How to recognize an antique oil painting from a vintage one?
, by David van den Berg, 4 min reading time
You might be strolling a market, trying to buy from a vendor or are looking on an online marketplace to purchase an artwork for your home or as a gift and see that perfect piece of art, but then the doubts kick in. Is it really that old?
For it to be antique, it has to be at least one-hundred years old and in this blog I am going to give you a few tips that might help you in your search.
As a seller of antique and vintage artworks for over a year now, I have seen and touched I think close to ten-thousand art pieces, the advise I am about to give would have really helped me when I started.
First and foremost,
Which mistakes can you make?
The frame might be very old, but that doesn’t mean that the actual canvas or panel is old as well, so there is more to look at.
The panel or canvas itself can tell you a lot, but even if it is newer, the artwork could be older because a canvas might have been more recently attached to a panel or newer canvas.
What does tell you more?
If you think what you’re looking to purchase is an older piece, try and look at the wear as well as some details.
For a canvas
The Nails
How is the canvas attached? It can be glued to a panel, but nine out of ten times it is attached to the wood with nails or staples. If it is done with staples (It could be redone, but I will follow up on more specific cases like that in future blogs) it is a huge sign that is not antique or at least not in its original state as staples were standardly used ever since the 1960’s. Is it done with nails, then the kind of nail can tell you a lot. When you go to buy a pack of nails they are all very shiny look exactly the same, but before the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, nails were hand-made and not mass manufactured, The top of nails from that old are usually not perfectly round.
For a panel
The age of the wood
If it is a painting painted on panel that you are looking to buy, then there are also a few things to look at. How does the wear and aging seem on the wood? There should be proper wear compared to its’ age. The wood usually gets a bit darker as it ages, also if the wooden panel is painted black, it might not mean that the artwork isn’t valuable or good, but it does mean that there was tried to make it look older than it actually is.
Cracks
It doesn’t have to be the case, especially not for an artwork from the 20th century or more recent, but for a 17th, 18th, 19th or even early 20th century artwork you can often find small cracks in the paint, a proper sign of age appropriate wear.
Signature & Date
Of course the most important thing to look at is if it is signed by the artist. If it is a big name, be very cautious as it could be a replica. Most times it is not a big name and if you are lucky you can find something about the painter and around which years he or her was active. If the artwork is dated, it is usually best the best sign of its’ date 😊
Closing Words
As I’ve just summarized, there are plenty of ways to check on the date of an artwork. To me personally the quality of an artwork means so much more than how old it is, but to be able to tell from when an artwork is painted can be really helpful. I will be sharing more blogs on whether an artwork is from the 19th century, the differences between a print and oil painting and much more in the near future and I hope this blog has or will be in the future, helpful to you. Until next time and Best Regards,
David
Want to put these tips into practice? Browse our antique 19th century oil paintings or our vintage 20th century paintings.