What started your interest in antiques?
Discussion
For me it was after I bought and renovated a Victorian farmhouse and wanted some appropriate furniture. Nothing vernacular or 'shabby-chic' but more Arts & Crafts - perhaps too up market for a farmhouse but the oak pieces I purchased over the years didn't look out of place.
Sadly they're all gone now as I'm in a modern house and have switched smaller items, mostly automobilia, with a common theme - bet you can't guess what it is...
Over to you.
Sadly they're all gone now as I'm in a modern house and have switched smaller items, mostly automobilia, with a common theme - bet you can't guess what it is...
Over to you.
The house that we own is over 120 years old.
It didn't take me long to realise that old "brown" furniture, that is over a similar vintage, and hence, must be well made, is often cheaper than something new from Oak Furniture Land and the like.
That's what go me started. But I love old books, maps, records etc too.
It didn't take me long to realise that old "brown" furniture, that is over a similar vintage, and hence, must be well made, is often cheaper than something new from Oak Furniture Land and the like.
That's what go me started. But I love old books, maps, records etc too.
My house was built around 1840, and I feel exactly the same about old furniture. Pride of place goes to our Arts & Crafts bookcase, which I love.
It helps that where I live is well supplied with antiques shops. What saddens me is how much lovely old furniture just gets dumped and labelled unsellable on the passing of old people like me. White paint everywhere and a trip to IKEA is the probable future of this old house.
It helps that where I live is well supplied with antiques shops. What saddens me is how much lovely old furniture just gets dumped and labelled unsellable on the passing of old people like me. White paint everywhere and a trip to IKEA is the probable future of this old house.
Specifically this post on Facebook Marketplace a few years back.
3 unknown, unnamed pocket watches for £15.
After picking them up and looking into them, the first two are 1930s and 1940s. The silver one is an American Waltham from 1885 or so.
I loved how I’d stumbled across something so old and with so much history. Now in my home office on the walls I have Victorian paintings, old maps, and my desk is an old captains desk. Always gets commented on during Teams meetings as I’m 30 so it’s a little odd.
We got married last year in Pengersick Castle and at one point the day before the wedding my wife said she was sat in the gardens with a glass of wine and could see me pissing about on the roof wearing a suit of armour and swinging a sword around
I found a 5p coin on the floor while walking along the canal near work, only it turned out to be a nazi era coin complete with swastika. More random history. Great stuff.
3 unknown, unnamed pocket watches for £15.
After picking them up and looking into them, the first two are 1930s and 1940s. The silver one is an American Waltham from 1885 or so.
I loved how I’d stumbled across something so old and with so much history. Now in my home office on the walls I have Victorian paintings, old maps, and my desk is an old captains desk. Always gets commented on during Teams meetings as I’m 30 so it’s a little odd.
We got married last year in Pengersick Castle and at one point the day before the wedding my wife said she was sat in the gardens with a glass of wine and could see me pissing about on the roof wearing a suit of armour and swinging a sword around
I found a 5p coin on the floor while walking along the canal near work, only it turned out to be a nazi era coin complete with swastika. More random history. Great stuff.
The history and character.
The fact you can own and use items from pretty much any point in history. Appreciating how craftsmen from centuries ago could achieve such amazing results with simple hand tools and rudimentary lighting/materials.
How many modern chairs or tables will still be here in 400 years time?
The fact you can own and use items from pretty much any point in history. Appreciating how craftsmen from centuries ago could achieve such amazing results with simple hand tools and rudimentary lighting/materials.
How many modern chairs or tables will still be here in 400 years time?
I've always had a good eye. I liked some rough, earthen, pottery one of my aunties had, then I saw something very, very similar to it on one of the myriad of flogging shows, getting appraised for £$£$££$£. It subsequently sold for £$£$££$££$£$££$£. It was Troika.
Likewise, another of my aunties had these glass, decorative, paperweights...
Likewise, another of my aunties had these glass, decorative, paperweights...
I started during Covid by fixing up stuff found on eBay, usually damaged in some way and been at it ever since. Over the years I’ve honed various repair techniques and bought a few tools to make by job easier.
I bought this table from eBay, stripped the damaged veneer top off and fitted a leather insert. It needed a repair to one of the legs but that was easy. I probably owes me less than £65.
Decent antiques aren’t necessarily expensive.
I bought this table from eBay, stripped the damaged veneer top off and fitted a leather insert. It needed a repair to one of the legs but that was easy. I probably owes me less than £65.
Decent antiques aren’t necessarily expensive.
A long weekend break in the Cotswolds in the late nineties. No pre-existing interest in anything produced longer ago than last week. Popped into an antique clock shop (for whatever reason - maybe the wife) near Cheltenham and was immediately fascinated by the beauty of brass-faced long case ("grandfather') clocks. Unusually I had a bit of money at the time and expressed an interest.
The proprietor was brilliant. The market was buoyant and prices high. Rather than taking advantage of the mug that stood before him he gently said "you don't know much about clocks do you? ". He scribbled down the names of a few clock books and advised me to both buy & read them. He then suggested I might like to return to Cheltenham and consider a purchase once I was reasonably educated from a horological perspective.
The books were read and I became truly hooked. I never returned to Cheltenham but since then somewhere in the region of 300 antique clocks have passed through my hands. I remain grateful to the shop-owner to this day.
A couple of the books still owned - Brittens Old Clocks & Watches is the equivalent of Bailey & Love to a budding surgeon. Brian Loomes is the horological equivalent of motor racing's Doug Nye.
The proprietor was brilliant. The market was buoyant and prices high. Rather than taking advantage of the mug that stood before him he gently said "you don't know much about clocks do you? ". He scribbled down the names of a few clock books and advised me to both buy & read them. He then suggested I might like to return to Cheltenham and consider a purchase once I was reasonably educated from a horological perspective.
The books were read and I became truly hooked. I never returned to Cheltenham but since then somewhere in the region of 300 antique clocks have passed through my hands. I remain grateful to the shop-owner to this day.
A couple of the books still owned - Brittens Old Clocks & Watches is the equivalent of Bailey & Love to a budding surgeon. Brian Loomes is the horological equivalent of motor racing's Doug Nye.
I met a lot of interesting people during my time as a donor carer in the Blood Service. I will never forget the guy who put his occupation down as a clock maker. He told me he had just spent a year rebuilding a grandfather clock that had got squashed flat when something fell on its crate at the dockside. Everything had to be reassembled, and after it was done he felt like he knew the original clock maker like an old friend.
I hated Antiques Roadshow in my youth, mostly because it signaled the beginning of the end for the weekend before school on Monday. Fast forward to my early 30s and I got my first professional photography job and now I shoot and list antiques for an online dealer. My knowledge has grown exponentially from barely a kernel of interest.
I have always loved the appearance of high quality furniture, and started doing evening classes in antique furniture restoration about 12 years ago. My current piece is a Regency Rosewood sofa table, which arrived looking like this:
The top was split in two places due to shrinkage across the grain, the brass inlay was mostly missing and there was a lot of missing veneer, as well as some distortion of the carcass wood:
It's all being sorted, with the main surface now back to being a single piece of timber, and the curvature removed by sawing the flap into three pieces and removing a little of the wood in a wedge shape below the surface, so when glued back together the timber is flat again.
I restored another Regency table (it's a card rather than a sofa table though) a few years ago now:
It is very satisfying to save a piece of furniture that has survived for 200 or more years, but might not make another 50 without some intervention.
The top was split in two places due to shrinkage across the grain, the brass inlay was mostly missing and there was a lot of missing veneer, as well as some distortion of the carcass wood:
It's all being sorted, with the main surface now back to being a single piece of timber, and the curvature removed by sawing the flap into three pieces and removing a little of the wood in a wedge shape below the surface, so when glued back together the timber is flat again.
I restored another Regency table (it's a card rather than a sofa table though) a few years ago now:
It is very satisfying to save a piece of furniture that has survived for 200 or more years, but might not make another 50 without some intervention.
Just fell for this, you can feel the history in your hand, Colt 1851 Navy with US Government (Army purchase) stamps on it.
....plus it's something that you could actually shoot legally in the UK should you wish to put it on firearms certificate, currently just owned as a curio not to be shot, no license required.
....plus it's something that you could actually shoot legally in the UK should you wish to put it on firearms certificate, currently just owned as a curio not to be shot, no license required.
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