It was an old table. If you didn't know better you might mistake it for something that needed a coat of paint. The one and only spouse spotted it at Bear Paw Antiques on Corkscrew Road in Barryville. "How much?" we asked. "Sorry it's sold," was the reply. "It's an 18th century Colonial table that I sold to a collector." "How much?" we asked. "Twenty five thousand."

This exchange took place a few years ago when we were looking for something to put the TV on. We ended up with a low oak dresser with two deep drawers to stash the videos, $125, delivery included.

That little lesson in humility made me realize how much there is to know when trying to identify the age of an antique. Even with a bit of knowledge it's an intimidating task. The list of things you have to check includes construction (dovetails, screws, carving), wood, paint and patina, veneers, repairs, upholstery springs, handles, country of origin... Of course, you can just say "what the heck" and buy what you like. But when an auction house identifies a piece as 19th c. American or Art Deco or late 18th c., it would be great to know that that's what you are paying for.

Spotting fakes, repairs and reconstructions involves some detective work. First, just look at a piece. It can look "off," as if one part didn't quite belong to another part. Consistency of construction is important. For instance, I've seen sets of dining room chairs that, on closer inspection, weren't all the same, even if the upholstery was. I've also seen a Hoosier cabinet that was perfect on the top but had a bottom that looked too new, even though the paint sort of matched. Sometimes the lower part of a high chest becomes a dressing table and the high chest top becomes a chest of drawers.

Plain feet can be replaced by claw and ball feet; signatures or labels added to otherwise genuine pieces on the theory that that is what the crowd wants to see. Pass your hand lightly over every surface. All the finished or primary surfaces should feel the same. All the drawer bottoms should feel alike. Always take a tape measure. Measure the height of a table to see whether the feet have been cut. It should be about 28 inches high for dining. Measure an old square table to see if it has shrunk out of square; it should have, somewhat, if it's really old.

Ideally, you want pieces that are found "in the rough" with the original patina and color. or barring that, not cleaned up too much. Original paint acquires a look of age; the overall color darkens and gilding or stenciling becomes more subdued. Old paint frequently becomes brittle and crazed from the evaporation of its natural oils; new paint is more flexible and can be scraped off more easily. The crackled look of old paint is sometimes faked, but simulated cracks are generally larger and more widely spaced.

Wear marks are often too exaggerated on fakes. Look for areas where edges would have become naturally worn away by shoes on low stretchers of chairs and tables. Bicycle chains and bunches of old keys are sometimes used to make new wood look old and worn; however, the effect rarely looks right. Handles can help in dating a piece of furniture. Always look inside the drawers. There may be holes where other handles have been. Victorians loved knobs for handles, and would replace original brass handles on 18th c. pieces.

Whew! See what I mean about there being so much to say on the subject of antique identification. I haven't even touched on woods, or ceramics, rugs, metal... Luckily there are excellent books out there. The one I'm reading now is "Fake, Fraud or Genuine? Identifying Authentic American Antique Furniture" by Myrna Kaye. I found my copy at Strand Book Store in Manhattan but you can find it on the Internet, most likely at Alibris.com.

I'll have one more article on this subject before the end of the summer.