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How To Score Real Texas Antiques

A crash course in collecting Texas antiques.
By Ken Knight |

Old Texas  
How to score real Texas antiques.





Dianne Etheredge, ASID and president of Etheredge Design Associates, has been collecting Texas antiques for years. We asked her for a crash course.


D Home: What are Texas antiques?
Dianne: Texas antiques are collectibles dating from the 1840s through the 1880s. During this period, German cabinetmakers, European-trained cabinetmakers, and their apprentices produced a large amount of wood furniture.


D Home: How can you distinguish the genuine article from reproductions or other regional antiques?
Dianne: First, make sure the piece is consistent with the era. Authentic Texas antiques are constructed of indigenous woods, such as pine, cedar, cypress, walnut, ash, oak, and cherry. Second, look at the joinery: you should see mortise-and-tenon construction. Third, Texas antiques are generally utilitarian-looking pieces; their lines are not as ornate as pieces of the same period made in other parts of the country. I love them because they truly reflect the pioneer spirit and are beautiful in their simplicity.


D Home: Why are they so difficult to find?
Dianne: Most of the pieces are held by families, private collectors, or museums. The Witte Museum in San Antonio has a great exhibit of Texas antiques. The Bybee Texas Heritage Collection in Round Top has another extensive collection. So you visit with collectors and curators, and sometimes you’re referred to families. You have to follow one lead to another to develop sources.


D Home: Where do you shop for your antiques?
Dianne:
Frankly, there are not a lot of sources. It’s a very challenging process to try to locate individual shops or vendors that have Texas pieces. It’s basically word-of-mouth. The best places to look for these antiques are in the Piney Wood, Hill Country, and Lower Brazos and Colorado River areas, where most of the German cabinetmakers settled. A good reference book is Texas Furniture: The Cabinetmakers and Their Work by Lonn Taylor and David B. Warren.


D Home: What if we have no luck but really love the look?
Dianne: Find a modern-day craftsman. I own dining room chairs handcrafted by Michael Moss. They have turned posts and hand-tied string seats. Michael builds furniture that has the same integrity of style as the pieces crafted by the German cabinetmakers who inhabited the Hill Country. He doesn’t do anything by machine. He has studied the German craftsmen extensively and builds furniture of the same caliber.

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