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| 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | 1910s | 1900s | 1890s | 1880s | 1870s | 1860s | Pre-1860s |
I didn’t really get into to pinball machine collecting until maybe 15 years ago, but when I was a freshman in college, video games were really big. I went to Purdue Univers… Read more
The following is a history of these wondrous little artifacts called cardboard Christmas village houses - a history devoted to establishing some way of categorizing them … Read more
You've just acquired an old radio, but apart from the manufacturer's name on the front, you don't know a blessed thing about it. Learning more about your radio may satisfy yo… Read more
I think I started collecting vintage aprons seriously probably in 1991, my first year of college. I was an absolute junkie for vintage clothing, which was pretty much all I  Read more
I’ve been a collector of antique fishing tackle for over 20 years, and have been selling antique tackle in my shop since 1990. I collect all aspects of fishing memorabilia.… Read more
How did I get interested in clocks? Something about them has always been ingrained in me. My mom’s father had a small collection of antique clocks and when I was a little b… Read more
Ron Sturgeon: I had an automotive repair shop in about 1976 and spent a lot of time repairing Mercedes. About 1979 I decided to start collecting Mercedes toy cars. I was youn… Read more
I’m the curator here at the museum in Rocky River, a suburb west of Cleveland. I look at Cowan pottery from a historian’s angle because this is part of Rocky River’s cu… Read more
I became interested in Petroliana in a kind of roundabout way. I’ve been in the automotive repair business all my life, and have always liked cars and been interested in au… Read more
I’ve always had an old Ford Model A or something to tinker around with or play with. It may not have been on the road but I was always building or working on something. Aro… Read more
At the very beginning, my interest in lighters was about the mechanism. I had my first lighter when I was 14. I saved up my nickels and dimes. I grew up in Oakland, and bough… Read more
I grew up in upstate New York in Rochester, and started playing guitar when I was about 10 years old. We had this place in Rochester; called the House of Guitars. It was this… Read more
I got interested in insulators when I lived in El Cajon and my neighbor worked for San Diego Gas and Electric. His son had a bunch of insulators on the window sill in his bed… Read more
I started off collecting comics, and still do, but I’d been given a few early Disney pinbacks as a child and always thought they were interesting. In the early 1990s, I sta… Read more
What inspired me to collect old jigsaw puzzles? I grew up as a child with some wonderful world class puzzles in my household. They were puzzles my mother and grandmother pick… Read more
In the 1950s when I was a teenager I used to work for a television repair shop and we’d get sets from the 40s every once in a while and I was fascinated by them. So in 1999… Read more
Cigarette lighter collecting is a hobby that never gets boring. Just by browsing eBay auctions for ten minutes, for example, I recently found a lighter shaped like a lion’s… Read more
Although Ford produced its first Model A in 1903, it was the 1927 model by that name which turned into a huge success, following i… (more)
$26,000 Ends Sunday 2 bids 31 watchers
$21,000 Ends in 10 hours 13 bids 99 watchers
$14,100 Ends Sunday 17 bids 
49 watchers
The first gas pumps were built in the 1880's by the Bowser Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, followed in 1898 by pumps that could pu… (more)
Insulators were originally made to keep telegraph and telephone wires electrically insulated from wooden telephone poles (especial… (more)
Bakelite was an early plastic resin, developed by Leo Baekeland in 1907. Originally used for industrial purposes thanks to its abi… (more)
In the late 1920s, a group of German scientists created a dye for a new type of resin, harder and shinier than Bakelite (which was… (more)
At the turn of the 20th century, light was still considered a somewhat supernatural commodity. Edison’s light bulb remained a work… (more)
Even though he is known today for his antique art glass, René Lalique (1860-1945) began his career in 1881 as a freelance jeweler.… (more)
Lobby cards, the smaller cousins to movie posters, once graced theaters everywhere. They were produced from about 1910 to 1985, an… (more)
The 78 rpm (rotations per minute) phonograph record became the standard for audio playback in the mid-1920s, and along with the Vi… (more)
In the 1930s, lovable Shirley Temple became a symbol of happiness and hope in the midst of the Great Depression. A wave of merchan… (more)
The tradition of building miniature Christmas village landscapes (‘putz’), including houses, animals and other hand-crafted wooden… (more)
Lou Gehrig played for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and '30s, and is best known for holding the records for the most consecuti… (more)
Founded in 1890 as a producer of utilitarian pottery, Roseville soon started hiring artists to hand-paint patterns and images on p… (more)
First offered in 1934 by Gladding-McBean and Company in California, Franciscan ware designs were largely floral. One Franciscan st… (more)
Depression glass refers to inexpensive colored transparent glassware manufactured in the U.S. from the mid-1920s through WWII. It … (more)
Starting around 1900, Coca-Cola began manufacturing metal tin-plate serving and change trays, initially round and oval, and later … (more)
One of the most famous American radio brands, Philco started in 1892 as a battery manufacturer, then switched to radios in 1928 as… (more)
The milkman may be long gone, but glass milk bottles are still used in some places, and are loved by collectors, who often fill th… (more)
Fishing lures have been around about as long as prehistoric humans have contrived ways to catch fish. The earliest, prehistoric lu… (more)
When Levon Helm of The Band sang "I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead" in "The Weight," he wasn’t alluding to… (more)
Clock design was heavily influenced in the 1920s and ’30s by Art Deco, a machine-like aesthetic for a fast-paced industrial age. N… (more)
Art Deco was an international design and art movement in the 1920s and ’30s. Influenced by sources as varied as the Bauhaus School… (more)
Tin toy cars saw their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, before being displaced by diecast models in the 1970s. One of the first manu… (more)
When people talk about Italian art glass, they are usually referring to the vases, paperweights, goblets, and decorative objects p… (more)
Many states used small badges for anglers and hunters from the teens through the 1940s. Some issued license holders after the 40s,… (more)
| 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | 1910s | 1900s | 1890s | 1880s | 1870s | 1860s | Pre-1860s |
