Antiques - One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure!

In the end, an antique is as valuable as someone is willing to pay for it! Although an antique may indeed be 100 years old, that does not necessarily make it valuable. If it was not a desirable piece to begin with or it was of inferior quality, it would not be of interest to anyone today. Junk today is junk tomorrow!

An antique is generally considered to be 70 to 100 years old. This is of course not the only determining factor in it's overall worth as we shall see. Value is determined by many factors, age, limited production or "scarceness", uniqueness, quality and individual taste.

For example some of todays' mass produced furniture would not be valuable in 100 years probably (and we always have to say that, because who knows?) because they would be far too plentiful, of inferior workmanship and not particularly unique. Whereas the local furniture maker who is making everything painstakingly perfect in his home shop and with the highest of standards, would be a much more likely candidate for antique status in 100 years.

How do I tell what is an antique?

There are many tell tale signs that one can begin to discern right away. Obviously this is a subject that requires much research and learning and cannot be entered into lightly as one could easily spend a fortune with nothing to show except some very fine re-productions or even forgeries!

In a glass bottle for example the hand made antique has a small mark which indicates where the "pontil rod" was attached to the bottle to allow the bottle to be "blown", a fascinating process if you have never seen it. I still remember seeing it for my first time many years ago in a small shop in Mexico and it is a vivid and entrancing memory. Even though the product being produced was not of particularly high quality and mostly for tourist consumption, the process is very fascinating.

Each area of antiques has unique markers for the experienced eye to see and determine age, where it was made, by whom and of course also approximate value. Anyone who has watched the antiques road show on tv knows how many an overlooked or unwanted piece kept forever in the garage can become the "cause celebre" overnight and be priced at a an unthinkable value.

Considering all of these facts you may well be urged to rummage through you r garage or offer to take some of your grandmother's "junk" out of her attic for her and you may discover that one man's junk is another man's treasure!

happy hunting.