Precise definitions are important in any field, and the field of antiques is no exception. We have written previously about how loosely the word “antique” itself is used, for instance to describe new mass-produced merchandise in home decor shops, and about our definitions of “rustic” and “Adirondack” furniture.

We now turn to defining the difference between “Old Hickory” and “Hickory” furniture, which is a query that customers have occasionally posed to us.

In the world of rustic furniture, hickory refers to bark-on hickory poles (i.e., unpeeled branches and trunks of young hickory trees). Milled hickory boards and turnings were also used to construct antique furniture, but not antique rustic furniture. This can sometimes create confusion, for instance in the case of a woman who hoped to sell us a pair of country ladder-back chairs that she assumed were something that rustic furniture collectors would want because they were made out of hickory wood.

Another thing that can be confusing is that several of the rustic hickory furniture manufacturers made a few lines of furniture for a limited number of years that had no hickory parts. These were constructed of willow, pine, oak or chestnut, but sometimes were of the same designs as the rustic furniture that those manufacturers made from hickory poles.

Finally, we have occasionally encountered confusion caused by the names of two makers of non-rustic contemporary and reproduction furniture (Hickory Chair Company and Old Hickory Tannery) which are very similar to the names of the traditional rustic hickory furniture companies.

We find it easiest to avoid this terminology muddle by referring to all manufactured rustic hickory furniture with the catchall title of “Indiana hickory.” This works because the handful of companies that produced classic rustic hickory pole furniture from about 1900-1960, were all located in Indiana. (We do occasionally come across antique “homemade” hickory pole furniture from other regions of the country, but we classify that as unique rustic furniture, not the manufactured furniture that we are describing here.)

So the best way to continue our discussion of “Old Hickory” vs. “Hickory” rustic furniture is by describing the various Indiana hickory furniture companies.

The Indiana Hickory Furniture Manufacturers

There were six major companies (and several minor companies) producing rustic furniture made with hickory poles in Indiana during the first half of the 20th century. (See more discussion of these companies in A History of the Old Hickory Chair Company and the Indiana Hickory Furniture Movement by Ralph Kylloe, 1995)

1. Old Hickory Furniture Company, Martinsville, Indiana

Old Hickory was the most prolific and longest lasting rustic hickory furniture manufacturer, so more of their products turn up on the market than do the products of all the other Indiana hickory manufacturers combined. Theirs is the only furniture that can technically be called “Old Hickory” and we try to abide by that in our descriptions, for instance by titling our website listings of furniture made by the five other companies either just “Hickory” or “Indiana Hickory.”

Not all dealers or auctioneers are as careful about that nomenclature, however, so you cannot always be sure that a piece that a seller calls Old Hickory was actually made by Old Hickory Furniture Company. (Sellers also sometimes call a piece "old hickory" meaning it is old and made of hickory poles, not that it was made by Old Hickory.) It helps if the furniture is branded or tagged with an authentic Old Hickory identifier, but the company did not consistently stamp all of the furniture it produced. So if a piece is marked Old Hickory, non-specialist dealers and customers can be sure of its maker, but if it is not marked, it does not necessarily mean that the piece was not made by Old Hickory.

After decades of handling and studying hickory furniture and collecting original catalogs from all of the manufacturers, we can usually pinpoint its maker from various clues, so we often do not even look for a brand before making a purchase. When we advertise an unmarked piece as Old Hickory, we are always happy to explain to a potential buyer how we identified it as such in that particular case.

Here are some examples of changes in Old Hickory’s name, maker’s marks and furniture styles as they evolved throughout the years.

a) Old Hickory Chair Company

The first incarnation of the Old Hickory company was called Old Hickory Chair Company, a name which lasted from 1895-1921.

This early brand says "Chair Co" on the center line.

Old Hickory Chair Company also sometimes put a paper label with the Andrew Jackson logo on their furniture, and we have occasionally had pieces that retained that early label, pictured here.

Old Hickory Chair Company paper label Andrew Jackson

Below is an early Old Hickory Chair Company dresser with woven hickory bark panels.

b) Old Hickory Furniture Company, early eras

When Old Hickory Chair Company changed its name to Old Hickory Furniture Company in 1921, it used the brand shown below, modified just slightly from the earlier brand. This stamp was used into the 1930s.

Old Hickory Furniture Company early brand

The middle line was changed from "Chair Co" to "Furn Co."

Here is a piece from that era with that brand:

c) Old Hickory Furniture Company, middle eras

The brand pictured below was used throughout the 1940s, and is what appears on the majority of stamped pieces we encounter.

Old Hickory Furniture Company 1940s brand

The middle line was changed to say "Martinsville" with "Indiana" spelled out fully below it.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Old Hickory also sometimes marked their furniture with a "Bruce tag," a small round copper tag that contained the year (e.g., "39") that the furniture was treated with the company's Bruce preservative.

There are hundreds of furniture designs from this era, but here is one example with a 1940s brand.

d) Old Hickory Furniture Company, final eras

The style but not the content of Old Hickory’s brand changed a bit in the 1950s to a rectangular shape. That stamp seems to have been used on some, but not all pieces made in the 50's, and we do not often see it.

Old Hickory brand 1950s

The following drop-leaf table with casters is an example of a table made during that era.

After 1960 Old Hickory Furniture Company shifted to making generic furniture that was not in a rustic style and not made from hickory. In 1978, Old Hickory Furniture Company closed its operations in Martinsville, Indiana.

The company was eventually purchased and reopened under new ownership in 1982 as “Old Hickory Furniture Shelbyville” in Shelbyville, Indiana where its plant is still located. Therefore, any furniture with an Old Hickory Shelbyville tag (pictured below) was made sometime between 1982 and today. Since this is contemporary furniture that is still being manufactured, it is not something that we buy or sell.

Oval brass plate that marks Old Hickory Furniture Shelbyville.

Even when a contemporary hickory piece does not have a brass Shelbyville tag, it is not difficult to distinguish it from early Old Hickory pieces. Although some of the Shelbyville furniture is based on early Old Hickory styles, the modern interpretations of the designs, the hickory poles used, the construction techniques, the weaving and upholstery, and the finish on the wood all make it immediately recognizable (and we think undesirable!) to a trained eye.

2. Rustic Hickory Furniture Company, LaPorte, Indiana

This company was founded nearly as early as Old Hickory, and lasted for three decades - from 1902-1934. They marked their furniture with either a stamp or a colorful paper label, which can sometimes still be found intact on Rustic Hickory furniture.

The rectangular brand of Rustic Hickory Furniture Company.

Rustic Hickory's trademark circular drawing of a hickory nut, twig and leaves is centered on their paper label.

This center table was made by Rustic Hickory Furniture Company, circa 1915, and is similar to an Old Hickory Chair Company design from that era.

3. Indiana Hickory Furniture Company, Colfax, Indiana

This company was in business from 1928-1942. Many of their designs were also very much like Old Hickory’s designs, but they did sometimes brand their pieces using the mark pictured below.

Indiana Hickory Furniture Company Colfax brand

Indiana Hickory's brand had an oval outline.

Hickory hoop arm chair made by Indiana Hickory Furniture Company.

4.Columbus Hickory Furniture Company, Bedford, Indiana

Columbus Hickory operated from about 1929 through the mid-1950s. They never used a stamp or brand, and did not have an extensive line, but their pieces are quite distinct. Anticipating a shortage of Asian imported rattan cane during WWII, the founder of the company, Luther Simons, invented and used a cellulose material called "Simonite" for weaving chairs, footstools, headboards and footboards. Dyed red and green pieces were interwoven with tan pieces to create decorative patterns.

Hickory bed with woven Simonite headboard and footboard panels, made by Columbus Hickory Furniture Company.

5.Indiana State Farm Industries, Putnamville, Indiana

The state of Indiana involved prison inmates in the making of hickory furniture from 1929 through the 1960s. Dealers refer to this furniture simply as “prison” hickory. The pieces were not signed, but they were pictured in catalogs. They are quite recognizable once becoming familiar with a few distinguishing characteristics, and with the forms that were commonly made. The photo below shows a prison piece from the 1930s.

Daybed made by Indiana State Farm Industries.

6.Indiana Willow Products Company, Martinsville, Indiana

This company was started by former employees of Old Hickory Furniture Company, and was in business from 1937-1963. In the early years they made Old Hickory designs out of willow, until realizing that it was a much more difficult wood to obtain than hickory. They did not use a stamp or brand, but the willow pieces are easy to distinguish. Their hickory pieces were also based on Old Hickory’s designs, but they also had a few distinct lines.

Pair of hickory bar stools made by Indiana Willow Products Company, circa 1940

Differences in Value?

We are often asked whether antique hickory furniture varies in value depending on which manufacturer made it, and the short answer is no. The value of a piece of hickory furniture is determined by the quality of the piece, regardless of which company made it, along with its desirability, rarity, aesthetics and overall condition. The only hickory furniture to avoid if you want it to have resale value is the contemporary furniture being made by Old Hickory Shelbyville.

A related issue that people are often curious about is whether pieces of hickory furniture that are stamped by a maker are more valuable than those that are unmarked. Again, the answer is no. We have never asked or paid a different price for two pieces of a similar design in the same condition when one is stamped by the maker and one is not.

Some collectors who are very knowledgeable about hickory furniture and prefer to acquire pieces by certain makers or from certain eras like to see them stamped. However, those are also the same people who can recognize the maker of a piece even when it is unsigned, so if it meets their criteria for quality, rarity and design, then the lack of a stamp will not make a difference. On the other end of the spectrum, novice buyers and non-specialist dealers sometimes like the extra information a maker’s mark provides.

The bottom line, however, is that when shopping for rustic furniture that has history and heritage, determining whether it is “Old Hickory” or by another maker of “Hickory” furniture is primarily of academic interest, as long as you trust the seller’s judgment of its age, origin and authenticity, and have decided that the piece will function well and look great in your home.

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* The settee on the left was made by Old Hickory Furniture Company, Martinsville, Indiana, and the settee on the right was made by Indiana Hickory Furniture Company, Colfax, Indiana.

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Defining and Identifying Old Hickory vs. Hickory Furniture