Many Americans appreciate Holland for it’s tulips, canals and windmills. This has not always been the case. In former days painted furniture played a more prominent role. During the late 19th and early 20th century when American citizens of Dutch origin began to explore their roots, the interest in painted furniture was renewed. At the time, Holland went through a huge revival, caused by the rapid changes of the industrial revolution. Traditional clothing and painted objects were more and more cherished as remnants of an almost lost status quo of a time when class relations, moral values, traditions, and clothing were good and above all genuinely Dutch. This appealed to the American tourist looking for his own roots and many of them bought pieces of painted furniture, of which some ended up in the Holland Museum in Holland, Michigan. The demand for painted furniture was high. However, even before the vogue started, very little authentic 17th and 18th century pieces had survived. Soon antique dealers, craftsmen, and painters started to copy and fake antique painted furniture to such an extent that it became an entire industry. Boonenburg (1960, 5-6), former curator of the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen, warned his readers not to collect painted furniture themselves, because he feared there were more fakes than real antiques. Little did he know, he and his colleagues would become victims of the same fraudulent practices themselves. Along with the new vogue a vast body of art historical research was undertaken on Dutch painted furniture. This research has mainly focused on the iconography of the scenes and their origins. Many scenes were based on a few illustrated bibles and books on the history of the holy land, dating from the early 18th century (Triebels, 1960; Jas, 1992). Apart from this many 17th century paintings have been copied on to corner cabinets and the like. The pieces of furniture themselves, however, remained unassessed. The date, provenance, and level of authenticity of most of these pieces are based on assumptions. This paper will focus on the varying degrees of authenticity of painted furniture that was studied as part of an ongoing PhD research on Dutch painted softwood furniture dating between 1600 and 1900. Some 120 pieces have been assessed with regards to paint stratification, material analyses of pigments and binding media, wood species, types of nails (Janse, 2004), traces of tools and machines like wind-powered sawmills (Piena, 1999). In addition, contemporary pictorial and literary references on the objects, painting techniques, and interiors were consulted. Eight different levels of authenticity have been defined, ranging from entirely authentic to fabrications with parts of old wall paneling to entirely new products. Pieces of all eight levels of authenticity can be found in Dutch museums. During the presentation clear examples of each level of authenticity will be discussed.