 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.440 just came across one right, like he had gotten off 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.000 a call with a buddy who informed him that something 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.520 he was thinking about or somebody was trying to sell 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.280 him was in fact a fake faberge, like right before 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.839 we interviewed him. So he said, it does happen. It's 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.360 very uncommon, especially with furniture too. It's so difficult to 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.280 do this. So what you're really looking for is not 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.880 necessarily a counterfeit, but a reproduction, right it exactly? So, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.160 um here here's here are a couple of tips that 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.319 Paul gave us. Right, a cursory glance will tell you'll 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.199 tell a lot of tales I mean even to to 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.880 an inexperienced eye, if you open up the doors and 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.920 you see there, you know, nails or uh holding it 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.120 together rather than dovetails in Morrison tennant joints, and you 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:22.880 know it's probably of later manufacturer. Um. You know, evenly 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.200 evenly cut nails were not even made until you know 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.080 this center. We're not this century, laugh, it's the twentieth century. 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.240 It's probably that the most nails were handmade. And so 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.360 if you've got a lot of evenly cut nails looks 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.000 like they were driven in there with a nail gun, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.200 you know, that's that's a big that's a big tip off. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.760 So there's a couple of things you look for in Yeah, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.400 I mean craftsmanship, how it was put together is uh. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.559 I mean they're still craftsman today doing things in the 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.080 old school way, but by and large when you look 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:56.400 at the joints and the tools might leave marks, yes, um, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.480 hardware used like nails, Like Paul said, Yeah, so that's 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:01.680 what you're gonna look forward to determine if it was 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.880 you know, probably a reproduction or not. And then what 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.080 the stuff is made out of is actually going to 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.679 um leave a lot of clues to specifically with furniture. Um, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.600 the wood used, it's very important. Right, So for example, chuck, 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.560 you've got um. Like walnut was very popular with Queen Anne, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.920 which apparently ran from the early eighteenth century to about 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.800 seventeen fifty when Chippendale took over. Right, we know so 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.040 much about the wood used an antique furniture. It's a uh, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.640 Mahogany came in the fashion after that, right, and then 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.040 a cherry, which is sort of like mahogany, it's just 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.480 a little paler, very strong and abundant here in the 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.520 old us of A. So that was pretty popular as well. Yeah, 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.200 oak has always been popular. Yeah. Oka is especially popular 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.720 among Europeans before the beginning of the eighteenth century, and 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:54.120 then it had some renewed popularity in America around nineteen hundred. 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.640 I personally don't go for oak that much. I like 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.360 either really pale blonde maple, hate wind. Do you really 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.960 like maple? I just don't like pale. I don't like 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.199 blond wood. It reminds me of ikea. Yeah, I think 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:08.720 it's one of the reasons I like it that look 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.160 it's like minimal and it's really cold outside. Uh. And 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:17.560 then Chuck there's also um pine, right, poor pine. Pine 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.360 is um. Well, let's just go ahead and say it. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.160 It's the the poor person's would when you're manufacturing furniture, 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.480 your country folk, your rural you just want a chair 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.200 to sit in. Maybe you're really good at making a chair, 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.000 so a hundred and fifty two hundred years later, somebody 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.840 wants to pay top dollar for that. But for the 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.640 most part, pine is used for the undersides of the backings, uh, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.839 the drawers, insides of of a piece of furniture. Right, yeah, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.040 but wood floor is actually hard to pine floors. That's 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:47.720 what we have in our house. That's those are. Yeah, 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.760 those are like a find. Apparently there's a guy done 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.760 in Florida. Um. Apparently there's a logging operation in like 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.520 the nineteenth century in Florida, and they would fell this 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.600 pine and float it down the river to the sawmill. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.960 Every once in a while, something would be Uh it 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.400 was so dense it would just sink. And it happened 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.440 a lot and they just leave them. But for some reason, 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.760 the composition of the water, I think it was like 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.920 this brackish combination of stea and fresh water. Um, somehow 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.880 preserve these these trees these huge trees, and there's a 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.240 company that brings these things up in salvages, these this 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:25.280 nineteenth century heart pine and sells it for like top 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.760 dollars lumber. Yeah, we haven't had this exact conversation before. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.920 It was a while ago though, which which pod. It 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.600 was a long time ago, but it bears saying. I 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.600 think I think I'm going in saying this is so cool. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.240 So it's like, why are you laughing? But I like pines, 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.360 So that's why I said, poor pine, um, plywood and 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.640 particle board. That's a dead giveaway that it's not an antique. 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.520 Don't be stupid. As our staples, we should mention staples 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:57.520 are a hallmark of twentieth century manufacture. Exactly, condition of 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.439 the wood you should look at that is what shrink Yeah, 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:02.959 so it shrinks and it leaves a lot of clues. Right, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.720 so you know the bottom of a drawer, you know 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:09.880 how in a really good construction it's kind of slatted in. Yeah, 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.440 so as it shrinks, it's not going to be flush 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.679 any longer. And not only will that shrinkage be a 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.840 dead giveaway, but that that portion, that the shrunken part, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.480 the now exposed part, should be lighter in color and 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.960 the stuff that's been exposed to underwear for the last 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:31.640 two years underwear. Yeah. Um. Also that you know, they 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:33.680 used to use a pegs a lot of times to 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.640 as simple furniture. So if if the pegs are have 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.920 worked their themselves out a little bit, that's probably a 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.360 good uh sign that there's been some shrinkage going on 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:48.920 in the underwear drawer. Uh. What else we talked about pegs, 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.280 dovetail joints. I think Paul mentioned dovetail joints and mortis 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.880 and tenon joints are really, you know, a hallmark of 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:01.120 early craftsmanship. So you look for those tools handstanding. It's 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.600 gonna look different than machine standing, as is a hand 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.400 saw rather than like the perfect straight edge of a 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.520 saw mill saw. You can actually, if you know what 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.400 you're doing, you can kind of roughly date what like 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:18.000 the age of your piece of furniture by the saw marks. Right. Um. 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:19.680 So you're gonna want to look at the back of 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.680 a chair or the drawer. It's an inconspicuous area that 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.080 they probably didn't bother to sand. Um. If there are straight, 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.400 irregular marks, that's pre eighteen thirty. Uh. If they're straight 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.400 even marks. That means that it was around eighteen thirty sawmills. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:39.640 We're cutting these straight even marks, perfectly straight. And then 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.240 circular marks came in about eighteen fifty, when the Industrial 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.880 Revolution was really starting to take off. People like, our 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:51.320 furniture doesn't have to be square anymore. Yes, you know, 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.560 it really took me. And this one was when I 0:14:53.600 --> 0:15:00.160 read this sentence. Nails were originally made forged individually. I mean, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:01.920 does that really hit home? Do you think how many 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.080 nails it takes to build a structure, and the blacksmith 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.720 had to make every nail one at a time. That's 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.000 why the blacksmith was usually the man to go crazy 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:11.560 on the rest of the town and kill everyone in 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.400 their sleep. Yeah, with something made of heavy metal, probably 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.840 that's what I would use. Uh, where are we here 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.040 buying them? You wanna talk about buying antiques? Yeah, and um, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.520 we should probably say that. You know, if you're into antiques, 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.520 especially if you're really an antiques, you're probably doing it 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:31.720 at least partially for profit, right, hoping to maybe make 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.680 a little money off of it. Well, Paul pointed out 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.240 that you should buy you should only buy something if 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.440 you like it. At excellent point. I thought that was 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:39.800 a great point. Usually you're looking you know, you think 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:41.960 it's worth something as well, right, And we asked him 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.320 about value, like how does an antique get valued? And 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.840 here's what he said. For worth is what you can 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.920 get somebody to pay for it on a given day, 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.000 not what in you know, insurance company or a museum 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.960 or in you know, a quote expert says it's worth. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.240 So you know what the biggest factor is, supplying the man, 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.080 how many people in the audience want it. You know, 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.240 I bring something up that five people want, it's going 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.480 to bring more than than somebody might have thought it 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.680 was worth if it comes out and it's you know, 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.120 only one person wants it or nobody wants it, whether 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.480 it's going to bring less, but the reality is that's 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.800 that's what it was worth that day in this building. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.840 So you know, it's it's just kind of a weird dynamic. 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:20.840 Worth is a is a real funny thing. It's it's 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.240 it's like trying to nail jello. So that was Paul 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.880 once again, Josh I could tell he was on the phone. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.280 He was on the phone. Uh, if you if you 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.640 don't know anything and you want to learn something, about antiques. 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.600 Here's some advice from how staff works dot com. Just 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.720 start buying things. Will now go to a museum, because 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.840 museums are a great place to You're gonna you're gonna 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.880 know it's real, it's authenticated by pro It's probably gonna 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.480 be grouped by either the manufacturer of the period, so 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:55.040 you get like a really specific view of what you're 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.120 looking at it and then probably be identified by the maker. 0:16:58.200 --> 0:16:59.720 And you might have a docent there that has some 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:01.680 like history. So that's a really good place to learn 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.680 about this stuff. Yeah, there's usually somebody there you can 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.040 say what does this mean? Or why is that there? 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.199 And they go move along. Yeah uh. And then the 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.000 next thing, you know, that chairs out there any longer 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.120 because you just exposed it as a fraud, much like 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.640 the um Brewster chair. Right, yes, have you heard about this? 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.080 And I talked about another podcast or something. No, that's 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.840 known as the greatest hoax of all time, greatest antique 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.760 hoax of all time, greatest antique furniture hoax of all time. 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.720 Let's get specific here, huh that let it know that well, 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.200 think about it's a chair. Surely there's other antique hoaxes. Well, 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.560 this is the greatest, This is the Ali This is 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.960 the O. J. Simpson Trial of Antiques. So the Ford 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:46.520 Museum was taken by a chair that was supposedly created 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.040 by pilgrims from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Right, Yeah, but 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.120 they weren't taken by the chair. They were taken by 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.120 La Montaigne armand Lamont. He sounds like a fake furniture guy. 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.680 He sounds like a forger armand La Montaigne faked the 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.400 Brewster chair just to see if he could fool the experts. 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.679 And he did. Yeah, which apparently is quite popular and 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.040 especially was in the seventies or hoaxx all over the place. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.119 Have you seen f is for fake? No? Okay, you 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.240 know our buddy recommended this movie. It's the Orson Wells 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.520 documentary on art forgery. Okay, so we saw it, right, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:24.600 you mean I watched it. It's very interesting. It's the 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:26.640 Who's Well I thought he was talking about the Doors 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.120 and Walls TV show when he had Burt Reynolds on. No, 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.160 but it's in the it's in a similar stylus, really 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.479 edited very strangely, right, But the content of it is 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:40.359 um Clifford Irving, the guy who faked the biography of um. 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.400 Howard Hughes also wrote a biography on a great art 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.280 forger named Elmir, and Elmir is like this guy who's like, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.760 I just do this to show that all the experts 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.560 are idiots and I've never signed anything, and I toss everything. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.199 And his biographer, who actually turns out to be a 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.240 hoax himself, Clifford Irving, is like that, it's not true. 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.320 That guy is fraudulent and he's making money off of it. 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.399 But it makes a good point that we you said 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.680 in the museum, you're gonna be able to probably rely 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.600 on it being legitimate. That's where you can really learn 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.080 the point of this movie is that's not necessarily true. 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.159 I mean, like, if you can pass something by the experts, 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.000 then it's legitimate and in just about everyone's eyes, and 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.360 that apparently is fairly rampant in the art world. Yeah. Well, 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.560 the Brister chair, though, they put it through an X 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.000 ray and they were they were all of a sudden, 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.960 they were like, ah, yeah, La Montage, Yeah. La Montage 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.400 had said, like, you know, I faked the chair like 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.200 several a couple of decades ago, and you bought it. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.400 Somebody bought it and then now they used that chair 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.960 though as an example of how to be not be duped. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.040 I guess what do they? What does Oprah call that? 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.520 At a learning moment or a teaching moment? Yeah, I 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.480 think something like that. So uh, if you have learned 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.480 a few things here and you do want to buy antiques, 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.880 where should he go? H? Well, you said the museums, 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:03.800 and you're ready to buy and just start anywhere you can. 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.199 If you go to a small town in small in 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.399 America and you close your eyes and just start walking 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.160 forward and don't get hit by a car going around 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.480 the square, you're going to run into an antique store. Yes, 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:17.840 And depending on the size of the shop, if it's 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.040 like a smallest shop, then that means probably that the 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.120 shop owner picked out all the antiques because there's things 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:25.720 that they like in things that they think will sell. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.120 Or like a flea market, they'll usually have little booths 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.000 and you can rent out your own little booth and 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.399 sell stuff. So you'll probably get like a big wide 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:38.680 variety there. That's right. Um where else? Well, auctions if 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:39.800 you want to, if you want to add a little 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.639 zing to your antiques or your antique buying experience, experience 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.080 right to the auction is very much like an experience, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.679 and you get to buy stuff too, right. Um, And 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:53.479 we talked to Paul about this. We'll bring him back 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.080 in a second. But if you want to really kind 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.360 of hone your hangling skills or you know, just kind 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.320 of know your limits, you can start off in a 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.119 small store and just go basically abuse the store owner 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.080 and then hone and go to a couple of auctions 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:12.800 and by boom, by being you might be ready. But 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.399 this is what you're in for. It's not nearly as 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.919 um scary as we've been made to believe. Apparently what auctions, Yeah, listen, 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.119 listen to pul check. The auction can be Uh, it's 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:27.280 nature almost. I think maybe Howard did it or I 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:29.879 don't know what happened exactly, but um, you know, a 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.280 lot of people are intimidated by the auction process. What 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.800 I always encourage people do is come in early, you know, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.160 maybe come in the week before and take a look around, preview, 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.720 you know, take some measurements, kick the tire, so to speak, 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:41.720 open the door, see if you're dovetail, see if it's 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.280 if you're buying, or if you're potentially buying what you 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:47.159 think you're potentially buying. Ask questions because we're always here 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.600 to answer them. And you know, if I don't know, 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:51.600 I'll say I don't know. But if I do know, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:53.560 I'm happy to share and say so is my stuff. 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.320