Collecting Antiques

[Hambone]

My mother has collected antiques forever. She mostly collects Flo Blue (sp) Bone Dishes and Flower Frogs. She has literally a few thousand pieces in all. Now when she buys something she has no more room left, so she has to box something up, lable it, and store it. It's crazy. When I was I kid I thought it was really stupid, and would be so mad that we always had to stop at these antique stores.

I guess you do kinda follow in you parents footsteps.

I now find myself going to some of the same stores. The one thing I find myself buying are old newspapers. Nothing special yet. Just a few old bundles I picked up for cheap. Haven't even had a chance to look through them yet to see what the head lines are.

Do any of you collect anything in particular?

[Scrapfe]

My mother has collected antiques forever.
I guess you do kinda follow in you parents footsteps...
I now find myself going to some of the same stores. The one thing I find myself buying are old newspapers...Do any of you collect anything in particular?

Nothing special or normal anymore like stamps or coins, but I do like old and primitive Americana. I don't know about the market in the last 25 years but there once was a good market for old framed magazine ads. I once sold an Uncle Ben Cream of Wheat B&W ad from Harpers magazine cia 1911-1914 for $85.00 w/water damage. (About $300 in today's stretch marked dollars.)

Full page color ads for 60s muscle cars were good because they were used to "show" the restored autos. A good new cheap niche IMHO is "tbacky" ads and ash trays.

Some background to get you started. I was told that during WW2 Lucky Strike went to a green package to make GIs feel safer when they pulled out a pack of smokes, the grapevine had GIs getting sniped at long range or drawing artillery fire while waving the white Lucky Strike pack with a red bulls eye on the front. LSMFT, = Lucky Strike makes a fine target.

Good places to look are where estates are being liquidated, or older houses cleaned out, people used to keep their mags forever.

I came to late to the party to collect many original out house seats, but I do have one three hole 2” X 20” X 6’ example, and
I am still in the market for an original State of Alabama supplied cast iron stand, seat, and lid assembly in good condition (cast in Birmingham) It should make one heck of a hive stand. I like old bottles and stone jugs as well and iron farm implements from the 19th century.

[Sundance]

Derek............. it's a compulsion, a disease, a blight
on human kind.....;)

I collect way to many things........ I have a stable of
6 or so vintage IH Cub Cadets in various levels of
disrepair. I also have 5 old Edmund Scientific Red
Tube reflector telescopes. And.........., and.......:eek:

[MapMan]

I collect dust bunnies. :D

Seriously, hand tools such as wood, transition and metal planes; chisels and rules.

MM

[Bodo]

I'd collect Jeeps, but the wife won't let me ;)

[dragonfly]

When I was I kid I thought it was really stupid, and would be so mad that we always had to stop at these antique stores.



Oh Derek. I'm so sorry that you had a mother like me.;) My poor kids suffered the same fate.

I have managed to break myself of the habit now (the withdrawal was awful, but worth it;)), but when I used to be an "old stuff" collector, it was mostly old kitchen utensils (many of which I use), green FireKing (before it was popular), old crock bowls, and I have a pretty good collection of old fishing baits.

[Natalie]

I have been collecting antiques for years, mostly primitives. I collect pottery, pewter and wooden bowls and trugs.
I like my antiques to be useful, not something you can just look at (except for my old general store cash register)
Most every piece of furniture in my house is an antique, I like stuff that you can use.
My house was built in 1768, an antique in itself.
I have also collect old garden tools, I love the way they were made and the idea that someone spent alot of happy hours working in their gardens with those same tools. Especially my dad's tools.
I think collecting is a good hobby for kids as well.

[dragonfly]

Most every piece of furniture in my house is an antique, I like stuff that you can use.


Yeah, me too. Most of my stuff gets used, except for the fish bait collection.

[JohnK and Sheri]

I collect dust bunnies. :DMM

Most antiques collect dust bunnies, you are just cutting out the middle man:D.
Sheri

[Oldbee]

So much of 'antique collecting' is wasted on the,..'old'. What I mean by that is 60 years ago, [I was 8] when my family moved out to this old farm, there were about a dozen duck decoys in the old barn. They were either given away or thrown away as I remember. Another 'item' was an old wooden 'hay sweep'; we used the tines as swords, :rolleyes:. I did collect old 'Sports Ill.' covers/mags like Eric Heiden/Frans Klammer/Mark Spitz type, but not enough space to 'save', for me anymore. 'Old things' are nice in a way if one has,..'storage room'.

[Hobie]

It's different now. I used to go out antiquing with my Mom, and, and a kid with a 25-cent allowance, I could still buy toy lead animals and other treasures within my budget. Not so any more. I have a rather substantial collection of "stuff" ranging from those same lead animals and old wooden toys to glassware and furniture and a few tools. Once you've lived with good solid antique furniture, it's hard to accept the new pressboard crap.

[Da Yooper]

I collected match books 30 or so years ago and have to move them from one spot to another now and again. I even have some with the sand paper on the front cover. :eek:

I also have a collection of wheatie pennies.

Fred

[justin]

i have lots of vinyl records.i started buying them for the cover art when i was a teenager,then as i figured out good music i started collecting that stuff.they are all in a friend of mines house i used to rent.i am dreading the battle when we figure out whats mine and whats his.the "townes and jackson brownes are mine, you keep the moe bandy and lacey j daltons.oh i and i have about 10 cars and trucks around here.i dont try to collect them,they just never go away.

[Hobie]

I also have a collection of wheatie pennies.

Oooh! Me too! And clay marbles, in old Lightning jars.

[Robert Brenchley]

I've never managed to get excited over modern coins, though I do like the 'proper' pennies we had when I was young. I remember finding Queen Victoria in my change now and then. I collect Roman and Judean coins (a bit older than antiques).

[Natalie]

Once you've lived with good solid antique furniture, it's hard to accept the new pressboard crap.


Amen Hobie, I am always saying that when people want to know why I go out of my way to buy "used" or "old junk furniture". They haven't got a clue to the value of owning such good quality solid furniture.
Old furniture has character too. I go to an antique auction every monday night, I get the coolest stuff things there.
I have raised several children and they treat furniture as children will and all of that furniture that was already over a hundred years old when I bought it is still going strong.

[berkshire bee]

Whenever I'm digging any kind of hole for any reason I'm always looking for old marbles. I keep some in a jar and a made a nice little one drawer band saw box. We always played marbles as kids so I guess it's a way of connecting with the past.
I even thought, since we have a large contemporary art museum with some strange exhibits, it would be interesting to have a GPS, and whenever you found a marble, mark the exact place where it was found then do a little exhibit with the marbles and their co-ordinates. I guess MASS MoCA (the museum) is kind of rubbing off on the locals

[cow pollinater]

I collect animal genetics and trees/garden oddities. I'm kind of a nutjob when it comes to animal genetics so I have to spend hours over specific and perfect matings to my girls- it doesn't really matter if the offspring is any better, my mind knows the improvement is there and I can't bring myself to let such a model of perfection go.:) My cryogenic tank has a canister that is FILLED with odd genetics from various species that have failed to become mainstream.
As far as the trees and garden oddities, I recently ripped out another acre of pasture since I found a new source for fruit trees that has some new varieties that amazingly enough I don't already have... Pluots, apriums, plumcots, peachcots... the list goes on and there are a couple different varieties of each. I have to have two of each plus the perfect pollinizer if I want to sleep well at night.:o

[MapMan]

CP - those aren't antiques - they are oddities and new hybrids. :scratch:

Now, if you wanted, you could plant some "antique" apple trees, for example. :thumbsup:

Here are scion sticks (http://www.towerhillbg.org/thwebscion.html), or a good selection of trees (http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/default.htm).

Have fun.

MM

[cow pollinater]

Here mapman...Just to put your obsessive compulsive antique collecting mind at ease.:D


Do any of you collect anything in particular?

And I already have most of the antique variaties but I can't help but follow your link and see if there's something new.:doh:

As far as antiques, I do have some viable semen stored in glass ampules still frozen and viable from the early days of artificial insemenation if anyone needs a holstien cow able to give a whopping twenty pounds of milk a day.:)

[Tom G. Laury]

I have been picking up Indian artifacts since I was a kid. Kind of like bees it gets in your blood. Now they seem to just appear before my eyes. Don't pick them up much anymore though the house is full of them.

[magnet-man]

Well back in college I started to collect rolling papers. Had a real nice collection that filled five army ammo cans. All of the papers were unique and from all over the world and not a bar code on a single one. Well I made a mistake of leaving my collection with a fraternity brother when I went home for summer. Wish I still had them, a lot of them had really interesting artwork on them and are sought by collectors.

Believe it or not there is a collector's market in old cereal boxes.

I also started collecting WWII military script and Japanese occupation money and war bonds. The Japanese war bonds are interesting because they have all sorts of images of tanks, planes and ships. I also have a 1765 British indenture bond "land morgtage" on some property from a William Gates. Purchased it so I could say that Bill Gates owes me money. :)

[walking bird]

I am collecting wrinkles and debt.

[Hobie]

I am collecting wrinkles and debt.

You can have mine, cheap! :D


I have been picking up Indian artifacts since I was a kid. ... Now they seem to just appear before my eyes.

Tom, please come visit me! I have been looking for an arrowhead for 40 years, to no avail. The field next to me is full of them, based on what my neighbors find, but try as I might for the past 10 years, I have found zippo.

[Oldbee]

I am collecting wrinkles and debt.

:D Good grief why! The market's already saturated!
Who's your 'investments' advisor,..Bernie Madoff? :eek:

[Robert Brenchley]

Stuff like arrowheads is a matter of getting your eye in. How often do you handle the things? Once you've trained up your eye they jump out at you, even if you've got eyesight as bad as mine!

It's been many years now, but I used to be really into fossil collecting, and I did so much of it I was spotting things everywhere.

[Hobie]

Stop it! You're killing me! I'd go out and look now if there wasn't 6" of snow in the field.

[swamprat]

like looking for 4 leaf clovers i find them all the time my wife and kids can never find one. i telll them its like looking for a square in pile of triangles.

as far as my collecting. too maney things just ask my wife..LOL

Dwayne.s

[justin]

yeah, i forgot to mention shed deer antlers,and elk antlers,and skulls.and burls from trees.my wife collects pretty river rocks.big ones, that i have to carry back to the house.finding antlers is the same way,training your eye.i have sat down in the woods for ten minutes,and then had one appear 3 feet from me.during rifle season 2 years ago i found an elk skull with a big 6x6 rack way back in the woods.i didn't get shot carrying it out,but i would have deserved it if i had.

[walking bird]

I think an antique is defined, at least in one respect, by being at least half-a-century old.

In which case I've collected a wife.

[dragonfly]

I think an antique is defined, at least in one respect, by being at least half-a-century old.

In which case I've collected a wife.

:D
Hey, does this mean I can tell DH he has an antique?

[Hobie]

At your own risk, my dear dragonfly! At your own risk! :D

But I think for it to be a "collection," you have to have more than one....

[dragonfly]

At your own risk, my dear dragonfly! At your own risk! :D

But I think for it to be a "collection," you have to have more than one....

:D
But I have a multi-faceted personality, so it's kinda like having more than one of me.;) (the poor guy)

[walking bird]

But I think for it to be a "collection," you have to have more than one....


One menopausal spouse at a time is all I can handle, thanks.

Unless I can collect two 25-year olds and call it even?

[dragonfly]

One menopausal spouse at a time is all I can handle, thanks.

Unless I can collect two 25-year olds and call it even?

You can try, but your menopausal wife may respond with the fury of a hormonal woman, and you know how unpleasant that could be.;)

[swamprat]

You can try, but your menopausal wife may respond with the fury of a hormonal woman, and you know how unpleasant that could be.;)

I thank i would rather take my chance with an angry swarm of AHB.:lpf:

[Karl]

I've only found one. In my garden, looked down as I was hoeing weeds and there was this little reddish colored head. Have a friend that has property north of Green Bay, Wis. He goes out in early spring, talks with local farmers. After they have worked up the fields he waits for the first good rain, he finds them just laying on top of the soil. Hope this tip works.