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Standing The Test Of Time

What Is Investment Quality?

As we all know, building a fine home using all upscale natural materials is not an expense, it is usually the largest investment equity producing asset a person can own.

As with any investment, the goal with investment quality furnishings is to earn appreciation on each dollar spent. In order for any item to become investment quality - whether it is your home, jewelry, furnishings or any other prized items - these investments must truly stand the test of time to become increasingly valuable. For this to become a reality, each item must be quality hand built and "The Real McCoy". In other words mass produced false gold, cubic zirconium, paste board or veneer will never become true investment quality heirlooms. Simply put, a copy of a Picasso will never be worth more than the paper it’s printed on.

Like These Ancient Pillars,The Finest Materials And Master Craftsmanship Need No Warrantees

All Antiquities Were Built To Stand The Test Of Time

Up until the turn of the 20th century, all quality furnishings were hand built by master craftsman with true pride of workmanship. The best quality craftsman used only the best natural materials and finishes. The greatest works were built with time-honored and traditional methods that are now known and referred to simply as “The Old Fashioned Way” and have since become increasingly valuable with age. These pieces are now sought after antiquities and collectibles. This proves that long-term ownership can give us good investments, potential family heirlooms, true pride of ownership and a little immortality in our family history. These furnishings traditionally needed no warranties because the quality was known to stand the test of time.

Family Heirlooms Become Priceless

Many of these furnishings are still found all over the world – now in museums, classical estates, or in your very own home as a family heirloom. Some pieces are hundreds of years old, and as they have aged have become more beautiful from natural aging or what is know as natural patina from normal were and tear. The oxidation of natural patinas, regular wear, use, and time can age a fine furnishing and transform these furnishings into unique pieces of artwork. Examples of this quality and history are everywhere. They range from George Washington’s handmade desk to the Besançon cabinet shown below or your grandma’s or grandpa’s old furnishings etc. that has been passed through the generations of your family.

This also applies to the hand made furnishing you purchase today and plan to pass down through your family. These items are all priceless.

An Example Of How Furnishings Hand Built With Pride Of Craftsmanship Stand The Test Of Time And Become More Valuable:

A Renaissance Cabinet Rediscovered
November 22, 2005-August 5,2007 At The Getty Center
Cabinet, French, about 1580 with late-19th-century additions

As recently as five years ago, most people believed this cabinet was a 19th-century piece purporting to be a 16th-century cabinet—in other words, a fake.

When scholars reexamined it in 2001, they came to a very different conclusion. They now believe that the cabinet was made in 1580 and is one of the rarest and most valuable cabinets from the French Renaissance in the United States.

This exhibition tells the story of this discovery, offering a case study in how we learn about art. Renaissance Revival cabinet, 1800s Video: Paul F. Miller, curator, Preservation Society of Newport County, discusses the cabinet's changing fortunes. Is It a Fake? J. Paul Getty bought the cabinet shown above in 1971 against the advice of his curators, who did not think it was genuine. Getty paid $1,700 for the cabinet shown at the top of this page.

The cabinet was in suspiciously pristine condition and the surface was coated with colored wax, suggesting that someone had tried to make it look older than it really was. Experts concluded that the cabinet was a product of the Renaissance Revival of the 19th century, when American industrial magnates snapped up Renaissance-style furniture, including many fakes, from cash-strapped European aristocrats. The cabinet at left, for example, was made in the 19th century in the Renaissance Revival style. Getty paid $1,700 for the cabinet shown at the top of this page, a far cry from the asking price of $46,640 some 50 years before. The dubious cabinet was never displayed in the Getty Museum—until now. Preparators move the Getty cabinet out of storage, time to reconsider. In 2001, curators in France organized an exhibition on 16th-century cabinetmaker Hugues Sambin. After a Getty curator visited Écouen to meet with scholars there, she decided to launch a thorough reexamination of the Museum's cabinet. Curators, conservators, and scientists teamed up to conduct research and scientific analysis. Science can help authenticate an object by dating the materials from which it was made.

Close-up photograph of tree rings from the cabinet's oak panels

What Does Science Reveal?

The team's first scientific tool was dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating. Using this method, they discovered that the oak tree used to make the cabinet's structural panels was harvested in late 1574 or early 1575 in Burgundy, a region in southeastern France. Factoring in the time needed to dry the wood and construct the cabinet, this result coincides with the date of 1580 painted on the cabinet. How does dendrochronology work? Conservator Arlen Heginbotham drills a small hole to collect sawdust for analysis. Scientists then used carbon dating to date the surface wood of the cabinet. It is walnut, a wood with an irregular growth pattern that cannot be dated using dendochronology. Scientists took tiny samples from the walnut and from the frayed edges of the silk and linen lining in the middle drawer. All the samples dated to between 1400 and 1600. How does carbon dating work? A 16th-century plane left these distinctive marks on the cabinet's rear panels What Does Physical Evidence Reveal? The team also used another tool: their eyes. They examined the marks left on the wood by woodworking tools, which can help to date a piece of furniture.



The rough marks on the back of the cabinet, for example, were made by a hand-held saw and a type of plane used in the 16th century.

The walnut and oak parts of the cabinet also have identical marks from a "bench dog," a toothed iron clip used to secure wood to a workbench. This suggests that both woods were worked on the same bench at roughly the same time. Under a layer of red velvet fabric in the cabinet, the team found old nail holes from an earlier lining. These holes held traces of the original 16th-century fabric that still lines the drawer. Analysis of the tacks and tack holes on the door of the cabinet provided further proof of authenticity. After-death household inventory of Fernand Gauthiot, lord of d'Ancier, Besançon, taken between April 1 and May 12, 1596 Read the text of this inventory in English and French. What Does Historical Evidence Reveal? The team delved into archival sources to learn more about the source of the cabinet. Curators located a 1596 household inventory, pictured here, that describes two French Renaissance cabinets. One of the cabinets is now in the Museum of Time in Besan?, France, and has been definitively dated to 1581. The other cabinet may be the Getty cabinet. The paintings and carvings on the two cabinets were closely examined by curators. Minute clues and subtle coincidences of style indicated that the cabinets may well have been made by the same artist or group of artists. Who was this person or persons? Curators, conservators, and scientists continue to work on this mystery.

Compare the Getty Cabinet with the Besançon Cabinet. Both of these Cabinets are Priceless.

Scottsdale Art Factory, Under Direction Of Artist H.J.Nick, Always Strives To Maintain The Integrity To Level Of This Example Of Craftsmanship No Matter The Style You Choose.