I have some old baseball cards from the early 1900s. Including the 1909 Cy Young tobacco card to the right. You know, Cy Young? Of the Cy Young Award? Yeah, from what I understand… he was pretty good. I bought that baby at an antique store in Charleston, WV back in the 1970s, for $1. I also have a Christy Mathewson card, and a handful of other Hall of Famers. All for a buck each.
I can’t really think of anything that goes back further. Those cards are more than a century old at this point. I have an old radio from the 1940s here in the bunker. It belonged to my mother’s music-loving half-sister who died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium at the age of 29 — long before I was born. She reportedly clung to that radio like a life preserver. It’s about 70 years old at this point.
This is a quickie, ’cause there’s chaos in the House of Kay this afternoon. But I’m interested in the oldest items in your house. Is it your mother-in-law? Your prostate? Help me out, won’t you? Bring us up to date on this most important of subjects in the comments section.
And before I sign off and fling myself headlong into another rewarding workday, I’ll share with you the first customer review of our new Ridiculous Adventures In Suburbia book, available now for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. This is from Niel Crews, who awarded the book five-stars:
I really should give this book only one star considering the effect this book has made on the respect I now receive from my family. I like to think I’m a good husband and father. Sitting in the same room as my daughter as she does her homework, ready to answer any questions that come up. Quietly reading this book. Suddenly doubling over in laughter. Questioning look from my daughter, hoping for a bit of levity to bring joy after the pain of doing pre-calc. Reading a passage aloud that includes the phrase “explosive diarrhea”. Eye rolls. Back to work. More laughter. Can’t breathe. The questioning look – a little more wary this time. “soiled underwear”. Head shake. More laughter. Gotta pee. More sharing. Eventually a plea to mom to get me out of the room. “Is it that book? Nope! He can stay with you!” *Sigh*. No respect. Women! Yeah, one star.
Heh. Thanks, Niel. I feel your pain, and have tasted the sting of the questioning looks and exasperated eye-rolls many, many times. I sincerely appreciate your great review!
I’m hoping to be in a position to upload the files for the paperback version tomorrow. Hopefully Amazon will approve everything, and the print version will be available soon. There’s a process that includes proof copies being mailed to my house, etc. It’s a giant pain in the ass, but we’ll get ‘er done.
And I need to go now. Please tell us about the oldest items in your house. If there are interesting stories behind them, we’d like to read those, as well.
Thank you guys!
I’ll see you again soon.
Support us by doing your shopping at Amazon! If you’re in Canada, here’s your link. Thank you guys!
Oldest item in my house? Let’s see…besides me, we have some indian head pennies from the late 1800’s. My guess is they’re still probably worth just about a penny!
Oldest item in the house?
I have an old Singer sewing machine, the kind with the wrought iron base and giant foot pedal. I searched the serial number and it came back 1911. It still works.
I also have a pie-safe from an old family farm. Not 100% sure of the age, but I had it restored a few years ago and the antiques expert said mid-1800s.
Oh man, those old giant foot pedals could get going.
I think I almost broke my arm on one when I was a kid.
Me
I have 3 versions of “Little Women” from the early 1900’s. Those are from my Mum, who passed away 9 years ago. I don’t know why she had more than 1 copy.
I also have a swiveling bookshelf that my dad made in woodshop close th 60 years ago.
The house itself! It was built in 1852 for my husband’s great, great grandparents when they got married. We also have some of the furniture they purchased in 1852 on their honeymoon trip to Philadelphia on the canal.
Gotta love an old house, until something goes wrong or needs fixing. Sigh………
By the way…loving my Kindle download of your book!
I have some fossils that I dug out of the ground when I was a teenager in the 1980s.
That Cy Young card is listed on E-Bay for $1,500! Pretty good return on investment Jeff!!
I have a crazy quilt made in 1920, but I’m not sure that’s the oldest thing. I collect old postcards, and I think the oldest is from 1907. So that’s probably it. Getting ready for a trip to New England, and I hope to come home with something made in the 19th century.
My wife has some stuff from her grandparents that have some age to them, but I’m not sure exactly how old they are.
I know my bandsaw (Delta) was built before 1938, but that’s as much age as I can put to it. It was built before they started putting serial numbers on them. I have a scrollsaw (Delta Homelite) that might be of a similar age.
I’ve also got a Burroughs adding machine that belonged to my other grandfather. He used it to keep books for a bar he owned in the 30’s-40’s I think.
I’ve also got an old photo of my grandmother with her grandfather that was taken probably in the early 30’s. Her grandfather was such a badass he was actually nicknamed Devil. One story we have is about the time he was gored by a wild boar. He finished the boar off with a f(#*ing hatchet! He limped for the rest of his life, but still, a hatchet!
Oh yeah. We also have a doll that was given to my daughter that had belonged to my fathers aunt. It has a porcelain head an leather mitts for hands.
If it’s a good one it will have marks on the back of the head under the hair, or on the back of the shoulders, and you should look into it if you haven’t already. The right ones can be worth *absurd* amounts of money. You never know 🙂
What sort of marks?
Marks hand incised into the porcelain before it was fired. It’s usually just some numbers and/or letters, but the experts can tell from that. The best ones are German and French, if it was made for export the country of origin might be incised there too. I might be worth having a look 🙂
I’ll look when I get home this evening. Thanks for the heads up.
A small bookcase my dad made in the early 1930s.
Books – oldest on the shelf is 1890, others 1890s, 1900s, 1910s
Three glass bottles from Philadelphia, probably 1890s.
Two rusted shards of metal from 17th century Spanish armor, thanks to an archaeologist friend.
There’s a Duncan Phyfe table in my living room circa 1815. That has to be the oldest thing. 200 years old now.
I’m an antique dealer, I have a house full of old stuff!
My TV series pitch is the antiques psychic, who gets visions of what the antique has been doing since it was made. A piece of porcelain made in Germany in 1750 has “seen” some shit between its creation and sitting on a shelf in my house.
Ever see ,”The Red Violin”? Great movie.
I haven’t seen the Red Violin movie, but I am aware of the story.
Of course this all dramatized and fictional, there are no such things as psychics. I have owned antiques that belonged to Russian Empresses (and Hermann Göring!), and being outside Philadelphia I do wonder what stories local pieces from Ben Franklin’s era could tell. I have local pewter pieces from the 1700’s – did Franklin and his cohorts use them for lunch at Philadelphia tavern? It’s a cool thought.
Love that idea, Limey! In all seriousness, I think that could be a hit!
What would be great is to get several psychics to examine the same object, unbeknownst to each other. I’m pretty sure the stories would wildly vary, though no doubt would be colorful.
Antique dealer? Great! I’ve been trying to find out more about the “pigeon blood” glass spittoon I mentioned in my post. I’ve looked all over on line and have never seen 1 mention of one anywhere.
Any suggestions to where else I could look?
How big is it? Spittoons come in 2 sizes, big ones for the room to use, and personal size ones you kept in your pocket (so you could be all polite when you were doin’ yer spittin’). The personal ones are about 3″ tall.
Room size. About 8″ tall and 14″ in diameter. Definitely hand blown glass, you can see where it was notched off the glass blower on the bottom.
Unless there’s something exceptional about it I’ve not seen a glass spittoon sell for a more than a few hundred, the personal ones seem to be worth more oddly. BTW, the rough spot on blown glass is a pontil scar or just pontil. (Obviously) I’ve not seen your spittoon, but I associate pigeon blood color with mold pressed not blown glass, and ruby color with either.
I have a photograph of my grandmother with her parents in North Dakota the year she was born;1895. But my favorite old possession is the doll I received in 1952, the year I was born. I have a few pieces of very old furniture, but I really don’t know exactly when they were made.
I can’t think of much old in the house other than the house itself. It was built in 1922 (pretty old for a non-plantation house in the rural south) and was the birthplace of the founder of the Hard Rock Cafe and the House of Blues and of the drinking duck toy. It currently houses a plump bourbon drinker and his family. I also have an old (late 20’s?) hand crank Victrola with the guts pulled out and turned into a freestanding bar, which is pretty cool. Not as old, but still cool is an old Philco cabinet TV set with the guts ripped out and turned into a cabinet. There’s a couple of cedar chests and probably some end tables that are probably from the early 1900’s too.
Other than my wife, there are some early 20th century silver dollars.
And my favorite sweater that I have to rescue from the donate pile every 6 months.
The only thing I can pin a date on is a glass insulator from approx 1894. (The style was made from ~1889 to 1894). Couple other items that where my great great grand mothers, which would put them ~mid 1800’s.
I have my grandfather’s first aid kit from when he was a doughboy, so that’s not quite 100 years old.
Also a GE oscillograph, model PM-12-A6, which I think dates from the 1930s. The nameplate shows a five-digit patent number.
Me…….
Somewhere I have a letter that my three-greats grandfather wrote to his wife during the Civil War. It is written in pencil and rather faint, but I was still able to make out the words the last time I looked at it. He apparently tried to send money home to his wife from wherever he was stationed, but it never reached her. He later died at Salisbury prison camp.
I also have a journal that my great-grandfather wrote that probably dates back to the turn of the last century. He wrote a joke as the first entry. Something about a snare drum and a conundrum, lol.
I have a copy of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit from 1872, with print so small that there isn’t a chance in hell I could ever read it. Another old book, from 1890, is a kid’s book called “Queer People”, by Palmer Cox.
The following was published only in in 1996, but I still have to tell about it. It is a book of love poetry and full color prints of terrible paintings by, of all people, Jack Palance. It is called “The Forest of Love”. They had a whole pallet-load of them in the grocery outlet store where I bought it for a dollar. They were all signed by the author.
It begins:
“The Forest of Love is everywhere,
And if love is a forest, love is a tree,
And a tree is love.
There is nothing more beautiful than a tree, nothing
-Except perhaps the human mind.”
and:
“When I left you this morning
your lips were slumbering passion flowers
and I wanted to love you again.
But you were more than half asleep
and I was more than half desperately tired.”
an Indian arrowhead…excuse me, a ‘gender neutral Native American’ arrowhead.
I have been using a dresser that once belonged to Robert W. Speer (famous Denver Mayor), so that must be over 100 years old. Come to think of it, some of the underwear in the top drawer might be pretty old too.
Good Morning Surf Reporters…
Without a doubt, the oldest item in my house is a rocking chair the family calls the “George Washington” chair. We’ve had it appraised by an antique dealer and he estimated it was built in the 1790’s.
At the time of appraisal ( circa 1990 ), it’s approximate value at an auction would be in the $1500 – $2500 dollar range.
Two other items, both glass; a spittoon from late 1800’s. Ruby red in color, but it’s known as “pigeon blood” glass.
The other is a lead crystal platter engraved with the Last Supper scene. It was produced by the Steubenville Glass Works around 1910. The person who designed and engraved it was an apprentice at the time, but moved on to become a master glass smith(?), who became quite famous, although his name escapes me at the time.
Last item that comes to mind is a wooden drop leaf table (cherry wood) that was made during the Civil War era. The hinges are also made of wood. Not a single piece of metal used in it’s construction. Pretty neat.
How the hell am I supposed to keep up with this?
I bought the Archives volume one and I’m reading that.
Jeff has a dependable posting to the Surf Report.
SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE!!
Meh, I’ll just read at work.
Jeff talked about Toney a lot in the early days. Yet, I feel like of the Kay Klan, we know her the least.
My parents ironing board which is about 57 years old. And a picture of my grandfather when he was a young lad so that has to be over 100 years old. I’m sure I have other things but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
Jeff – send me an email if you’re thinking of selling your cards. I worked with a guy whose son was into the baseball card trading biz.
Madz, it’s not a peaceful, easy feeling to know that my liver is older than your parents’ antique ironing board. I’m just saying.
jtb
I think the oldest thing in my house is my wife’s grandma’s wedding set.
Her grandpa bought it when he returned from the Pacific theater in 1944.
After that, it’s my drum set that was built in 1971. Then it’s all stuff that has existed pretty much at least since I came along in 1983.
I have been in the antiques business for over 20 years. So almost everything in my house is old! I believe the oldest piece I have is a large oil painting on canvas of two cherubs kissing among a rose bushes dated 1837. It’s one of my favorite finds.
My husband always tells me that the house became haunted the day I moved in with my “old shit”. I have a large collection of etched mirrors, mostly from the 1900s. One in particular is about 4′ x 18″. A few people have told me they see an apparition of an old lady in that mirror. My husband say it’s an old man. I believe it. I haven’t seen anything. I guess I don’t have that “sense”. Mirrors can be portals to other worlds. It could quite possibly be that I transfered spirits from one house to another bring these mirrors in.
Wait!! “Husband”… when did that happen? Sorry if I missed that somewhere. Congratulations to you both!
I have my great grandfathers records from the Civil War. He was a POW and spent two years in a camp somewhere in PA. I also have some Civil War cannonballs that I dug up in our garden when I was a kid. We used to find stuff like that all the time.
The oldest thing in the house is…the house. Built in 1901 as a mill house. We’ve ripped a couple of the rooms down to the studs, and I was grateful when the sheetrock went back up. What’s behind the walls in old houses can be scary!
We wanted to try to use the old beadboard walls when we redid the living room, but apparently a hobby throughout the years was to poke holes in walls and there wasn’t enough ‘good’ wood to make a restoration work. Oh if these walls could talk!
I enjoy Antiques Road Show, especially the money shots. I have a Tiffany lamp, handmade by the singer/actor/model/philosopher Tiffany in the mid-’80s. It occasionally shoots sparks across the room, but is otherwise in fine condition. Although I didn’t get it from my grandmother, who had been dead for many years when Tiffany dominated the pop charts, she would have liked it. I think that counts for something.
jtb
Have you seen some of the remade ARS episodes where they show the original assessed price (from 1992 or whenever) and then change the price to today’s money?
Yeah, a double money shot. In porn, that typically requires three or more people. In antiques, just use 20-year-old footage and add 20-year-old graphics. Viola! A new instrument.
jtb
There’s a piece of flank steak in the freezer that dates from 1997 or so. At least I think it’s flank steak. Kind of hard to tell with the thick layer of hoar frost. I hate wasting food.