European a relic box minus the relic, probably 1500s
American item? toss up between a dropleaf plank table made with one tree plank and a set of shelves from my mil’s 1710 farmhouse.
I have a vase made at the end of the bronze age. And an electrum coin minted in Anatolia about 700 BC.
Kar 98K waffenamt 42 dated 1940
Old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.....
I have an S&W “lemon squeezer” that belonged to my mother’s father’s father. It was manufactured around 1900. We also have some pretty old furniture, and at least two sewing machines that date to 1910-1915.
Fun thread!
I have a cannon ball I found while walking on a construction site. It is about 3”.... and is called grape shot. A number of them would be put in the cannon at the same time and all fired at once. We had one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war here, but I found this a few miles from that site. Perhaps it was dropped while in transit.
One of the most interesting pieces we have is a Duplex Dual Horn Phonograph that was bought new by Mr G’s uncle around 1905. We have all the original paperwork with it.
A neolithic stone carving of a fertility idol about an two inches tall.
A Baltimore painted chair, ca. 1805-1815.
A house, ca. 1810.
42” Phillips HDTV from 2007.
Not counting fossils, I have some books published in the first decade under our Constitution and first owned by my great-great . . . great-grandfather. I have his Springfield .69 caliber non-rifled musket from just after that time period too.
A tin cup found on the land outside of Ft Huachuca. It had been part of a cavalry mess kit and lost in a stream bed. We found it while hiking in the back woods.
That would be me who asked “what is the oldest thing you own?”
It was in response to someone who said a certain something didn’t exist because “it was old”.
I have a Byzantine solid us from the reign of Emperor Phocus. I also have a Greek Drachma from the time of the Pelopenesian war.
I have some fossiliferous limestone from the Ordovician period on my desk. But, I am pretty sure the gold in the wedding ring is a little older.
1947 Brooklyn Dodgers Pennant and team signed baseball.
Late 18th century cherry candlestand table from VA and a set of coin silver spoons from the same period.
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.
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.
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)
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.