ADVICE AND INFORMATION
NAILS & IRONWARE FOR RENAISSANCE FURNISHINGS
As regards the additional materials an indication comes from the type of nails used for furnishings from XVth. to late XVIth. century. It is not true, as someone thinks, that once, in order to connect the different parts of a piece of a furniture, they were used only wooden pegs (this type of manifacture was clear in XVIIth. century in central Italy, in Lombardia, in Veneto and in the northern France).
Nails were widely used in the past mainly in XVth. and XVIth. century, but they were hand-made, one different from another, with a big head and square tapered shaft with pointed end (upside down pyramid).
Nowdays that are industrially producted, various kind of antique-like nails are used for cabinet making works. But in the restoration of antique furnishings (XVth. and XVIth. century) nails are handmade in order to avoid an unpleasant effect of modernity, boh in the restored and in the declared imitations.
A similar situation occurs for the ironware, as locks, hinges, keys, handles that are accessories mass reproduced on antique models. The restorer often has to replace missing pieces of ironware or the pieces belonging to a different period; he then should have to reproduce the original pieces with the help of a skilled smelter. A well-made intervention witnesses the craftmanship of the restorer. But when the restorer uses old wood or old nails, locks and other material recovered from demolitions, when thy are gathered and ground with traditional methods, it is a fake not merely an imitation.
Furniture built by talented craftmen are even more expensive than other so called pieces in "style", and often it happens the buyer or retailer, who notices the well-made work, does not resist to the temptation to declare it an antique piece to gain much money from the sale.
Savonarola group of 20 chairs (before the restoration)
original walnut-wood of XVIth. century
Origin Castle of Giulio II
From a simple imitation linked to the style and fashion, which has its own legitimate market, we go on to an imitation of art.
The usual definition of fake among the antique dealers is: "It is a fake the piece of furnishing that does not pertain to the period whom represents the style", . Sometimes this definition is excessive, as it also includes the imitation made by talented craftsmen, for example furniture made after the second Republic (1848-51).
