Episode ADI-102 Marks such as this separated seam can help you tell antique wood from new imitations. My wife and I are filling a new home and spending lots of time at weekend antique shows. We both are afraid of getting ripped off by buying a reproduction rather than an original.
Antiques are hot.
And anything that is hot is probably being reproduced. If you don't know how to tell the difference between something that was made a hundred years ago and something similar that was made last year, you can get burned. A new piece will look flat and smooth on top. Take out all the drawers and examine the bottoms and sides. An antique will have irregular dovetail joints, while a new piece will have perfect joints, cut by a computer-aided machine.