Any Other Antique Lovers?

[RockRiverTiff]

We went to a wonderful annual antique show about an hour away this weekend, and I got the neatest primitive ice box. The couple that had it travel around the country looking for folk art, so they had some really wonderful stories (and stuff). I don't collect a lot of big pieces, but this one's special.

I'm so anxious for auction season to start! It's funny because my younger friends used to really give me heck for spending my weekends antiquing, but now with shows like Pawn Stars and American Pickers a lot of them are asking to come along. Anyone else like to collect old musty stuff? What's your coolest recent find?

 

[TheCaseFamily00]

I love antiques!!!!! I think the furniture was made to last,not like they make furniture now. I love victorian furniture and stuff. I'v slowed down alot because I don't have space for anymore unless I get rid of some and I like what i have

. I started out collecting a few tea cups and saucers from grandparents and it kinda led to other things. Old celluloid and velvet photo albums. One of my first finds was a old red velvet eastlake chair.I'v got a old library table 1887 that belonged to my greatgrandma,I used to eat at it during big get togethers.I love the history that goes with the antiques.

 

[Miniv]

Larry and I LOVE antiques......so much so that for several years we had a small side business selling. We started out with space in an antique mall and I ended up being a junior partner with the owners (two other couples). Then, we discovered E-Bay (back when it was good.).

I tended to find things at Estate Sales and Estate Auctions. But my most exciting find was at an huge annual antique sale. (There's a town in Oregon that closes down its streets and antique vendors set up booths for the weekend. No one is allowed into town by car, instead you have to park in the fields outside the town and they provide shuttles.)

Larry, another couple, and I went about 15 years ago. And it was in an antique glass vendors booth I spied a small iridescent glass candy dish sitting in a silver liner with legs. I recognized the style of glass and whispered to Larry -- "Wouldn't it be funny if was a Tiffany or Steuben piece?" I picked it up to check, but it was fit snuggly into the liner......Larry has always been a little more aggressive, so he worked it loose and we looked at the bottom of the dish....... There it was -- etched onto the base was "LCT"....... (It was signed by Louis C. Tiffany!!!!)

I gasped and turned my back to the vendor. We returned the dish to its liner and went to make an offer to buy. I bought the piece for $50.......put it up for sale in my booth at the antique store, after doing the research on it. It sold a few weeks later for $350.

I have some other neat "finds", both for re-sale and for us personally........but that was our first most exciting.

 

[susanne]

One of my obsessions!

furniture

glassware

jewelry

clothing

frames

mirrors

garden accoutrements

gears and wheels from farm implements

almost anything rusty

house parts (old light fixtures, sinks, clawfoot tubs, etc)

old houses (pre 1930s)

old, venerable plants (like the 75-year-old wisteria at our former house)

...but what I love most is, like MA, finding pieces that others consider junk and seeing the treasure that it truly is.

Family lore has it that I never met anything old and crusty that I didn't like...

 

[Marsha Cassada]

My dream is to live in an old house. My husband does not like old. When we built our house, he let me put a few old things in. The closet door in my sewing room was salvaged from an old house. My bathroom vanity was the kitchen cupboard in an old house, last seen in a dairy barn soon to be burned and the feeding table for wild cats. I have the cupbaord that my grandmother put her lunch pail in in the country school in Oklahoma Territory, and the high chair that dad and his brothers sat in in the 1920's, and my grandfather's horse-drawn plow. My oldest thing is a newspaper with the obituary of Martha Washington.

I love primitive.

So nice to know others love the old stuff, too!

 

[Ellen]

I love them. I love to find pieces that need refinished. My daughters room is all antiques, 2 dressers and a brass bed. Russ and I love to shop for it and refinish it. Our TV is mounted on the wall and the first dresser I refinished is under it. We don't have a lot, but we do have is unique and tasteful.

Someday I want to restore an old bank barn and live above my ponies!

 

[Becky]

I grew up with antiques. My parents collected American 18th and 19th century New England antiques. Later they became dealers. It just seemed natural to have antiques in my house. Charlotte and Frank too. I have some nice pieces, but I do like comfortable furniture!

My parents house was like a museum growing up. And in fact they had and still have many museum quality pieces. Their house has been featured in Country Living magazine, Oklahoma Home and Garden and other publications. My parents are now in their late 80's and their antiquing days are over, but I have many fond antiquing memories.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Becky,

do you know which issue of Country Living? Lucky you, to have had a chance to be exposed to such treasures.

The nice thing about modern living, is we can blend those old things with new comfort and convenience.

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

I LOVE antiques. We have alot of primitive pieces in our home. My prized piece would be a corner dresser, which belonged to my great -gramma. My parents had alot of victorian pieces in there home which also belonged to my Grandparents and gr-grandparents. I have some of them, and 2 of our bedrooms are done in victorian. I also have a special attachement to my spinning wheel, which belonged to my hubbys parents. I decorate with crocks, stonewear, and splatterware. Now that my hubby is retired, I would like him to replace all my kitchen cupboards with cupboards made from a barn we salvaged. We dont live in a old farmhouse anymore (my son now has that home) so it was a little bit tricky getting a ranch type home to have the feel of a 18th century home, but I am content with what I did.

 

[HGFarm]

I love antique stuff too and would love to have an entire house full.... I just dont know that much about them and what things are worth. I love the old or Victorian style era........

 

[RockRiverTiff]

MA I think finding a Tiffany piece is every antiquer's dream! My grandma has a great/slightly horrifying story about how my great-uncle got an $80,000 Tiffany lamp. I would love to see how everyone is mixing their antiques with their modern pieces.

 

[Miniv]

Tiffany,

You should share your great uncle's story....... You've made me curious.

My husband, Larry, has a sad story about a collectible comic too. (He used to collect comic books while he was a kid.) When he moved out of his parent's house -- the first time --

His mom cleaned his room and found his comic book collection stashed in a box........He'd forgotten to grab it, I guess. She threw the box out!!!! His collection included THE NUMBER TWO SUPERMAN COMIC BOOK.

 

[RockRiverTiff]

Well I've gone and spoiled the story by telling the ending first, but here's the rest of it anyway.

One day my great uncle decided to do a kind act and visit one of the elderly ladies from his church. As he was sitting in her living room, he noticed the big lamp she had in her window. When he asked about it, she said that she hated that ugly old thing but she had inherited it from a relative. So being the generous soul that he was, my great uncle told her that he'd be happy to trade her a nice, new modern lamp. He left her house, drove to Walmart and bought a $20 touch lamp, brought it back and set it up for her. Of course she thanked him profusely for his kindness, and he accepted it all with a benevolent smile as he packed up that "ugly old thing." As I mentioned above, he later sold that lamp - a signed Tiffany - for over $80,000 at auction.

Knowing that my grandmother also collects antiques, he bragged about that lamp whenever they got together, but she retells the story now as a moral lesson. I just hope the woman he fleeced never found out the truth.

 

[Miniv]

I take it that your great uncle knew EXACTLY what it was?

(Naughty Man!)

 

[RockRiverTiff]

I don't think he knew it would be worth THAT much, but he definitely knew it was a Tiffany. Naughty indeed.