I have a few furniture items I’ve picked up from a couple of good nearby antique shops. You’re right. They have character and are built to last. My father had a Sears Coldspot chest freezer that ran continuously for 50 years without problems. I finally got him to unplug it when he really wasn’t using it anymore. When he passed and I had an auction, I was surprised to find that someone enthusiastically bought it.
With the way most things are made today, pretty to be used short-term and then thrown away, I wonder how many of our contemporary things will still be around years from now.
It will be all the older stuff that survives. The modern stuff is complete junk.