Antique, vintage or retro?

Did I just score a vintage masterpiece?

Grandma's cabinet, a sofa your mother should have thrown into a kipper in the mid 80s, a hip 50s cocktail chair offered by that webshop? New, second hand, owned by many hands? Beats me one could think, but how to distinct between antique vintage and retro? We hear you! It all boils down to this:

Let's start with the easiest one: Antiques. Antiques are all things (chests, chairs, vases, paintings, lamps, carpets, jewellery, cutlery, etc. etc.) older than 100 years. Although taste is a personal thing in general antiques are items and goods of value, good quality (they are still here!), made with a sound level of craftmanship and withstood the tests of time.

Vintage furniture

Vintage furniture and decor is already a more difficult subject. Vintage decor is hip and you'll come accross the word vintage almost everywhere you look. Often given to items that are visibly not new or look that way. It also soundbites nicely, vintage. Vintage chair. Vintage furniture. Vintage sofa. However, it can't be like that, there are rules to calling a used item a vintage item. When dealing with furniture, clothing and accessories we are talking a period from the 1920s up until the 1980s. Key is that the original quality must have been good or of a high quality brand. A Dior dress for example. Or in the Furnip case: a Danish design chair by Andersen & Pedersen. Design. Top quality. Durable. And most of all, no remake or copy!

Danish Design

Furnip scours through Denmark for the most beautiful chairs, high back armchairs, sofas, sideboards, chests, lamps and tables one can find from the Scandinavian design era from 1920 to 1980. Most prominent are items from the fifties to seventies, also referred to as Midcentury modern. The era is a testimony to using the best materials such as real solid wood, quality veneers, quality wool fabrics, and come with Danish export control and brand owner stamped attribution marks as approval of origin. 

Vintage and second hand (or owned by many) are not conflicting themes. To the contrary, new is extremely rare in the world of vintage. Like a set of chairs or a box of Chanel clothing that has been forgotten in a warehouse somewhere. Not very likely to happen but it could be possible.

Retro Vintage?

Allright then, when is vintage not vintage? When it is retro! Or antique for that matter but we covered that already. To put it bluntly, retro is a remake in the style of a real vintage piece. It basically is new stuff. Still it may look good for the purpose you use it, like retro wall paper or one or two retro furniture pieces in a contemporary interior. Most of the time it is not the looks that differentiate retro from vintage. Quality is in most cases the differentiator. Vintage is antique before it is antique and retro goods most of the time will not be up to quality to survive that long. In the spirit of older days but not the real deal. If you watch closely enough you'll see and feel it also.  

In love with Danish furniture.....

By now you will have cought up on the necessity of this blog on vintage, matter of fact it is our core business. We are Mad for Midcentury design. We truly love and covet these clear lines, treacherous simplicity of designs, sound selection of wood and construction materials, joinery techniques, and fabrics used. Yes indeed! We are in love with Danish design and have a backdrop on every piece in our collection. The design, designer, furniture factory, used materials and prior owners if known all come into play. 

Fun of it is, once vintage it will remain vintage (ok at some point it will venture into antique). We restore repair refinish and reupholster but this will not make the vintage pieces retro, we keep to the original design. Just like we do our own treasure hunts in Denmark, much of the repairs and restoration we do ourselves. Only reupholstering is a special craft for which we have a specialized reupholsterer.

Vintage materials

Okay, here is a bit detailing one of the materials used frequently in mid-century Scandinavian design: Ever heard of rosewood? A beautiful red-brown wood with a striking, dark almost black grain? That is not wood from a rose bush, but officially it is called rosewood. When machined into shape it vaguely smells of roses, hence the nickname. This tropical hardwood used to be mainly sourced from South America, but nowadays for obvious reasons of that is no longer allowed. It is no longer available and if you still want a chair, table or cupboard made of this wood, you can only  rely on vintage or antique pieces. Retro pieces will never come in rosewood. We have an elaborate selection of rosewood furniture. So, have space for a rosewood masterpiece in your contemporary interior?

Another material we like to work with is wool. In the form of upholstery for chairs and sofas, for example. We think the most beautiful fabrics are those of Kvadrat and De Ploeg. Wear-resistant, durable, warm and fit to cover high end design pieces. Forms tightly and without folds around the curves of railings and seats. Awesome.

The gems among vintage furniture
By the way, we call our trips to Denmark quests, looking to find furniture gems. We frequent collectors, traders and individuals upstream. Through this our offering remains fresh, exclusive and diverse. We balance going for the big names, but also for work by lesser-known or even unknown designers. For relatively "safe" furniture that fit in many interiors and for eye-catching eye-catchers.

To conclude, a quick overview: under the heading antiques we have high-quality objects that are 100 years or older. Vintage is from the period between 1920 - 1980 and may even be unused, but has usually had one or more previous owners. Just as with antiques, quality is of paramount importance in vintage. Retro has been influenced in earlier times, but made new, new material choices and typically not at the same quality level as the originals it resembles.