American Antique Wicker
We have been restoring and reselling antique wicker furniture for almost 40 years. Over the years we have seen many styles and pieces of antique wicker furniture. We have seen a number of French wicker pieces but because they tend to be smaller we have dealt primarily with American antique wicker furniture.
We tend to be fussy with the antique wicker furniture we buy. We do not buy items with weak arms or broken main supports. We also are careful with the amount of paint on the wicker furniture. We leave our antique wicker furniture most often in it’s as found condition until the buyer tells us their color.
We only say a piece of wicker furniture is signed if the label is still on it. We might have had that same piece of antique wicker furniture numerous times labeled, but without the tag we don’t say it is. Through the years we have had many pieces by some great American antique wicker manufacturers, Heywood Brothers, Wakefield Co and the merged Heywood Wakefield. Ordway was popular for antique wicker platform rocker. Some people only collect signed pieces. We think the style and condition are the most important.
Why collect American antique wicker furniture when new is being made? Although there is some awful new “plastic” wicker there are some companies that make good reproduction wicker. However just like other antique furniture it comes down to history and love of antiques and future value.