Antiques & Collecting: The continuing popularity of faux bois style

For thousands of years, artisans have found ways to make one material look like another.

The history of furniture is filled with examples, like wood painted to resemble marble, metal, lacquer or other expensive or exotic materials. Sometimes, other materials are sculpted or painted to look like wood.

The faux bois, or “false wood,” technique was popularized in France in the mid-1800s, although its roots go deeper.

Garden furnishings made of reinforced concrete sculpted into tree or branch shapes were displayed at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition.

Since then, the fashion for faux bois has grown, and the term can now refer to any material, like ceramic, plastic or metal, painted to look like wood.

This 20th-century ceramic garden seat is decorated to look like a wooden barrel, but is better suited to outdoor seating.

Estimated at $500 to $700, it sold for $2,394 at DOYLE Auctioneers & Appraisers in New York. It’s a testament to the continuing popularity of the faux bois style.

I am interested in an appraisal of this hankie along with the letter. The hankie has Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s signature embroidered in one corner along with the words “Happy Days.” The letter that came with it is on stationery from the White House, dated September 5, 1933, and reads “The President asks me to extend his hearty congratulations upon the birth of your son,” who was named Franklin Delano, “and to send you herewith a small memento for his namesake.” It is signed by M.A. LeHand, Private Secretary.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 and won re-election three times, serving until his death in 1945.

“Happy Days Are Here Again,” written in 1929, was his campaign song in 1932. The phrase “Happy Days” appears on some merchandise from his first campaign.

Textiles like bandannas and hankies were popular campaign items and are popular political collectibles today.

Yours, along with the letter, would probably be worth about $200 to $350. If the letter had Roosevelt’s signature, it would be worth more.

If you are looking for a formal appraisal or more information, a political collectors’ club, like American Political Items Collectors at https://apic.us/, or an auction house or dealer that handles political collectibles or celebrity memorabilia, like Hake’s Auctions, at hakes.com, or RR Auction, at rrauction.com, may be able to help you.

Tip: Wool weavings attract moths and should be turned twice a year. Some say you should also spray them with moth repellent, or at least put them outside in the sunlight for a few hours each summer and fall.

Current Prices

Toy, horse, rocking, painted, red center handle, green rockers, wicker chair back, two-sided, 19 x 39 inches, $35.

Picture, watercolor, landscape, autumn, trees on riverbank, signed, R. Bellitti, frame, 19 x 16 inches, $55.

Sampler, family record, flowering vine border, Philemon Draper, silk on linen, frame, 1856, 22 x 22 1/2 inches, $1,875.