Where do you stamp/sign case pieces?

[Ty G]

Where do you sign or stamp case pieces?

 

[John McAlister]

Ty, I've never heard of a "proper" place to sign or stamp any piece of furniture, nor do I have any idea where todays real pros sign theirs, but as an amateur, on case pieces I stamp (brand) my logo on the outside of a drawer side.  It shows up well on the light colored poplar.  John McAlister

 

[Jack Plane]

I don't know about American furniture, but with English furniture, any signed examples I've seen have been stamped on the top edge of the top drawer front.

 

[dkeller_nc]

American colonial furniture, if it's signed at all (which most wasn't), would typically be done in graphite on a drawer bottom (most common), inside of the case (less common), or stamped into the end-grain of a drawer side (rare).  There are many photos of this type of branding in antiques books, typically photographed with in the infrared to make the faded graphite stand out from the oxidized and dirtied wood background.

In my case, I prefer not to sign pieces.  That drives museum curators crazy to hear, but since I'm usually making something that went out of style 250 years ago, I'm not overly concerned about someone confusing one of my reproductions from an actual antique.