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Time Machine » The 1890s

1890s Related Articles

The Kalo Shop, a Mecca for Arts and Crafts Sterling Silver

How did I get started collecting Arts and Crafts silver? My wife and I had been collecting Arts and Crafts items as far back as I can remember, mostly furniture and tiles… Read more

Early Typewriters of the Late 1800s

Collecting antique typewriters circa 1900 has been a wonderful experience for me over the years. My collection is really just the tip of the iceberg, as literally hundreds of… Read more

John Werry Explains How To Appreciate Victorian Furniture

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

Rob Niederman Focuses on Antique Wood Cameras

How did I start collecting cameras? Actually, I had an interest in photography as a kid and owned a darkroom by the age of 12 or 13. My interest in photography grew. I spent … Read more

American Cut Glass, From Flint to Brilliant

I started collecting cut glass when I was about 18. My sisters were married, and during the summer, I would go out and stay with them in the Midwest and work. That was back i… Read more

Keeping Time with Waltham, Hamilton, and Illinois Pocket Watches

I got started collecting pocket watches partly because I hated wearing wristwatches; I used to carry my wristwatch in my pocket, so I thought; why not just try getting a … Read more

Reyne Haines Spills on Tiffany, Chihuly, and Loetz

I started becoming interested in art glass when I moved from Texas to New York, and wanted to decorate my apartment with New York-type things, things I had never seen in … Read more

Typewriter Collector Richard Polt on More Than a Century of QWERTY

I started to get interested in typewriters around age 12. My dad and I stopped at a garage sale and he bought me this typewriter from the 1930s, and I was just learning to ty… Read more

What All These Hatpins Were For, and Why We Stopped Using Them

Originally my husband and I collected cylinder phonographs, but after you acquire a few of them and their stands, you soon run out of room. So, I was looking for somethin… Read more

Everything You Know About Corsets Is False

The corset has a bad reputation. And unfairly so, according to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who says this … Read more

Silver Bookmark Were Made By Gorham, Kirk, and Even Fabergé

I’m a packrat, so in 1995, I was itching to collect something. I went around to local flea markets here because they’ve got the Rose Bowl Flea Market and the one in Long … Read more

Too Lazy To Work Out? Machines That Exercise for You, From Victorian Era to Now

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

Selling Soap and Smokes With Victorian Trade Cards

How did I start collecting Victorian trade cards? In the late 60s I was a bottle collector, early American bottles and flasks. I started noticing there were colorful trade ca… Read more

Signs, Tins, and Other Advertising Antiques

How did I get started collecting advertising antiques? My dad was a lecturer and tutor in graphics and art from the 1960s onwards, and was into vintage automobiles and ad… Read more

The Colors and Forms of Early American Pattern Glass

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

How Snake Oil Got a Bad Rap (Hint: It Wasn't The Snakes' Fault)

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

Loetz Glass Collector Eddy Scheepers on the Pride of Bohemia

Loetz was a Bohemian company. It was a factory; and the region’s biggest and best glass manufacturer. There were other contemporaries like Kralik, Rindskopf, and Pallme-Konig… Read more

1890s Related Categories

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau architecture, furniture, jewelry, and graphics took their inspiration from the curving shapes and flowing lines of flo… (more)

Slot Machines

Las Vegas and Atlantic City may be the gambling capitals of the United States, but the symbol of those sin cities, the slot machin… (more)

R.S. Prussia China

Founded by Reinhold Schlegelmilch in what is now Suhl, Germany, R.S. Prussia produced ornate and floral porcelain objects for expo… (more)

Regulator Clocks

Regulator clocks, sometimes referred to as pendulum clocks, were invented in the late 18th century in a quest for greater timekeep… (more)

Tobacco Tins

Offset lithography was developed in the 1870s and patented in 1875 to create an efficient way to print on tin. Until then, transfe… (more)

Hatpins and Hatpin Holders

Hatpins reached a peak of popularity between the 1890s and 1920s, as music hall actresses like Lillian Russell and Lillian Langtry… (more)

French Dolls

During the 14th century, dolls modeled on adult figures were popular among the most affluent families of Europe, and the exquisite… (more)

Early American Pattern Glass

Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG), also known as pressed glass, was produced from roughly 1850 to 1910. Cheaper to manufacture t… (more)

Morgan Silver Dollars

The Morgan silver dollars of 1878 to 1904 and 1921 are probably the most collected U.S. coins other than Lincoln cents. Designed b… (more)

Cut Glass

While cut glass has been produced for thousands of years, it reached a peak of popularity during the late 19th century in the so-c… (more)

Mechanical Banks

Antique mechanical banks make the act of saving money fun. Insert a coin, push a lever, and watch the action play out! The coin mi… (more)

Wallace Silver

Robert Wallace is considered the first metalsmith to make a spoon out of German silver, which is also known as nickel silver, even… (more)

Pocket Watches

Pocket watch use peaked in the late 19th century as a wave of investment went into pocket watch design and manufacture by companie… (more)

Trade Cards

Victorian trade cards are an early form of collectible advertising. Popularized after the Civil War by businesses, they offer a co… (more)

Wood Cameras

Even before the first 19th century cameras were produced, wood was used for their predecessor, the camera obscura, to keep the ins… (more)

Loetz Art Glass

Loetz was the premier Bohemian art glass manufacturer during the Art Nouveau period (or Jugendstil, as it was called in German-spe… (more)

Art Nouveau Sterling Silver

In the 1880s and 1890s, a new style spread across Europe and the United States—Art Nouveau. Unlike the austere Art Deco that event… (more)

Candlestick Telephones

Candlestick telephones, also known as “upright desk stands,” first gained popularity in the 1880s as the telephone became an impor… (more)

Arts and Crafts Era

The Arts and Crafts movement that swept the United States and Great Britain from roughly 1880 to 1920 was a response to the indust… (more)

Art Nouveau and Art Deco Fine Jewelry

Art Nouveau jewelry, popular from the late 1890s until the mid-1910s, is characterized by soft, curved shapes and lines, and usual… (more)



1970s1960s1950s1940s1930s1920s1910s1900s1890s1880s1870s1860sPre-1860s