English or American antique?

IT TAKES A SHARP EYE and an informed mind to tell the difference between an American and an English antique. You've got to consider, among other things, dovetailing, dusters and drawer construction.

These clues and others came at a recent informal, after-hours gathering at Monticello Antiques on West York Street in Norfolk complete with wine, cheese, questions and a pair of local experts.

About a dozen antiques collectors from Virginia Beach came to the shop for a tutorial and lecture by Jim Close and Irene Houmis Close, husband and wife and the owners of the business.

Mary Whitehorne, a lover of antiques and one of the evening's organizers, was eager to hear what the couple was about to share.

"Women pick antiques for their homes because things are pretty and fit in their space," she said. "But when you get to a certain price point, you want to pick something that's kind of scarce, things that are handmade," Whitehorne said.

The shop has occupied this location since 1966 when the father of Irene Close, George Houmis, bought the building. The Greek cabinetmaker had relocated from Olney Road and eventually, in 1979, sold the business to his son-in-law and daughter.

Their small showroom reveals only part of what happens here. The shop is well-known for the sale of fine antiques, but, in a cavernous space in the back, conservation restoration and cabinetmaking occupy most of its 4,500 square feet.

"We deal in American and English furniture from the late 18th and early 19th centuries," Jim Close began after the group settled in the showroom. "People think, lately, that American is the best to collect. But English is fine, fine furniture and the Americans actually copied it. You have to learn about English furniture to understand American furniture."

Case furniture such as chests of drawers is a good place to begin seeing and learning the differences. Generally speaking, Close explained, the English were not in a terrible hurry to build furniture. They had done it for hundreds of years with tools well-designed for that purpose for sophisticated clients accustomed to receiving a quality product. That can be seen in the extra care they took during construction to shape wood finely, even if it was somewhere it did not readily show.

Pull open the drawers of an English piece, Close suggested, as his audience leaned forward in their seats to look. The glue blocks on drawer bottoms, if wedge-shaped, are an English trait but can also be found made that way on some drawers made in America. That's because immigrant cabinetmakers, particularly in port cities like Charleston and Norfolk where they disembarked and found jobs, often worked in the English style of their original training.

Next, examine the dovetailing at the corners of drawers. Fine, tight, tiny dovetails with narrow necks are typically English. Fatter, more rustic dovetails are likely American-made. Be alert for dovetails that appear exact, regular and consistent. They are likely machine-made and date a piece of furniture to a more recent time, about 1870 to 1880.

Primary and secondary woods offer more clues about origin. Primary refers to the wood used on the exterior of a piece of furniture. Secondary wood refers to that on all the parts that don't readily show - the frame, the back, sides and bottoms of drawers.

Cabinetmakers, no matter where they lived and worked, always used more plentiful, cheaper woods growing in forests near them as secondary wood.

In England, oak was the secondary wood of choice while mahogany and walnut were the predominant primary or exterior woods.

Mahogany was imported from Honduras and used in America as well as England.

"So you can't tell a lot from mahogany," Close said. "That's why you have to look at the secondary words."

In America, poplar from mid-Atlantic states was often used on the interior of furniture. Yellow pine was used to build furniture frames in the early South and white pine in the early North. Then came better transportation and wood was shipped back and forth on the East Coast, making it harder for collectors today to trace American's furniture's origins.

"But if you see a black walnut piece with yellow pine on the inside," Close said, "chances are its Southern-made."

Black walnut came from Virginia and North Carolina forests. A walnut exterior can trace a piece to a cabinet-maker from Virginia or Maryland. Maple means it was probably made in New England. Cherry was harvested in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Of course, just to confuse things, European pine was used as secondary wood in English-made furniture. The grain patterns of American and European pine are very similar, but the knots in English pine are tighter and more plentiful, Close said.

He focused the group's attention on a tall English butler's desk made in about 1780.

"This piece has great proportions," Close said.

The desk plus bookcase was where the homeowner's butler would have completed household tasks at the pull-out desk.

Close turned the desk around so the group could inspect its back, "The cornice is removable, the back is framed and the panels set into the framing are beveled." All these details show extra care and time taken in craftsmanship.

Also, he said, turning the desk back around to the front and pulling out the drawers, it had dusters. These wood panels placed between the drawer cavities were yet another sign it was English-made.

Close indicated a different desk and bookcase, this one made in New England in about 1770 to 1780. He opened the drawers and, as his audience crowded around and leaned forward to peer into the space, hollow from top to bottom, he said, "No dusters. Americans didn't take the time to do it."

The reason was simply urgency on the part of harried, New World cabinetmakers.

"In New England the population was really growing," Close said, "and they were just turning this stuff out."

So, are English antiques worth more than American, asked his audience.

No, Close said, the worth of a piece is determined by more than where it came from or how it was constructed. Rarity, for example, plays a big part in value. Surviving examples by a cabinetmaker who only built 10 pieces of furniture in his lifetime might be more highly sought after than those from a craftsman who was more prolific. On the other hand, the English desk and bookcase, priced at $20,000, was so well-made that it would sell for more than a similar American-made piece.

Learn about both English and American antiques, Close suggested. For American furniture, he recommended a series of books titled "American Furniture" published by Chipstone Foundation and edited by Luke Beckerdite.

Study the type of furniture that attracts you, he said, and find out everything you can about it.

Close and his wife may sell a bit more American furniture right now, she said, probably because it's indigenous to this area. But she agrees that it's best to compare "piece to piece."

"There's nothing wrong with English furniture," her husband said. "Just know what you're buying. You have to go back to the basics to educate yourself. The English did everything well, and we copied it."

As she whisked away the leftovers and collected wineglasses, Whitehorne was pleased with what her friends had learned.

"Now we can go out and be our own detectives," she said. "You want to have the information to help you decide whether to part with your cash or not."

Krys Stefansky, (757) 446-2732 krys.stefansky@pilotonline.com