What is the oldest "thing" you own in your household?

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classiccaprice

classiccaprice

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
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Location
Hampton, Virginia
I happened to think about it, what is the oldest item you own? For me it's a three way tie between my great-grandmother's grandmother's (i.e. great x3) spinning wheel from the 1810s, a butter churn from about the same era, and a very worn penny from 1814. Many might think this odd since my house is typically mid-century, but family heir-looms are so much fun!
 
The oldest thing I can remember at home is my Grandfather baptist Certificate which dated from 1910 when he was going to get married. At that moment he was 21 years old and that Certificate was sent from Ponza Islands, Italy.
 
The oldest thing I can remember at home is my Grandfather baptist Certificate which dated from 1910 when he was going to get married. At that moment he was 21 years old and that Certificate was sent from Ponza Islands, Italy.
 
One of the oldest things I own and absolutely cherish is an olive drab canvas umbrella that my grandma bought sometime in the mid-1920's from J.C. Penney's here in Wausau.  I know it has to be from this timeframe because she said she bought it not too long after getting her driver's license in 1923 @ 20yo, and that my great-grandmother was with her when she bought it.  My great-grandmother became wheelchair bound in 1932 due to rheumatoid arthritis.
 
The oldest thing that I own that I can definitively date is a Land Grant title signed by President Buchanan for a parcel of land that is still in the family. I'm not at home right now, but i believe that it is dated 1858.
 
In my case my oldest possession would be my cottage in Scotland which was originally a low, thatched roof building but I think was modernised around the 1920s. I have no idea of the age but I'm told it's at least 200 years old. In terms of movable objects, I picked up this cupboard a few years ago and stripped it. It was painted white with red drawers. It must have been a dresser originally but the top part has been removed. Again I don't know how old it is but I don't think any machinery was used in its manufacture.

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The oldest thing right now would be a stove from 1742.  I'd put a picture up, but I'd rather do that in the "pay" side since those threads are not google searchable on the WWW.
 
I remembered that I have my Great-Grandmother Wilde's cast iron skillet which is approx. 120 years old.  It was one of only a handful of items that my Grandpa Wilde received after his parents died in 1927 from influenza related complications
 
An original Pewter key

circa 1770, made in Boston by Paul Revere, whose initials are engraved on it ... in my family since new. The family has been in Mass. since 1620, Priscilla Mullins and John Alden of the Mayflower are direct ancestors.
 
That would be a copy of The Prince/Art of War by Machiavelli, printed in 1720. It's just slightly older than my partner's underwear. :)
 
My Great great Grandmothers!!!

Salt container, that I still use, the story I always heard as a child was that they hid their rings in the salt to keep the Yankees from stealing them during the civil war, My Mothers Great Uncle and Her grandparents remembered it well, they all said they poured out all the flour and cornmeal and sugar and mixed it all together with a hoe and then poured out all the molasses,which they kept in wooden barrels, why they didnt pour out the salt is still a mystery, but , before leaving it was told the soldiers took all the girls clothes and mixed them in with the molasses!! needless to say, my Mother remembered as a child hearing her Uncle cuss about Abraham Lincoln!!!You have to remember, My Mother was born in 1929, and her Grand Parents and Great Uncle were still living into the 1940s , Her Grandmother lived until I was 2 in 1967,And I also have her baby cup, so I posted a picture of it.

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I couldn't say my partners shorts because mine are older  :) 

 

I can't think what is the oldest thing in our house. In the past couple of years I've passed down the few antiquities to my niece and nephew because I don't want to be the curator anymore.  
 
I think that the oldest things are the pieces that make up the bedroom furniture. The furniture was made in 1860 and is birds eye and curly maple. Here is a detail of the bed headboard. Cat tail in picture is about 10 years old.
Harry

kimball455++3-2-2013-06-54-35.jpg
 
Without thinking too hard, I've got several postcards sent from various parts of Europe back to my grandmother and great grandmother from my great grandmother's brother Bert, who took 2 grand tours in 1908 and 1909. Pretty heady for a doctor from Sedalia, Missouri. There's more to the story though...Uncle Bert was gay (never married, he was the doctor in Sedalia who gave the "ladies of the evening" their health certification). It was rather funny, I asked my aunt about him (he'd died in the mid-50s) and she laughed and said "of course he was". Apparently the family legend is that he traveled to Europe (don't know with whom) but with a Ford automobile. He'd had the opportunity to invest in Ford (don't know to what extent---my understanding it was a corporate investment) but the Ford was so unreliable on the trip that he walked away.

I spent a fortune to have them framed and they're up on our mantel.

There's a bible from another side of the family from roughly the same era but I can't be arsed to look for it.
 
Just do not know...

 Putto, from late 1700 near the Venini vase.
Or the amphora that I don't really remember where it comes from, likely African or South America.
I've to ask my father as it always been there before my birth, I don't remember anything about but I was told it was very antique.
Or the chair....don't think so...
I had a lot of antiques stuff in my house but my father took it all to put in his new house...
But my parents always been into antiques, they used to be known in the area as they did run one of the most beautiful stall at antique's market....

That was just an hobby and never made of it a business even if I know they'd have liked to.
Infact as my father closed his  2 Jewewleries did open an antique's and antique's silveware shop...

He  always had a thing for history and antiques, in his house has many things related to "Risorgimento",  he also  found submerged in the ground at his farm kight armors and guns of the spanish domination of the town of Valenza happened in 1656 or something like that.... yes, because the location where the farm is located was a battlefield and <span id="result_box" lang="en"><span class="hps">important historical place</span><span class="hps">.

My father house infact is the once "Castello Menada"</span></span> now "Castello Stanchi".... that once was a castle, a fort, then purchased from nobles, transformed in plantation...
But I'm talking too much.....
I'm a blabbermouth....
Here the pics:
The amphora:

[this post was last edited: 3/2/2013-14:42]

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