What's the oldest thing you own?

Is it an heirloom, antique or collectible? What's its significance/story? I find the thought of owning antiques rather creepy myself, but I love to browse antique shops. Go figure.

Beautiful stitchwork, from the 1860s. I normally would not have bought such a thing, but just had a gut instinct on it.

when using it i like thinking of it being used before. I really like old tools.

old (woodworking) planes. He's a woodworker and loves them. They are sometimes "worth" more unrestored, but he doesn't care. He brings them back to life and they really are beautiful.

My wife hates it. It looks like it was fresh squeezed yesterday.

a silver water server that belonged to another set of her great grandparents. The only family pieces which survived my mother's house fire.

I have an old cameo pin which belonged to the great aunt of one of my aunts, but I don't know how old it is.

Of course if you have a diamond in any form, it is older than anything, considering how long ago the carbon would have been converted into the diamond form.

I have a couple of things from my grandmother's house which are currently in storage in Kentucky, that may be about 100 years old. Not sure. The other things are definitely older.

Oh yeah, my husband has found lots of fossils!!! Those are definitely older, as well.

Or . . . I have this one sweatshirt that's like 18 years old and still looks almost new :) I don't have any "antiques" :).

And here it is!

How come no one ever smiled back then? Everyone's old pics, same thing, no smiles.

and the photo took a while to capture I believe. That's why no one smiled :)

They might have been right seeing as that "smiling nicety" of nowadays is usually not genuine at all. A little more dignity would not hurt us :)


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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

At my recent wedding, we put photos of family/friends on all the tables so folks had conversation pieces. We had one from the 1930s like that on the cake table. It really got a lot of questions! (It was my new husband's father as a baby, pictured with his family.)

The woman in the center rear is really hauntingly beautiful.

Until I saw that picture, I never knew that grandpa was a change-of-life baby. Makes me wonder what else I didn't know about the old guy. Unfortunately, I can't ask him as grandpa died in 1981. :cry:

:)

A little Ming Dynasty vase and some fossils and petrified wood.

my grandparents. It's from the 1860's and it's interesting to see what words aren't in there. Washington was not a state yet, there are no words for airplane or automobile, etc.

I am usually a lurker, but I couldn't resist responding to this.

I have a shawl that belonged to my great, great aunt. It was given to my great grandmother when her sister died. Then her daughter, who handed it down to my aunt. It was brought with them from England when the family came to the US in 1856.

Also have an old pie safe that was made in the 1850's, that has been handed down in the family.

My dad just gave it to me.

:) Take care of that watch, ya' here?

While the sentimental value is the important thing, maybe you have a rare one, too. Check out the maker (it'll normally be on the dial (the face) and also on the works if you open the back plate. Also on the works it might say the number of jewels in the movement. For example, 21 or 23 jewels is considered very high.

Thousands and thousands of shares. Bankrupt gold mines mostly.
A few letters from the same time period too.

A copy of Melancthon's Loci Communes from 1536. Published in Wittenberg during Luther's lifetime.

my nephew found in a creek bed behind his house They look like some kind of big pointy teeth

cool

I bought off eBay.

I also have some feather pillows that my 99 year old grandmother was given as wedding present hand made by the groom's grandmother. They were married in 1927.

Myself and my memories good and bad. Nothing physical tucked away in some drawer or closet or attic can replace the multitude of memories. :)

published in the 1700s I love old things

heck---I am an old thing me self

It's still got a hitching post for a horse in the front yard...

I have no idea how old they are or if they are from species that exist now or from extinct ones.

I love things with a story behind them. I think the oldest thing I own is an English Empire Fireside couch, it's from the 1840's or roughly around there. I bought it from one of my mother's friends who owned an antique store. The piece was in her parlor of this old plantation home she owned but didn't fit in with all her victorian antiques (Victorian is my least favorite btw).
She bought the couch from a guy who stopped at this diner where she was having breakfast on her Saturday route in search of other antiques. The guy pulls in with this pick-up truck full of junk and the couch had been lumped in with the rest of his junk. She spotted it and knew from the mahogany wood and bun feet that it was something. She paid him 50 bucks for the couch. For some reason she decided to recover the thing in this ugly mauve velvet with white flowers, I guess in an attempt to try to blend it in with the victorian stuff (didn't work.)
I loved the shape of the piece the from the first time I saw it and told her if she ever wanted to sell it I would buy it. Eventually she did sell it to me and for what she had into it, 50 bucks plus 350 to be recovered in ugly mauve fabric (note a special rate for having many pieces sent to the same place.)
I immediately sent the couch to the same upholsterer and put a beautiful blue brocade on it. After the couch was reupholstered and before I had it delivered she and her husband went to the shop and saw it. They had been dropping off another piece of furniture to be recovered for her shop. Her husband remarked that he couldn't believe that she had sold me that couch. She called me the next day to tell me that if I ever wanted to sell the couch she would buy it back for what I had into it. I still own the couch over a decade later and have no plans to part with it anytime soon :)

Thanks for sharing it!

but i've never felt the urge to have them carbon-dated.

A thing I use constantly is a 1977 pair of Bushnell Custom binoculars. Darn things still offer a sharp view and are practically indestructible.

I don't believe I own anything older.

I have my grandfather's picture with his brothers when they were all in the British Army in the First World War. My grandfather was some kind of military hero. Strangely enough, I know very little else about my grandfather as the war (and genetics) rendered him a terrible alcoholic who was widely despised by nearly everyone who knew him. The only exception was the aforementioned grandmother who, for reasons most people found mysterious, loved him until the day she died, almost 50 years after he was murdered in a bar.

He died well before I born. I never met him. When I asked about him, most people, my father included, refused to discuss him except in terms to wonder how such a waste of humanity came to pass. Sometimes I think my suspicions about who he might have been, more than any single thing, caused me to grow up to be a pacifist.

I have no Idea who these ladies are...but for some reason I just love this picture...

at The Gap in 1984

that was made in 1863. Stamps on it indicated it was issued to the US army during the civil war.

I traded some guy for some Optimus Prime pogs. In retrospect, I should have held out for a little more.

I have this nice shroud I picked up in Turin.

natural history

My grandfather was a tall Englishman and my grandmother was full-blood, extremely petite Cherokee woman. The bookcase was one of the many items he made especially to fit her size. After my grandfather died, the bookcase was given to my father by grandma. My father, in turn, gave it to me.

As a side note, I use to love visiting my grandparents' home when I was a child. My grandfather had custom-made almost everything in the home -- kitchen cabinets, dressers, chairs, etc. -- to my grandmother's size. Everything was almost the perfect size for me. It was the coolest thing ever. :)

Inherited from my dad...grew up with these in our home. Tney are awesome!

An old upright desk

Both are from the late 1800's....

that has been handed down in my husband's family. We wondered about the age, so we took it with us when we went to Antiques Roadshow when it was in St Louis a couple of years ago. The appraiser said it was about 250 years old! Not worth a whole lot, 500.00 or something like that, but it was neat finding out it was actually that old!

You don't see many children's chairs from the mid 1700's. Is it a ladder back?

we'll see if the picture works, I'm new at posting. :)

and what a nice early chair!

...collected from a dig at Old Sarum in England. I had been kicking about on leave and ran into one of Mom's favorite grad students working the site a couple decades ago, and he let me have a handful of poor to fair condition from a roman era stash of bronze, copper and pottery shards they had just found in a midden patch where the old moat was - after I had gotten myself coated in mud that afternoon helping out a bit.
They range from around 300AD - 425AD, according to the few identifiable stamped heads in the bunch.

Haele

It's an authentic looking Roman coin with the date 24 BC on the bottom. It took me a while to figure out it was a joke. Like how the heck would they know 24 years in advance that Christ was coming? duh!

it was purchased for me before I was born, in 1978. I still have it and it's not torn at all.

Okay maybe it's not an HEIRLOOM, but to me it's awesome. :)

My great grandmother's.

really, and i know what some of you are thinking...

dp

Console model...it belonged to my grandmother. A few of the tubes are missing, but it looks pretty amazing (it's in my living room).

Not the leaf I own, but close.

The furniture is art deco, made in the 1930's, and called Waterfall. I also have most of my grandfather's books the oldest from the late 1800's and my grandmother's McCoy pottery (not really old, 1950's). I seem to be the family repository for stuff no one wants to give up but don't want to keep themselves. Oh well, never complain about free antiques. ;)

old.

And i'm gonna play "Mystery" with you.

It's the transcript before the 62nd Congress of the proceedings ordered by Senate Resolution 283.
Thomas might not go back that far...

Here's a hint: May 28, 1912.

but I think this is it?

“Titanic” Disaster: Report of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Pursuant to S. Res. 283, Directing the Committee on Commerce to Investigate the Causes Leading to the Wreck of the White Star Liner “Titanic,” Together with Speeches Thereon by Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan and Senator Isidor Rayner of Maryland.

Took a while? It was the first 4 hits when I googled it to see how hard the clue was.

I think I also have a book on Wireless Telegraphy by R. A. Fessenden from 1906, but I keep that at work. My other earliest book is another on wireless from 1912.

It sounds very interesting :-) I wonder what the Commerce Committee discovered as a result of their investigations?

My oldest book as well as oldest possession is my great-grandmother's Austrian Bible; silver clasps and all. I think the printing date is somewhere is the 1870s...

The piano is about 80 years old. It's not worth much, though, as I've played it daily for 36 years and it needs a lot of work. I have a german beer stein collection, the oldest of which is about 100 years old. Most are from the 20s to 40s though.

Edited to add photos:

Beer steins on third shelf of bookcase


Wurlitzer baby grand

ceramic pie plates.

The radio was purchased at an antique shop in Duluth, MN, while on my honeymoon. It was then that I introduced my husband to the fun of antiquing and began my vintage radio collection. I love that radio.

The pie plates came from eBay, but with a purpose. One is an 8-inch plate and the other a 10-inch plate. They are yellow with a rose pattern around the side. My mother has a matching 9-inch pie plate that used to belong to my grandmother. It's a cherished "heirloom" plate, and I bought the others on eBay to match it. My mother and I both love that yellow pie plate, because it was Grandma's.

I also have many, many cookbooks dating back as far as the 1930s, although most are from the 50s and 60s, with a few from the 40s and 70s also. And I have lots of vintage kitchenware, and a collection of 1950s aprons sewn by a 1950s housewife.

Of course, it is obvious that I don't find owning either vintage items or antiques to be creepy in any way. Just the opposite, in fact. I love the connection they give me to the past, and I particularly like cookbooks in which the original or previous owner wrote her own notes or jotted down other recipes. It's a tangible piece of the past, part of someone else's life I can share. Someone else once loved the item I now own, and it feels meaningful to carry that on.

My kids used it as well.

Yup, they actually made these for a few years in the mid-1800s. My grandpa had a couple and gave me one of them a few years back when I was into coin collecting.

and my Hubby's Grandmother wedding ring. All are beautiful. Our Daughter will get them one day. I wore my Grandmothers engagement ring to my wedding and she told me then when she died She wanted me to have it. I am the oldest Granddaughter. My niece, the oldest great granddaughter got Grandmas wedding ring, but she gave it to me, she said they should be together. All the rings are over 75 years old

1917. She was a babe!

I have her Year book. When she died we were going through things and couldn't bring alot back, although my station wagon was packed. Grandma kept everything. Mom was gonna throw the year book away and I said Oh no!!!!!!! I also got her parents bibles and testaments. I later gave then to my Mother..... who didn't want them at the time but was glad I saved them. My Mom didn't get the pack rat thing from Grandma..... I did lol I brought home salt and pepper shakes Purina cat and dog. that I played with as a child and things that ment something to me..the things that we threw away mage me sick. But I kept the sentamental things. alot went to the church. Clothes, furniture you know

I like to think that they are almost old enough for Jane Austen to have eaten off them.

Late 18th century.

saw it at an antique store in Ohio and fell in love... this is not mine, mine is still packed up, unfortunately. This is a good example.

It was my grandmother's mothers.

and old textbooks from the 1800's...mostly history and math...

She was 15 yrs old when she made it. It is a lone star pattern.

dated about 1910. The wiring and the glass shade are newer. Next is my house, built in 1924.

I have so many old things. I really love old items especially furniture. I'll have to think about it. I own so many old things! lol.

That's beautiful.

A late 15th century Chinese Ming dynasty charger decorated with Pheonixes from the reign of emperor HongZhi. Found it on eBay and the seller didn't even knew what he had!

I like that! I'll have to go through this thread later and check out the other photos.

Aside from the fact that all diamonds are eons old...

These diamonds were probably mined when Beethoven was still composing. At least, that's what my jeweler tells me. They're extremely old and irreplaceable, according to her.

However, irreplaceable doesn't make them all that valuable. Because of the old cutting technique, they aren't sparkly the way "modern" diamonds are.

I haven't dated the coins yet, but they're probably B.C. The book is on spiritualism and I found it in France.

But the oldest item is an ancient fern fossil.

Brought over from the Old Country buy my Grandmother

Given to me by my grandfather... means a lot to me since he just passed away.

I think its 500 million years old, give or take.

I have a small collection of trilobites as well.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/trilobita/trilobita.html

I wonder why no one ever says, when trilobites ruled the world...

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

Wow, someone else like trilobites!B-)

<eom>

It's got a woven seat and hand carved legs. I would imagine it's over 100 years old. It's a stool for looking at it because I won't let anyone sit on it.

at least that's what I was told by the salesperson.

taken in the 1870s. I also have the jewelry she was wearing in that picture.

I love old books, anything older than about 30 years feels wonderful. My oldest is 18th century, I have a few copies of the Book of Common Prayer which can only be dated by looking at which monarch is prayed for.

My grandfather has several contracts and other legal documents relating to his ancestors - certainly going back to the early 19th century - which I am determined (in due time) to inherit.

Looks sort of like this, only worse:

It's so old that it really is funny to read. An old friend bought it for me because I still use my Good Housekeeping Cookbook that I brought north with me back in 1969.
Oh, and a few pieces of fine jewelry that are from 60 to 100 years old.

Bed, dresser, wash stand (complete with basin and pitcher) and bed-side table. Everything is hand carved walnut wood topped with half-inch marble (very heavy!).

Don't ask me why I grabbed it. I was going through my parents old stuff when they were pairing down. I found this and kept it, even though my wife thinks I'm crazy.

It's kind of fun, in a "life was much simpler back then" kind of way. Not everything may have been simpler in 1951, but taxes sure the hell were.

Celt-style torc bracelet (it's neat, but waaayyy too tiny for wearing). I also have a Bronze Age battle torc, I'm no expert for placing a date on it, picked it up cheap enough and was told 2-3,000 yrs. Also a cute little bronze goat (who knows--I've seen a few of these on ebay) and some Mesopotamian assorted beads, some pretty cool cylinder seals.

I like old stuff.

Sad with the rocking horses. I have another one from about 1900 - when I came home from the flea market with it my guy said: "another rocking horse or me". So sadly no more rocking horses, the apperment IS small and I love that guy :)

Also my dining room furniture is from about 1870.


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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

That I found in the York river(Va) that is from the Miocene era, I think. It is a fossil

According to the Field Museum, one of my mineral specimens is around that.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

Several fossil shells found while hiking in Bourgogne are the oldest thing. For man-made things it's an old Goethe edition.

it still works, and I still use it.

which is apparently an heirloom from my great-great grandmother, an inscrutable, independent German. She became wealthy through her sausage shops, lost everything in the Depression, then made it all back and more through a bold business scheme and clever stock investments.

It isn't quite the oldest thing I own, but it is undoubtedly the most valuable.

However, my favorite possession remains my grandfather's photographs. He was a large-format photographer with a darkroom in his house, so I have hundreds of gorgeous pictures of my family from back then. If I get hold of a scanner, I'd love to post them online sometime. They're great.

Must be thousands, maybe millions of years old. It's sort of conical, looks like a snail shell, but about 10-15X bigger.

Love letters from different men; otherwise, pictures of my family passed down to me.