If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
The mysterious packages kept arriving, some from eBay, others from the Home …
Jockeying for Position: How Boxers and Briefs Got Into Men's Pants
Just as underclothes are shielded from public view, the evolution of men's most intimate apparel is shrouded in secrecy. But the story of men's underwear is about more …
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
The meerschaum pipes carved in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century are among the most bizarre and improbable concoctions in decorative art. Some feature …
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
While researching her book, "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," Maureen Stanton came across all sorts of characters. For years, she shadowed her antiques-dealer friend …
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Vintage kites from all over the world hang from the ceiling and walls of Richard Dermer’s popula…
Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords
“When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.” Sword maker Francis Boyd is showing me yet another weapon pulled from yet another …
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Have you heard? There’s a new swell in town named Gatsby, and he’s bringing flapper flair back into fashion. Baz Luhrmann’s latest cinematic spectacle—his take on “Th…
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
It’s not unusual for men of a certain age to have a soft spot in their hearts for the look of vintage guitars and the sound…
Forget TV Pickers, Meet the Real Mavericks of the Antiques World
Long before Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz swaggered into the spotlight with "American Pickers," writer Maureen Stanton …
Coveting The Craziest Cat-People Collectibles
The memes are endless—Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat, Maru, and all the Lolcats. Last year even witnessed the first ever Internet Cat Video Fe…
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Time was, humans didn't have to worry much about getting exercise. When we had to kill, gather, grow, or herd our own food, working out happened naturally. Of course, as soon… Read more
My mother was our inspiration for collecting pattern glass. She collected it, and she died at a very young age. My sister and I inherited it and my aunt said not to sell anyt… Read more
These days, "snake oil" is synonymous with quackery, the phoniest of phony medicines. A "snake oil salesman" promises you the world, takes your money, and is long gone by the… Read more
I’ve always been interested in antiques. As a kid, I collected a variety of stuff – fossils, rocks, minerals, natural history stuff, Indian artifacts and antiques. I grew up … Read more
When coins were withdrawn from circulation in the northern states during the Civil War, opportunists began minting private pennies that became de facto legal tender throughou… Read more
About 11 years ago, my wife and I went on some architectural tours. We joined the organization that sponsored the tours, and I volunteered to be the Webmaster for them. I dec… Read more
How did I get started collecting Victorian Furniture? Antiques is in my genes, my mother's family were longtime antiquers and lived in a house built in the 18th Century. But … Read more
The double eagle is really a result of the California Gold Rush. Prior to the California Gold Rush, the biggest gold discoveries were relatively small strikes in Georgia and … Read more
I started collecting coins when I was five years old, and I started dealing when I was 13 or 14. Most kids start with coins of circulation—I had albums for Jefferson nickels,… Read more
Malcolm Warrington is based 12 miles to the west of Central London. He is a council member of the UK Ephemera Society with responsibility for the society's web site. He also … Read more
More than 30 years ago, my wife, Helene, and I started collecting. She loved tribal masks—African, Oceanic, Indonesian, etc.—while I focused on medical, scientific, and industrial … Read more
My maternal grandfather and uncle got into bottles in about 1965 or ‘66 when I was in high school, and we started digging. My uncle was in Arizona, near some of the old minin… Read more
While most early photo processes involved paper or light metal plates, tintypes (aka ferrotypes) used a sheet of thin iron. Patent… (more)
Just two months into the confederacy, in 1861, the Confederate States of America issued its first bank notes. Like the Continental… (more)
Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG), also known as pressed glass, was produced from roughly 1850 to 1910. Cheaper to manufacture t… (more)
While flasks have had a variety of uses over the years, such as the storing of gun powder, their primary purpose has long been to … (more)
Stoneware is the roughhewn cousin of porcelain. Like porcelain, it is fired at very high temperatures (1,200 to 1,400 degrees), li… (more)
Magic lanterns, also known as optical lanterns, provided one of the most popular forms of entertainment during their heyday in the… (more)
Founded in Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1866 by William Dean Whiting, who had already made a name for himself as a maker of sterli… (more)
In 1831, Jabez Gorham, in partnership with Henry Webster, founded the silver company that bears his name in his native Providence,… (more)
Victorian antique furniture refers to pieces made during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), and includes both mass produced … (more)
Cartes-De-Visites (CDVs), were part of a major shift in the 1860’s from glass and metal photographic media to treated paper mounte… (more)
Robert Wallace is considered the first metalsmith to make a spoon out of German silver, which is also known as nickel silver, even… (more)
The Taunton, Massachusetts, firm of Reed & Barton began in 1824 as Babbitt & Crossman, which produced a cousin of pewter known as … (more)
Bitters are a form of patent or proprietary medicine made by steeping herbs, roots, and other spices in alcohol. They likely origi… (more)
Invented by Frederick Scott Archer as a cheaper alternative to the daguerreotype, the ambrotype was popular from the 1850’s to 189… (more)
The first official US stamps were issued in 1847, depicting Benjamin Franklin and George Washington (5 and 10 cents). These were f… (more)
Victorian trade cards are an early form of collectible advertising. Popularized after the Civil War by businesses, they offer a co… (more)
| 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | 1910s | 1900s | 1890s | 1880s | 1870s | 1860s | Pre-1860s |