We bought an old church pew several years ago. The seller claimed was REALLY old, like near 300 years or some such. How can we date it? Its not solid wood in that the ends are ( 3 or 4?) pieces that are “layered” together. That implies glue to me but what do I know? Short of carbon dating, how can we get a rough idea of the thing’s age?
Dinner and a movie?
If you know about where it is made and can see tree rings in the wood, some dendrochronology might be applied.
you must be a Druid.
wood lamination with glue goes back to ancient times.
Probably dowels. Glues whilst becoming more popular then in woodwork, were less strong for things people would sit on. Or it could be extremely good jointing.
Anyway, a nice thing to have.
( A local church near here, connected to a friend — which offers the severed head of a mediaeval Archbishop, which I have resolutely refused to look at — ripped out the pews a few years back and now has dreary corporate discussion room chairs instead: except in the choir which has plenty of darkened pew furniture, seems a pity. )
if its old then it would be fairly plain and very worn. The grain will have been worn down by hundreds of years of bottoms and will be raised with deep grains. It will be dark from hundreds of hands touching it (almost burnt looking) but fairly bright in contact spots from clothes…also the base would probably have been replaced (they rot with the condensation in contact with cold floors).
If you want to stick something up the rectory, be sure to take it slow and easy.
Are there any antiques dealers around who might do an appraisal?
Just be sure you get the pew’s parents’ permission first.
The OP must **really **be lonely.
I doubt it can be accurately dated. It’s no different than furniture. An expert can identify a style of hand worked craftsmanship and approximate when that style was being made. But that could be span decades. I’ve seen that old gentleman in a wheelchair on Antiques Roadshow describe how furniture was made and in some cases even speculated on who made it.
Stuff made in factories are even harder to date. Unless they left a tag on the underside.
Next time the Antique’s Roadshow comes near you, drag the pew up there. They know how to really show old furniture a good time.
You can often get a general idea of the age of old furniture by looking at the style and how it was made. The style might be a bit difficult for something like a church pew though because certain styles have been in use for hundreds of years.
Screws and nails were expensive 300 years ago, so look for hand-made dovetail joints, wooden dowels, and the like to hold it together. If it is held together by identical machine-made screws then it’s late 1800s or later. Hand-made screws with uneven notches for the screwdriver cut in them by a hacksaw puts it closer to early 1800s.
If it has nails, 300 year old nails would have been hand made and the head would be noticeably hand-hammered in shape. Tapered rectangular nails would place it at the late 1700s or early 1800s or thereabouts. These types of nails usually have square heads. Identical round head nails would have been machine-made from the late 1800s or later.
Something 300 years old would have been hand planed. I’ve been really impressed with some of the craftsmanship from back then, but hand planed wood is not as smooth as something that has been machine planed no matter how good the guy was. If you can see the marks from a circular saw on the wood that dates it later than 1830 or 1840 or so. Circular saws were invented before then but weren’t widely used until then. Most wood from the 1830s and earlier will have parallel straight cut marks instead of circular cut marks.
If the wood has dowels and they are perfectly rounded, that means mid to late 1800s or later. Earlier dowels would have been hand made and will be much more uneven.
You could also try following the paper trail. The guy who sold it to you said it was that old, but he might have an incentive to lie, since lying about the age would get him a higher price. But he got it from somewhere, too, probably from the church where it was originally installed, and they would have much less incentive to lie. So find out who his seller was, and ask them.
Right. The church where the pew was originally installed probably has pretty good records of repairs and renovations (assuming it’s still a functioning church, and even if deconsecrated and sold off it might have donated its records to the local parish or synod or whatever).
Is the date’s name Patty O’Furniture?
The pew’s first name would have to be Pepe, of course.
… if it was being sold like that it was a modern non-collectable.
Yeah paper trail… like if there were papers, it would be advertised “with papers” and provided with it.
I didn’t think there was much hope and these replies pretty much confirm it. There are no screws visible anywhere except where there are some fittings where it was once screwed to a floor. It has separated where the bench fits into one end piece - no glue, screws or nails evident. It is almost burnt looking, very dark and worn. I can’t do a paper trail chase since I don’t have any way of contacting the person I bought it from. Oh, well. It makes for an interesting piece of furniture. We do use it. Its near the front door (only 7’ or so long) and makes a good spot for removing shoes/boots.
Well, with a title like that, can you blame us?
Depending on denomination, getting past second base may be a problem.
But oral is moral, and with a little smooth talking and a wine cooler or two you might be allowed in “God’s blind spot.”