Is it super heavy? I've noticed weight often equals how long something will last in good condition, and old furniture is often way heavier and bulkier.
>Same goes for old wooden windows etc. that can last a hundred years or more if properly taken care of.
The key may be the "properly taken care of" part (or they didn't buy crap at the time part).
I live in a greater than 200 year old house and all the older windows dating to whenever are complete crap compared to newer Andersens I've had installed.
Survivorship bias. The cheap stuff doesn't last. "Take from the dresser of deal, Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet..." - Wallace Stevens, 1922. "Deal" being cheap pine or other soft heartwood (in the poem he is trying to evoke a scene of poverty and maybe a bit of gaudiness). Not that buying old can't be an excellent strategy, it having survived either a long life, or perhaps it was just never used in which case all bets are off.
Not the OP, but my family has a bunch of Danish teak furniture, as does my mom. The sofas are not super heavy. Cushions on a frame. You can see under it. Now, there's no bed inside. My mom's was re-upholstered once. Ours isn't old enough for that yet. We've re-upholstered the dining chairs a couple of times.
As for other pieces of furniture, e.g., cabinets and stuff, we bought them used from a place that combed estate sales in Denmark for furniture and sold it in the US. One attraction is that the old furniture is smaller, so it works in a smaller house.
I also have my grandparent's danish teak dressers and dining table and chairs as well as some various side tables, lamps, bed, etc. I've acquired elsewhere. The all look wonderful and I get a nice feeling of connection to my family whenever I grab some socks, or sit down to eat, etc.
I owned a bunch of mid-century Danish/Swedish furnitures, and they're generally pretty light. They tend to have slimmer profiles for the "modern" appearance, so less material. Also solid wood tend to be lighter than engineered wood.
I bought a used Nieri leather sofa recently for a seventh of the original price. It is supposed to be a solid high end sofa (or so the seller said; it was the most expensive sofa of the hundred they were selling), but is feather light. I was suspicious, but bought it anyway because I liked it. So far it has withstanded the kid jumping on it in various ways.
I wonder, is it even possible it's solidly made despite being very light?
