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A Guide to Antiquing :)

 

Antiquing has always been one of my biggest hobbies. It goes by many names – bargain-hunting, flea-marketing, scavenging, but call it what you will, I find it an exciting, interesting, fun and relaxing pastime. You don’t always find what you like at prices which you can afford, but it is fun nonetheless.

I wrote up all my own tips and tricks to try and increase your success in the pursuit of bargain-hunting in my latest magazine issue on antiques. So if you’re going to flea-markets and car-boot sales, antiques fairs and antiques shops and not finding anything, hopefully the tips and ideas contained within, will improve your chances of success!

You can read the issue here. Enjoy! Any feedback you have can be left in the ‘Comments’ section below this post.

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Late Victorian Gentleman’s Writing Box (1886).

 

Another one of my writing-box restoration projects, I picked this up at a local flea-market and brought it home with me. I cleaned it up and then went about restoring the main hinge between the upper and lower halves of the writing slope.

It’s a beautiful box, but unfortunately, taping it down with black tape and sewing it together is the only way to prevent complete destruction. The manner of their construction makes any other type of repair nigh impossible on these boxes.

Here’s some still shots I took of the same box:

Up above, you can just see the black electrical-tape reinforcement to the hinge. It’s a passable solution to a finicky problem.

Here’s a closeup shot of the engraving at the top of the box:

I haven’t been able to find out anything about who S. Neaverson was, or what he did that caused him to buy a box in 1886 (which I take to be the purchase-date), but he certainly seemed to have fine taste in writing accessories!

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Video: My 1860s Campaign Writing Case

 

I’ve written about this a while ago, but due to changes in my blog, I decided that I should write about it again. The old post was looking like a dog’s breakfast on a good day, and at any rate, didn’t reflect the current condition of the box in question (which I had finished restoring, since writing that post more years ago than I care to admit).

This post will be significantly shorter than my original one, mostly because the vast majority of the information is now contained in this video:

But suffice to say: I bought the box in London back in around 2010. I restored it over the course of a number of years, slowly finding the right bits and pieces for it, and fixing up various condition problems with the box.

I’ve seen a few Toulmin & Gale boxes in my time, none of which were as nice as this one. Or as complete, so I’m very glad to have this one. Toulmin & Gale operated from 1735-1876 (when the firm declared bankruptcy in the London Gazette), and I believe this box dates to the early-or-mid 1860s. So it makes it at least 140-150 years old. To this day, it remains my most prized possession!

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My New Pinterest Boards!

 

Pinterest is pretty cool, except that a lot of the photographs on there are pretty damn awesome. And my photography is, more often than not – not-awesome. On a good day it might be alright, but I’ve never considered my skills behind the camera to be anything worth showing off, or writing home about for any reason whatsoever.

Which is a shame.

A shame for two reasons:

One is that I like photography, however mediocre my own end products might be. And because…

Two, I like antiques, which are infinitely photogenic. I mean, they’re so beautiful that it’s almost impossible to take a bad photograph of one, provided that you have at least a basic level of photographic skill.

With this in mind, about two months ago, I set up my new Pinterest account and started uploading photographs. If anything, it’s made me up my game considerably when it comes to photography, although I don’t think I’d ever take anything which might even start to be construed as being ‘professional’ quality.

But, be that as it may, I decided that today I might be brave or foolhardy enough to share some of my latest photographic endeavours:

My Board on Antique Sewing Machines

My Board on Antique Writing Boxes

My Board on Antique Brassware

Feel free to poke around and look at the photographs I’ve taken and leave comments and feedback. Sharing my collection with the world is just as much fun as looking at it and using it.

 

 

 

 

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“Why Salt and Pepper?”

 

I found this highly entertaining YouTube video this morning. Was uploaded a few days ago by the channel ‘It’s OK to be Smart’:

Highly informative and mostly accurate, EXCEPT for the part about Medieval cooks putting pepper on rotten meat. That has been a persistent myth for centuries. It never happened. It never happened because pepper in the Middle Ages was EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. No cook who wished to remain in his master’s employ would dared to have wasted such expensive spices on meat already past its prime.

Other than that, a fascinating look into the history of salt and pepper 🙂

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New Video: Victorian-era Lady’s Writing Box (1880)

 

Well over a year ago, I wrote this post about an antique lady’s writing box which I bought, and restored.

I’d been meaning to do a video about it for ages, but I don’t think I ever got around to it. I finally had some quietude today, so I cranked one out for the world to see. Here it is!

Feel free to post feedback here on my blog, or on my YouTube channel – whatever is more comfortable. Happy to answer any questions about it…Just so long as it’s not “Is that for sale?“…because the answer is no! Haha!

Here’s a few close-up photos of the box, in case I’m moving the camera too fast for you to see anything!

 

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New Video: Antique Brass Binoculars

 

I wrote a post about this back in April of this year. Now that I have my YouTube channel up and going, I decided to make a video about it, too:

Should you want, you can read the original post here.

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New Video: Antique Brass Telescope

 

I picked up this telescope at the local flea-market about a week ago. It was brown and ugly and dirty and only after extensive cleaning was I able to get it to look something akin to what it might’ve done when it was new, by now, probably well over 100 years ago!

Here’s a simple video I did about it:

I think it’s both a beautiful, but also practical, fun and useful item. So glad to have the chance to add it to my collection. It’s got a great, smooth action and wonderful optics, despite its minor flaws here and there.

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An Early Birthday Present: A Silver Watch and Chain

 

For many years now, I’d wanted a silver watch.

Well actually, I’d wanted a gold watch, but I knew I’d never be that lucky. So I set my sights on a silver prize, instead. I did a bit of research, and then I started hunting. I’d managed to make a bit of money, and I’d had a rather significant cash windfall a few months ago as well, so I kept this aside as a watch-hunting fund. Some things were easier to find than others. Sterling silver watch-chains and the various fobs and accessories that hang off the ends of them were easy to find – any old antiques shop or flea-market usually had loads of these things. Since they’re extremely common, finding them at good prices was easy.

Finding the watch itself was tricky.

I love pocket watches. But they’re fickle lovers. They’re expensive and fiddly things. I resolved to have just two watches: My 1950s Swiss railroad chronometer, and one good-quality, solid silver watch. And that would be it! If I ever bought a third, one of the others would have to go.

Well I had about half a dozen other pocketwatches, which I never wore, or which I wore very infrequently. I decided that the sale of these watches would fund my silver watch hunt. So I did sell them, and made a sizable chunk of money out of it. With this behind me, I started my search in earnest.

The Finding of the Watch of Power

Antique silver pocket watches are surprisingly common. Probably because silver is cheaper than gold, silver was always used to make all kinds of things, and silver watches were very popular as timepieces and fashion accessories in times past. After much searching, and trawling through antiques shops and flea-markets, I started to get a sense of what I would have to pay for a good-quality silver watch, and I locked this away in my head while I searched.

The other thing I had to consider is what the cost of servicing would be. Antique watches need regular servicing (anywhere from every 5-10 years, depending on how often, and how, you use them), and that was something I had to remember in my budgeting. You can find the greatest watch in the world for $100, but if you don’t leave money for servicing, all you’re going to do to that timepiece is destroy it by running it dry, without oil, and without cleaning.

After much searching, I found a watch in the lower end of my price-range. I was able to chip down the price even further, and after examining it closely, decided that it was everything I wanted in a watch, and so bought it. Then it was off to the watchmaker for servicing. It took just over a month to get this done, but the watchmaker was extremely friendly and accommodating, and complimented me on finding such a fine timepiece! Haha!! Thanks, Phil!

Silver Accessories

One of the benefits of picking a silver watch over a gold one is that the tidbits and accessories that go along with them – chains, trinkets, fobs, etc, etc…are all much cheaper than the same items made of gold. A gold watch-chain of any decent quality is retailed at nearly $1,000. A silver chain, by comparison, can be picked up for next to nothing! The same goes for things like silver pencils, vesta-cases, and other accessories. There were so many of them made that excessively high prices just aren’t warranted for their sale.

With the rest of my money, I was able to buy chains and accessories easily, over the course of several months (bolstering my fund now and then with selling antiques), and now, only a few weeks before my next birthday, I think I can safely say that I have a pretty nice present assembled for myself! Haha!

The Watch Itself

The watch I purchased was made in Switzerland in the 1920s. The case was made by the A.L. Dennison Watch Case Co., and carries sterling silver hallmarks for Birmingham, 1925. The watch itself was retailed by the London jewelry firm of Bravingtons, and features bold Roman numerals, original blued steel hands, a 17-jewel movement and a swan-neck or whiplash micro-regulator.

After a thorough servicing, the watch now keeps great time, and I couldn’t be happier. When the watch isn’t being used, I keep it in its own little silver-faced antique watch stand – also from the 1920s:

Thanks to Philip Gore at Ferntree Gully Watches & Clocks for doing such a fantastic job on my watch! 🙂