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Authentic Reproduction Furniture - Isn't That An Oxymoron?

If a chair crafted in 1800 is done in the same style as one crafted in 1799, is the chair crafted in 1799 the original, and the one crafted in 1800 therefore a reproduction?

But what about the chair crafted in 1798? And the year before that, and the year before that, and so on and so on all the way back to the Cro-Magnon era and perhaps even before?

The problem is that "original," according to the Oxford Dictionary, means "not derivative or imitative," but rather "existing from the beginning" and therefore "serving as a pattern."

Granted, trying to identify the first original, as it were, would probably bring us back to Aristotle's potential form, that is, the idea or thought of a form that precedes its physical existence.

After the 'first thought,' of course, at some time and place in the universe, the first form must have been brought into being. The first chair. The first table. The first armoire.

But they are surely not among the available items to be found today in anyone's antique shop, no matter how exclusive.

Clearly, then, what we are left with can only be evolved forms of the original. Rather like man himself.

And, like man, the hope is that the evolved "reproductions" of the original will continue to improve over the earlier versions thereof. A hope, unfortunately, that is not always fulfilled. In either Homo Sapiens or chairs.

Still, it is in our nature to reach for what we perceive to be our own betterment. Indeed, throughout

history, rightly or wrongly, we have fought many bloody wars in our attempts to safeguard systems we held (at least at the time) to be beneficial. And to overthrow those we did not.

So, too, in the things we create - buildings and literature and - we seek to retain the worthiest fruits of our labors.

Which is why we try to preserve some of the best versions of from the past. The creations we consider the most useful and beautiful and enduring. These we call antiques.

Which brings us back to authentic. The Oxford Thesaurus gives us, as a synonym for authentic, the word "faithful."

Therefore, while something may not be an original, it can still be faithful to the original (or at least the evolved version thereof). That is, it can still be authentic.

So it would seem the best we can hope for is a faithful reproduction. But what, exactly, is a "faithful reproduction"?

In order to be called "faithful," a reproduction would surely be required to mirror the beauty of the style on which it was based. But it would also need to be constructed with the same skillful attention to detail and superior craftsmanship that made the antique from which it had evolved both useful and enduring.

If a reproduction were to fit these criteria, then surely, it too would endure and, in time, become an antique that would engender its own faithful reproductions. Which would, ironically, make it both an authentic reproduction and an authentic antique!

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