Posted on 02/15/2016 6:24:28 PM PST by jy8z
Restricting this to things that I have actually sought out and acquired, the oldest would probably be a telegraph sending and receiving set from the 1860s that was used by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
If you include inheritances, that would be a collection of arrowheads that had been gathered by my great uncle.
I once posted a picture in ohhhh 2007....
It actually isn’t that much to look at. Looks like a typical harvest table but my fil had it many years and pointed out the graining features to me.
Probably the oldest things we have are a great wheel for spinning wool from the early 1800’s with a pulley head patented around 1806 and a flax spinning wheel from around the same period - - both put back in order by my husband and I have spun on both.
Oops,just recalled I have books from the late 1700’s.
It’s not super old, but we have a bassinet that several generations of babies in my wife’s family used. I know my MIL used it and she’s in her mid ‘70’s
Porcelain Sugar Bowl. There was a note from my great aunt that stated it had been in the family nearly 200 years. (She died in 1983)
That’s cool. I have a piece of the Admiral’s Deck from the Battleship New Jersey. Bull Halsey probably puked on it.
I will also someday inherit one of the first ever Lionel Train engines. It’s not in great shape but it’s pretty cool. I should probably borrow it and get it appraised in case it should be insured.
You could melt them down to make fishing sinkers or bullets or something.
This is a fun thread.
I have an old Ted Cruz campaign button when he ran for Prime Minister.
After all, we have to inject politics in everything don’t we?
I agree. The Light of Lights.
I have been collecting antiques my entire life. The first thing I got was a white ceramic potty, the kind that was under the bed for emergencies, that I found in my grandfathers garage. He kept nails in it. When I asked him for it he said I should take it because it was my great grandmothers potty. That was about 1950 and I was 10 years old. My entire house is antique, I don’t think I have anything purchased new except mattresses and appliances.
I have a stone that is billions of years old.
Why would you melt down historical artifacts?
Thank you for inspiring this thread!
Just kidding. Those are cool to have, especially since it sounds like you found them yourself.
I used to work with a guy who’s brother was a forensic historian at one of the battlefields. He told me one day, a family came in and mentioned that their great great grandfather fought in the battle. He asked which side, they told him, he asked if they knew his rank. He was a Sergeant Major. He then said, well, there were only three Sergeant Majors who fought in the battle that day. Each carried their own sidearms. Two were one caliber, the third was a different caliber. He then went into a cabinet and removed a box holding a single spent bullet. He said that he dug this out of a tree and since it was a specific caliber, there’s a huge chance your great great grandfather fired this bullet.
History is awesome.
It’s illegal to use a metal detectors on a battle field so you have to go at night. I will tell you a civil war battlefield at night is a creepy place.
Wow. I’ll bet it’s very spooky.
Have you found anything besides bullets.
We used to live in Michigan and found out there was a civil war training camp not far from our house. All vestiges of it are gone.
My son wrote a school report about it and we think we knew where about it was. Kind of wanted to go look around but the area was completely built up so there wouldn’t be much point.
I went to a yard sale in my small neighborhood and bought what was left of an antique pistol that was found on the battlefield. The handle and side pieces were intact, everything except the barrel. I paid $10. For it and it is one of my favorite artifacts. I had a antique gun expert looked at it and he said it was made in the early 1700’s in France and because of being found on the battlefield it probably was dropped where it was found after someone was shot and killed.
I have a coprolite (fossilized feces, a dinosaur turd).
I just inherited an American Waltham(1870)from my Father.
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