Buying Tips for Antique and Vintage Ceramics

Learn the ins and outs of buying ceramics to build a collection. Focus on the condition before plunking down the cash.

If a collector is simply looking for pieces for display purposes, a chip or hairline crack may not detract from the beauty of the piece. But these pieces do have less value than a piece in perfect condition.

Study the Piece Before Purchasing.

Antique ceramics are more apt to show some wear, aside from obvious chips and cracks. If the piece is held up to the light, scratches from utensils may appear to be much stronger and the amount of use and wear plays a role in valuing the piece.
Run a finger around the base of the piece to feel for smaller chips. Run fingers all over the piece to feel for hair line cracks, flaws the eyes may not see.
Carry a jeweler's loupe or magnifying glass when out foraging for pieces to add to a collection. There is nothing more disappointing that getting a lovely Shelly tea pot home and finding a hairline crack or a repair to the handle.
Gently ping the piece with a finger and listen how it sounds. If it's a flat sound like a thud, it likely has an invisible hairline crack. It it's a slight echo, chances are there are no cracks.

Ceramic Repair

Ceramic repair can make a difference if the piece is part of a hard-to-find collection. Ceramic Restorers can do a very good job in restoring a piece to appear as though original. Only an honest dealer will be upfront about that if they are aware of it. These pieces are difficult to discern.
Restored or repaired pieces should not be valued as high as an original intact piece. Restored pieces don't make a good investment for possible resale, but very special pieces can certainly be improved and may be worth restoring.
Brown spots in porcelain may show they are older pieces, but they have little value. Even when bleached, it's often difficult to remove entirely. Only purchase these pieces if you love them. They have little value as an investment.
A collector should always ask questions of the dealer or auctioneer, rather than assume the piece is in original condition, especially given the value and the investment she is about to make.

Collecting Antique Silver Thimbles: Miniature Works of Art

Antique silver thimbles are a miniature collector's dream, especially those with fine detail and workmanship. They are prized as miniature works of art.

Thimbles are miniature works of art and collectors of all things miniature love these pieces for their fine detail, especially the Victorian silver thimbles. This can be an expensive collection.

The Thimble in History

A Roman bronze thimble was used in Pompeii nearly 2000 years ago. Another Roman thimble was found at St Albans, England, a place known to the Romans as Verulamium. In the late 17th century a Dutch maker produced thimbles with dimples or pits to keep the needle from slipping.
The earliest silver thimbles or those made before the mid 19th century were indented or pitted by hand, so it's easy to date older thimbles by the imperfections of the indentations that keep the needle from slipping.

Silver Thimble Collections

The most sought after silver thimbles are those with depictions of creatures, both mythical and realistic, as well as those with depictions of people, cherubs and landscapes. Some collectors have very focused silver thimble collections. They may look for specific makers or collect only those from a certain time period. Or, they may only collect souvenir silver thimbles. The art was in the attention to detail, and the best silver thimbles were beautifully enhanced.
Solid Silver thimbles were rarely made because the material was not thought to be strong enough to keep the needle from puncturing through it. 19th century designer, Charles Horner began to make them with a steel foundation, covered with silver and these are generally known as Dorcas.

The German Silver Thimble

The German silver thimble is often prized for it's fanciful detailing around the rim which may include flourishes of flowers or birds. The German silver thimble can be more valuable to a collector than the English thimbles.

A Price Guide to Antique Silver Thimbles

Most antique silver thimbles sell for less than $100, but there are some valued much higher. Those commemorating royal events of the 19th century can sell for as much as $1200 or as low as $500. Charles Horner silver thimbles can sell for as much as $500. There is an 1845 Silver Gilt Thimble made by Yapp and Woodward of Birmingham valued at over $5000.
Rarity, maker and condition all play a role in valuing thimbles as with anything collectible or antique. Collectors should do their research before spending a fortune on these little works of art.

Thimble Etymology

Due to the thimble's bell shape and the fact it was meant to be worn on the thumb, the original name was thought to be "thumb bell." "Thimble" seems to be a logical progression of "thumb bell," but according to Fiona Ure in her Collector Cafe article, Thymels, "Thimble" comes from the old English word "thymel," which is a finger stall, a material meant to protect an injured finger. So there are two schools of thought to the etymology of the word "thimble."

Read more at Suite101: Collecting Antique Silver Thimbles: Miniature Works of Art http://collectibles.suite101.com/article.cfm/collecting-antique-silver-thimbles-miniature-works-of-art#ixzz0nPLCm2ri

How to Care for Antique Furniture

Pieces that have stood the test of time deserve special care. Careful consideration has to be taken when cleaning and caring for antique furniture and accessories.

The methods for taking care of antique furniture have changed over the years. As items age, special consideration must be taken, and they cannot be treated in the same way as modern home furnishings.

The Effect of Heat and Sunlight on Antiques

Where antique items are placed in the home is very important because too much light is damaging to antique furniture. Sunlight can degrade finishes, veneers, wood and fabrics. Antique furniture should be placed out of direct sunlight, and curtains or shades should be used to diffuse or block sunlight on particularly sunny days. Also, where possible, turn pieces of furniture around occasionally to even the fading process.
Avoid placing antique furniture in front of heating and air conditioning vents, radiators, fireplaces or stoves. The heat can cause drying out and shrinking that can loosen glue joints, veneers, inlays and marquetry. Any of these things can significantly decrease the value of the piece.

Moisture and Humidity in the Air

Antique furniture is greatly affected by the amount of moisture in the air. Changes in relative humidity can cause wood to expand and contract, damaging wood and veneers. This expansion and contraction can cause glue joints to loosen, and drawers and doors to become stuck in their openings.
Long periods of high humidity can lead to the growth of mold, rot and even possibly insect infestation. If the climate is humid, the use of a dehumidifier is recommended. Similarly, if it’s too dry, consider using a humidifier. Either way, maintaining relative humidity will minimize any adverse effects that can be caused by too much or too little moisture in the air.

Cleaning and Polishing Antique Furniture

Many people believe that wood needs to be treated with oil to keep it from drying out, but this is really a myth. Furniture oils will temporarily enhance the appearance, but will eventually contribute to the degradation

Japanese Antiques and Arts and Crafts: Netsuke, Woodblock Prints Read more at Suite101: Japanese Antiques and Arts and Crafts: Netsuke, Woodblock Prints

 

The sophisticated designs produced by the Japanese for even simple items in daily use are admired throughout the world.

Available from department stores in Japan and antique shops around the world, these little collectables are to be treasured. Museums in the main cities like Tokyo are a good palce to see old examples too.

Netsuke

Netsuke are very collectable. Pronounced nets'kee, these are a form of toggles used for suspending various kinds of containers known as sagemono (literally 'hanging thing') from the sash of a kimono. Kimonos have no pockets and all articles for personal use were tucked into sleeves or suspended from the sash.
Netsuke are thought to have originated in the 16th century and were made of a piece of wood or bone of sufficient size to prevent the hanging items from slipping through the sash. In the 18th century netsuke became an art form and were carved from wood, ivory, lacquer, porcelain, metal and other materials. Ranging in size from about 3cm to as much as 12cm, they were made to represent legendary animals, ghosts and demons, everyday scenes and people. In fact the list of subject matter was as long as the imagination of the carver and as broad as the number of legends on which he could draw.

Japanese Dolls

Japanese dolls were not intended for play, instead they were displayed behind glass and only brought out for

Early Spanish Colonial Cob Coins

The English called them "pieces of eight" and gold "doubloons" and to this day these coins remain the archetype for treasure.

Vast discoveries of gold and silver by Spanish conquistadors lead to the creation of convoys of galleons to transport the treasure from the New World to Spain. Many of these overloaded ships sank in storms and it is estimated at 20% of all gold mined was lost to shipwrecks. Since the late 1960’s a number of these have been located and salvaged. Sunken treasure coins are collected by numismatists and historians and many are made into fashionable jewelry.

New World Mints

There were a number of New World mints.

• Mexico City: (OM) 1536-1821.
• Potosi: (P) 1574-1773.
• Lima: (L) 1568-89; 1684-1822.
• Cartagena: (NR) 1625-27; (C) 1627-55.
• Nuevo Reino / Santa Fe de Bogota: (NR) 1622-27: (RN) 1627-1756.
• Santo Domingo: (SP) 1542-64; 1573-78.
• Guatemala: (G)(GN) 1733-1821.
• Santiago: (Sº) 1750-1817.
• Popayan: (P) 1758-1822.
• Cuzco: (C) 1698; (C) 1824.

Maravedis, Reales, and Escudos

Whether envisioned as pirate gold or sunken treasure, these coins were the basis for a world monetary system

19th Century Mass-Produced American Furniture

Detroit Chair Factory and its successor Murphy Chair Company were major players in the transition from hand-made to factory-made furniture in America.

During the early 1830s, American manufacturers first began to use steam-powered machinery in the production of furniture. One of the first companies to experiment with this new technology was Joseph Meeks.

Joseph Meeks & Sons of New York City Pioneered Mass-Produced Furniture

The well-established firm of Joseph Meeks & Sons of New York City was one of the first to advertise mass-produced or ready-made furniture. A broadside of 1833 illustrates large and imposing furniture cut by steam powered saws in a Pillar-and-Scroll style. Veneered with mahogany and destined for the parlors of nouveau riche capitalists, this furniture was often of an inferior quality. The mechanization of factories led to decline in quality by obscuring inferior wood with beautiful veneers, elegant paint and ornate decoration.
Detroit Chair Factory Established in 1864
J. M. Wright, a furniture manufacturer from Oswego New York, visited fast-growing but infant cities such as Chicago, Toledo and Detroit during the early 1860s. He saw potential in such markets and in 1864 purchased land on the corner of 4th and Porter Streets in downtown Detroit, Michigan. He built a four-story showroom with a three-story workshop attached and a two-story engine and dry house. All three buildings were made of brick and furnished with the latest chair-making equipment and machinery.
The machinery was driven by a 75-horsepower steam engine and the factory was heated by steam, requiring more than 11,000 square feet of steam pipe. More than eighty workers were hired for the opening of the factory, not counting the women who wove the cane seats. These ladies were trained on-site and then allowed to take the chairs home to be finished if the supervisors deemed them to be expert enough.

Collecting Antique Chinese Children's Shoes

Chinese children's clothing and accessories in the Qing dynasty and the early twentieth century were decorated with auspicious symbols to protect the child from harm.

Fierce animals like the tiger or the dog were featured on the shoes to frighten away evil spirits which mothers believed were hovering in the air all around, ready to whisk their precious child away. Most of the shoes were made to be worn by boys however, since girls were seldom valued in the family except to produce more boys.

Shoes for young children

Very young children wore silk bootees which sometimes had ties attached to fasten round the ankle to hold them in place. When the child was transported in a baby carrier worn on the bearer's back, these bootees looked most colourful viewed from the front as they approached.
They were made of red, purple or orange satin, embroidered with a design of the four-clawed dragon, a protector from evil. Other designs were of the phoenix, fish or the deer. Often padded animals and birds were suspended above the toe on wires. Long coloured tassels hung from the front, together with multi-coloured pom-poms.

Animal Shoes, the Tiger, Dog and Pig

Like the other accessories like hats and collars, children's footwear was also made in the form of a dog, cat, tiger, or pig for the purpose of frightening away bad spirits. Large eyes to see evil lurking, large furry ears to hear it, and whiskers all helped to suggest the creature being represented.
They were usually made of red cotton or satin, with a brightly embroidered vamp and padded cotton sole, often with a design of the lotus flowers, bats and the shou or long life character on the toes. Some shoes even had bells on the toes to produce an audible warning for the spirits.

Shoes for Older Girls

What makes an ancient sword famous and expensive?

An antique sword is without doubt, very expensive. Due to its high value, most sword collectors prefer collecting replicas of these rare swords. These swords are quite inexpensive as compared to an antique sword. Despite the availability of sword replica, nothing beats the value and authenticity of real swords. Just what makes antique swords so expensive? Read on for more information.

Perfection

A rare antique sword becomes famous for its perfect forging and condition. An excellent example of this is the Sword of Goujian, a 500 BC Chinese bronze sword belonging to King Goujian who once ruled the ancient kingdom of Shanghai, China. Archeologists found it buried for more than 2,000 years in an underground water system together with the tomb of the King. Despite the condition of the sword, it stood as an embodiment of perfection. Its bronze blade remains unblemished and sparkling along with its sharp cutting edge. It can still easily cut paper, wood, or flesh in one swoop.

The Sword of Goujian is now considered a priceless antique sword and a national treasure of China.

Mythical Status

A rare antique sword often mesmerizes collectors for its being legendary as famously depicted in movies, stories, and tales. The expensive swords of Muramasa, a 16th century Japanese sword-maker, have spooky stories to tell. Their blades were believed to be made from iron, carbon, and human blood. Neighbors and passersby remarked that dead bodies were found sprawling on the street across Muramasa’s forge from time to time. These stories could sound doubtful in their truthfulness yet they helped establish the priceless value of Muramasa swords.

Reputation

The reputation of rare antique swords becomes famous because of its well known owner. An example of this element of reputation is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Prophet

Antique clocks - the origins, the clock makers and the periods

Antique Clocks hold a fascination for the mechanically minded, in both the intricacies and the superb engineering produced without the help of computerised productions methods.

Mans' interest in antique clocks is growing and man has always recognized the passing of time and has tried to measure and record that passing. The simple alarm clock owes its existence to more than 6,000 years of thinking about time and tinkering with devices to accurately mark its passing.

A general knowledge of time division was relevant to the earliest of farmers, who sectioned quadrants of time into broad periods of seasons for planting, growing and harvesting. In those days however, the actual hour of any particular day was not important. As early civilizations grew and became more complex in their needs for order and governance a more precise measure of time was required.
The early Egyptians originated the division of each day into two measurable parts, using the position of an obelisks shadow to mark high noon. Other early and more precise timekeeping devices also include the hourglass, indexed candles that burned at a fixed rate, and water powered devices.

Early Mechanical Clocks

In medieval times, the regulation of monastic calls to prayer was accomplished by means of mechanical tower clocks. This revolutionary device soon synchronized the rhythms of entire cities. World views of entire cultures were influenced by the type of clocks they used. The development of atomic clocks, accurate to a billionth of a second, seem to reflect modern society's near-obsession with youth, age and the passage of time.
The very first early mechanical clocks, which didn’t have pendulums, were developed in the last half of the thirteenth century, probably by monks from central Europe, and were placed within the church.
They did not have dials or hands and only struck bells on the hour. These mechanical devices were probably placed in the church belfry in order to make use of the existing church bell. It was over 100 years before visible dials and hands were added. These early clocks were very large and were made of heavy iron frames and gears forged by local blacksmiths.
In 1580 the Astronomer Galileo observed a swinging lamp suspended by a long chain from a cathedral ceiling. He studied its swing and discovered that each swing was equal and had a natural rate of motion. He later found this rate of motion depended upon the length of the chain or pendulum.
In 1640 he designed a clock mechanism incorporating the swing of a pendulum, but he died before building his clock design.
In 1656 Christian Huygens added a pendulum to a clock mechanism of his own design and found it kept excellent time. Regulating the speed of the movement was done by simply raising or lowering the pendulum bob. Up to speed-up the clock movement and down to slow-down the clock, thus the terms speed-up and slow-down.
Huygens invention allowed clocks to be accurate to as little as three minutes loss or gain per day instead of the previous quarter to half an hour per day. The introduction of a minute hand came about because of this increased accuracy.
By 1670, the introduction of the anchor escapement had decreased the time variance to as little as a few seconds per week.
By the 1600's, small domestic clocks started to appear. They were probably made by the local gunsmiths or locksmiths.

Quick Facts About “Mary Gregory” Glass:

- Mary Gregory actually worked for the Boston and Sandwich glass factory from 1880 to 1884 decorating Gone with the Wind style lamps.
- The type of glass popularized as “Mary Gregory” by antiques dealers and collectors is decorated with white enameling, often depicting children.
- White enameled glass originated in Europe, and was not sold on the American market until long after Gregory retired from the glass decorating business.
- This type of glass has been produced almost constantly for more than a century and the older pieces are decidedly more intricate and valuable than newer examples.
The Amazing Tale of Mary Gregory
When I first got wind of the legend surrounding glassware artist Mary Gregory, I heard a tale of a remarkable woman who hand painted enamel decorations on thousands of pieces of glassware during her career. She allegedly toiled away using white enamel to create portraits of children on colorful glassware around the turn of the last century.
In the tale told for many years, Gregory focused on tykes because she never married or bore children and needed an outlet for her motherly tenderness. Her handiwork appeared on so many pieces of glass, this