One of the most special things about antiques is the stories they carry. Whether it’s a humble antique English armchair or an extravagant mirror, antiques provide a window into history, a taste of what life was like for generations before us.
To understand the stories behind your favourite antiques, you’ll want to keep an eye out for any maker's marks. Often combining symbols, letters and numbers, these tiny imprints can often hold many answers to the exact origins of your piece.
Where to Find Markings on Antique Furniture
Historically, many prestigious furniture makers would add unique marks to their works. These could be ink prints, engravings or embossed labels. These markings were particularly prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries as reputable companies sought to authenticate their high-quality craftsmanship, and as more items began being exported overseas.
While such antique markings are now much appreciated, at the time they were more workmanlike than decorative, and as such were often put in a discreet place that wouldn’t distract from the design of the item itself.
If you have an antique and want to see if it has a marking, here are some common places they can be found:
- Inside Frames: Look on the inside of the legs, or turn a table or chair over to see if the mark is underneath.
- Back Panels: Markings on cabinets and desks were sometimes placed so they would be hidden against the wall.
- Joints and Screws: Some manufacturers placed markers near elements that showed their unique quality or craft.
What if You Can’t Find Any Markings?
While it’s always exciting to see an antique with an old-fashioned maker’s mark, not having one doesn’t make an antique any less valuable.
Markings can sometimes be lost to time – for example, if a label was glued in place, it can easily become detached after generations.
Furthermore, many small manufacturers didn’t mark their creations, either because their designs were unique enough to set them apart or because there was no legal requirement at the time.
What Numbers May Mean on Antique Furniture
One of the difficulties of understanding the different numbers on different antiques is that there’s no set system. In most cases, unique numbers were used by different manufacturers, meaning the same numbers on two different pieces could mean totally different things!
As a general rule, numbers on antique furniture tend to reveal either the product type or the year of production.
Product Type Numbers on Antique Furniture
Like modern serial numbers, many major furniture makers in the 19th and 20th centuries would mark their designs with unique numbers to denote what style of piece it was.
In many cases, these numbers would relate to the manufacturer’s catalogue of products, which could help sellers find details such as materials and pricing. However, to understand these numbers today, you’d need to know the manufacturer and find their catalogue, or find a similar number on a similar existing product to confirm likeness.
Production Year Numbers on Antique Furniture
Sometimes, numbers on antique furniture can denote a year or period in which it was made. However, understanding this can be trickier than it sounds.
It is common, particularly with English antiques, to see numbers denoting the year a design was first patented, as this was a legal right in the 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore, while your antique chair might denote a particular year, that could just be the earliest possible date of manufacture and not the actual year when your piece was crafted.
When the year of production was added not for legal purposes, different manufacturers had different approaches. Some, for example, would use the month and year of initial production backwards to also form the catalogue number, whereas others might just use four digits for the month and year of initial production.
How to Identify the Numbers on Your Antique Furniture
As you can tell, it’s not always straightforward to work out what certain numbers on antique furniture might mean, even if you do manage to find them.
If you have antiques with number markings and want to work out what they might mean, here’s the approach I’d recommend:
- Find the Manufacturer: Before you do anything else, you’ll need to know who made your antique. Hopefully, this is printed next to the numbers as a maker’s mark, but if not, you’ll need to find this out first to make sense of the numbers.
- Search Online: If you know the manufacturer, see if there is a product catalogue or database online. If not, there are many antiques forums and enthusiasts online who can help if you provide good photos and explain what you know of the item.
- Speak to a Dealer: If you’re still unsure and need to know an item’s worth, it’s always worthwhile speaking to a local antiques dealer, who will usually be able to help uncover the details of your item’s production.
Remember, though, that just because an item doesn’t have numbers or markings doesn’t make it any less of an antique.
I’ve come across beautiful antique pieces over the years that were clearly made with incredible care and skill by lesser-known craftsmen who didn’t need to mark their wares. So long as the antique is beautifully made, wonderfully kept and speaks to your style, it has the possibility of becoming a family heirloom that will continue collecting stories in your family for many generations to come.
