Reproduction pine furniture has got a lot better over the years, and there is nothing wrong with buying it as long as you know that is what you are buying. The trouble comes when a copy is sold at antique prices. Here is what I check before I part with any money, and none of it needs tools or expertise.

Start with the drawers. Pull one right out and look at the corners. Hand cut dovetails are slightly irregular, usually few in number and fairly chunky. Machine cut dovetails are small, evenly spaced and identical all the way along. That single detail will tell you more than anything else on the piece.

Then turn the drawer over. The bottom and the back of an old chest were made from whatever cheap timber was to hand, because nobody was meant to see them. If every surface is the same tidy planed pine, be suspicious. Old ones also show the marks of the saw that cut them, and those marks are often straight rather than the curved arcs left by a circular saw.

Look for shrinkage. Wood loses moisture across the grain for its whole life, so an old top is very slightly narrower than it once was. You often see this where a top overhangs the carcase unevenly, or where a joint has opened a fraction. Perfect, square and tight everywhere usually means recent.

Check where hands go. Genuine wear is not spread evenly. It collects around the handles, along the front edges, on the drawer runners and at the feet. Reproductions are often distressed all over with a chain or a wire brush, which looks busy and random rather than worn.

Look underneath and behind. The back of a piece that has stood against a wall for a century will be dustier and darker than the front, and the underside will not have been polished. Colour that matches everywhere is a warning sign.

If you are still not sure, ask. I would far rather tell you honestly that something is a nice 1980s copy than have you find out later. Bring a photograph into the shop and I will happily go through it with you.