I have a dollar that my Great Grandfather that lived in Kentucky gave my brothers, sister and I to go to the store and buy something when we we're there visting them. They all did, but I kept mine and I still have it tucked in my bible. That was at least 34 years ago.

My treasures of antiquity(sp),
I have a preWWI sterling silver and marcasite necklace that is several ounces heavy. I have worn it ocassionally and just don't like where it lays on my neck. It is too much like a choker for my taste. I've thought about selling it but it blings so nice ~~~heavy~~~.
I have a 1924 Singer electric sewing machine that has the beautiful enamal paint flowers still bright and intact and most of the attatchments and still works so long as you don't touch the light while the machine is plugged in, it has a shocking problem I haven't had time to fix.
I have a silk embroidered Spanish Shawl from the late 1800s that my G-Grandpa brought back for my G-Grandma when they were young and in love.
My hearts treasures...All my loving children and friends!

My wife :)

My black and white teddy bear (I'm 55! LOL)

hi,
this is a tough one .
I like books and collect cook books I have both g ma,s cook book collections and they had some of their mothers stuff.
all of the accounting from a farm wife in eastern ks.in 1898
and found 4 mo,s of 1922 very interesting to read.
example..washing 1.53 (taking in)
repairs for wheat drill 2.50$
innertube patched 25cents
furn. polish 50 cents
butter 50cents.
stamps and envelopes .10
3 lb cotton for comfort 1.25
5yd furcale 4 yd for comfort 1.25
1/2 yd red flannel .65
example .....
my g ma,s model 12 winchester 20 ga.
my great gma and great uncles coffee cups ww1 era heavy it is about all they had and a knife and 2 spoons.
a 1914 websters and a 1908 peoples home library set .
but mostly little stuff Rick

I have a cut glass punch bowl that was my grandmothers. I'm sure it's over 100 years old. Also, I have a three drawer chest and another small table that were the first pieces of furniture my mother and daddy had when they married in 1919.

I have a heavy serving platter that was my great,great grandmothers.It's just plain white ironstone,but very heavy.It has to be well over 150 years old as my grandmother was born in 1890.
I also have a tea set that my dad and I went to the store and picked out for my mom for christmas when I was about 5 years old thats in my china cabinet.
I also have my grandfathers 'irin lass'that he always used to repair all the family shoes.I use it as a door stop and think of him everytime I pass by it.

I love old family things...so many memories in each item.

Eliza Ann

Eliza_ann_ca

I can only get 115 years from 1890 and 2005 not 150. LOL.

Info Source: Duke's Guide to Pottery and Porcelain

Ironstone is a type of stoneware, really. It is a finer stoneware, generally plain white with raised designs (scrolls, wheat sheaves etc). It was first produced in England in the mid 19th century, and became quite popular as an export to America, mostly because Americans preferred plain white dinnerware and utilityware. Later in the century it began to be produced in America - NJ and Ohio were big centres of production.

I love my commercial KitchenAid mixer from 1925. Takes up major counter space, but it has attachments that do everything from make sausage, knead bread, make 7 minute boiled icing. I also have a relative's Limoges china service for 12 from before the turn of the century. I gave my grandma's silver to my daughter-in-law because I have my own and the pattern was the same one as she had started. I still love that silver, though and I kept a few serving pieces for myself. I also have a christening dress from 1904, all handmade, that my 2 daughters-in-law refused to use for their babies' christenings and I'm not offering it anymore.

Oh my...this is my kind of thread....
I have the buttons from my several times removed grandfather's Civil War uniform...
My Great Grandmother's Haviland Chocolate set.
A sugar shell from my GGGGrandmother.
Several pieces of crystal from before 1850.
Most of a set of limoges porcelain from between 1885 - 1906.
A very small .22 caliber Marlin rifle with an octagonal(?) barrel
and MUCH more!

Oh Tom! How sweet!

A 1929 dark Mahogany piano with a mirror at the top.
We were practically newlyweds, there was no 'special' occasion, but when I told my husband that my mother had always wanted a piano, he thought she should have one.
We soon found it...her favorite wood color, a beautiful tone. Perfect. We had a plan... I got mother to go shopping with me while DH sneaked the piano in to her living room...
When we returned to her house, DH called her into the living room...Surprise!...I'll never forget the look on her face, DH was 'almost' as thrilled as she was.
Mother played by ear (as they called it) could play any tune she wanted, she also played the banjo and harp.
Several years later, she taught our daughter how to play the piano.
One morning while sleeping, her house caught fire, she died from smoke inhalation.
Later, when the family walked through the charred house, burnt wood, ashes, and much water from the firemens hoses, I walked into the living room, a floor lamp was melted, it had stood no more than 2 or 3 feet away from the piano, and to everyone's amazement, the piano was untouched with only a light coating of ashes, and directly above it , the ceiling looked almost normal, while the rest of the ceiling was dark and caved in.
The piano is in our living room and it still looks nice.

I had four silver dollar my grandmother gave me, but someone stole them. WAAH!

I've been trying to remember what is the oldest things that I have - some artifacts (costumes, brassware, pictures, models, mother-of-pearl enamelled trays, etc.) that we brought from Korea on our return over 40 years ago.

Had the small armchair with upholstered seat that the community gave my family when we moved to the Prairies in 1946, stored at brother's house, but don't see it lately - maybe they disposed of it. I rather doubt it.

Tom,

You didn't indicate how old your treasure might be ...

Guess you don't have a lot of (really) "old" stuff around your place!

ole joyful

Well, let's see.... I have a doll bed my Mom bought for me and without giving away my age, I'll say it's over 40 years old. LOL Also a wedding doll that my GM (mom's side) gave to me for my sixth birthday and that same year a small upholstered rocker that GM (dad's side) gave to me. But I doubt that my DS will appreciate any of it. LOL
Sheree

--DH's grandfather's anvil
--church pew from the country church my grandfather pastored for years--now behind my dining table
--kitchen hutch my FIL built in 1939 because their kitchen had no cupboards
--my mother's cedar chest and quilts
--my maternal great grandfathers journal

Treasures all. As we use these items in our daily living, we think of the family that shaped our lives.

The oldest thing I own is not from family, it's an old book titled....The Massachusetts Magazine or Monthly Museum of Knowledge and Rational Entertainment No.III, For March, 1789 Vol.I . What a title, it's so cool to read, I just love old books! I got this in a $2.50 box lot of old papers, booklets, brochures, ect. at local auction a few years ago.
I have some great family stuff too...
From GF on Mother's side, I have two wood boxes and a clock he made, and pictures of him in South America with a pet spider monkey. He died a few months before I was born, so I never knew him, he married my GM in Argentina, her mother would not let her leave unless married. So off to the US she came, not speaking english and GF did not speak spanish either! No wonder the kids came fast! GM lived to be 92, she passed away in 1997 and I have several of her things...salt & pepper collection, mink stole, jewelry, ceder chest, sewing machine from the 40's in a beautiful cabnet, heavy linen table cloth, wedding vail, fantastic pictures, her sewing machine chair, thimbles and other sewing stuff, I'm sure there is more I can't think of right now.
From my DM I wear her wedding band, DH never had to buy me one, and I have pictures she drew of me and my DB growing up. There is also a photo & a picture of DF in his sailor suit she drew from the photo when he went to sea in 1942 at 16. He really looks young! DF had 15 brothers and sisters so he always said nobody missed him. I don't have a thing from that side of the family. A cousin has the huge train set we all played with when we were kids at that GF's house on Christmas, that GM died in 1948, so I sure didn't know her.
DH had all his stuff from childhood, but he let me sell some about 5 years ago, he kept his Buddy L trucks from the 60's and his matchbox cars & their little boxes, and his GI joe stuff. He let me sell his models, games and baseball and football cards and other stuff. He has about 3000 comic books his sisters bought then gave to him, they are 12 & 13 years older. I think he has almost every book he has ever read too. OK I'm done now,LOL.
PJ

Colored thumb,my grandmother was born in 1890,it was her great grandmothers platter.Guess I didn't phrase it correctly..LOL

Eliza Ann

I have a lot of old things...but one that comes to mind is a glass paper weight..it is from the 1883 Worlds Fair..with a picture of the Big Ferris Wheel. I bought it at a yard sale in 1980 (I remember because I was thinking in three years it would be 100 yrs old) I paid 10cents for it.

I liked Tom999's answer...because my very first thought was "My Husband"...he is 63 and I've had him here with me for nearly 40 years now....Hope there are a lot more.

patti

Still have my pink teddy bear and I have my mother's autograph book from 1941. Probably the oldest treasure I have is my Grandmother's chicken pluckin'/butterbean shellin' chair. If she was alive, she'd be 115. I plant flowers in it every year. Alice
p.s. I like the subject of this thread.

I have no idea what my "oldest" treasure is...but one of my favorites is a pair of old Staffordshire dogs...white spaniels. They have glass eyes.

In 1967, I took my mother to Galveston to pay her property taxes. I saw an ad for antiques on Ave. P, so I went by there. It was a Victorian house....a very creepy place. An old guy named Marion lived there with his ancient, bird-like mother. She probably didn't weigh 65 lb. Anyway, they invited me in, and their whole house was like a little trail and stuff stacked to the ceiling. They had a Walnut bed for sale, but when I tried to buy it...they said to come back another time. Marion showed me his dog collection...and many of his other collections....he had vast amounts of glassware, carnival glass...everything.

I went back again, this time alone. They weren't there, but Marion had left me a note on the steps...held in place by a high heeled boot. It said, "To the dear, sweet little
Alvin girl...." (I lived in Alvin at the time.) He said they had gone to an antique show and to please come back another time and have tea.

Well, the whole place was so creepy...and I was only 21...so I didn't go back. I did talk to people about them and found out tho they offered stuff for sale, they would never sell anything...always wanting you to come back.

Years pass, and in 1978 or '79, Marion is murdered and his mother was found tied up in the basement. (The house was built up on piers...underneath inclosed and they call them basements, altho they aren't below the surface of the earth.)

Later, his mother died and she left everything to the Rosenberg library. There is to be a huge estate sale...all the stuff was moved to a building in the main part of the city that had been a department store...now closed. It was a two day event. It was Sept., 1980 and I was 8 mo. pregnant.

I went to the auction and I bought the Staffordshire dogs.
I had always wanted some...and Marion had told me they were his favorite. (I think he would like for me to have them.)
I paid $165 for them, but an hour or so later, someone else who had wanted them, but had left for a few minutes, and missed them, offered me $500 for them, but I wouldn't sell them.)

I ended up buying everything that was left in the house and basement....the basement was chock full of stuff. I had 3 weeks to get it out of the house. What a job...I ended up hiring someone to haul most of it away. It was over whelming and I was a little worried about getting sick, since I was pregnant. I did get some nice doors, stained glass, lots of odds and ends.

There was some very weird stuff in there too. Marion was one weird guy. It was a very creepy place....bees in the walls and no water had been on in the house in 12 years!!!!
I was there many evenings until late...alone...and wasn't scared. I think I would be more freaked out now!

I have a small childs tea set with blue birds on it. My aunt bought it for me for my 1st Christmas. I was 6 weeks old. LOL It will soon be 53 yrs old.

I also have thimbles from both of my Grandmothers and 1 great grandmother.

Next to my tea set my most prized item is a chicken cookie jar. It has my Grandmothers name and the date written on the inside, then she gave it to my Mother and her name and the date is in there. My Mother then put my name and the date below hers and gave it to me.

I also have my Mothers porcelian baby dish.

Wow, what a walk down memory lane.

Cindy

A short note dated 1881 from my G. Grandfather to my G. Grandmother asking her to accompany him to church "Sunday next." Their marriage license later that same year.
And his father's bible presented by the state for serving as Legislative Chaplain.
Then of course there's the recipe jotted down on the back of an old greeting card written in my precious Mother's beautiful handwriting. And her wedding ring.

Mine is a flower urn that we found at an estate sale some years back. It has lots of character and sets on our hearth filled with fall flowers now with seasonal changes. We just love that old urn and wonder what its seen in its lifetime. It will then be willed to our children.

hi
i inherited my gg-grandmother,s wedding band.it was a copper penny flattened out into a plain band late 1880.
30in german doll my mom purchased some 40 yr ago.1800,s;
a sittng cupie doll statue hat has been around most of my 65 yrs.
a ruby ring purchased by my father for mom 1939hedied when i was 6yrs.mom always told me i could have it when she thought i was old enough to keep up with it.i received it when i was 45 yrs.
deed for our farm dated back to 1700.
and about everything that has come into my hands i don,t throw away much.

I have older things that I've bought, but I still have my first 2 stuffed animals, Lambsy and Lena the lioness. The sewing machine my parents gave me when I started taking Home Ec was made in the year I was born, 1952. It only does straight sewing, but that's all I do, and it has been utterly reliable with minimum care. And I inherited my grandmother's wedding ring from the 1920s.

I have an old hat stretcher that was my grandfather's. He was born in 1899 and my dad said my grandfather got it "when he was a young man" so I guess it puts the hat stretcher around 1925. It's a circle with a bar in the middle of it. The middle "bar" is actually a handle with threaded parts coming out of each side, which push the halves of the circle outward, thus stretching the hat's brim.

I also have my maple dresser from when I was about 5. That would put it around 1974.

I used to have a repro of a Sears catalog from about 1910. It was fun to look at and see the fashions and hand-powered things.

Ashli
You certainly bought back a memory to me! It was the first Christmas after we married. My husband was 'sure' i had bought a recliner for him for Christmas. His gift was in the dining room for two weeks and he was not allowed to go in there. Christmas morning came and I told him to go look at his 'recliner'. He walked into the room and fell on the floor. I have never seen him lost for words, but he was that day! I had bought an old upright 'pub' piano for him. (he had been talking about owning one since we first met). We have now been married for twenty one years and moved house three times in the UK ( where we are both from) and have moved eight times in the US. That piano has moved with us and along with other antique furniture we bought with us from England is still with us. The piano was made around 1910 and just about keeps in tune. Other than that I have lots of pre 1880 plates and glassware and and really too much to list. Most items were picked up from 'junk' shops but are very dear to both of us.

memories hold on to you.take that broach your mama left you. you could lose it but it would still have a hold on you. i'm not real sentimental but i still have a can of prince albert tobacco and a sleeve of papers that my daddy used to roll his own cigarettes with.nobody touches that.

This is not my oldest but it is one that I do treasure because it is practical and used everyday. It is a 30" laboratory sink from a university that was built in 1970. When they were renovating the labs, I got one of those sinks and it is now my refurbished "farmsink" that holds a prominent place in my kitchen.

Another one is my large steamliner pressure cooker which is still going strong. Bought this in 1970 from an old woman who was leaving the island. Never had to service this vintage and cooks up a storm during the holiday seasons. There was another tall one that I had, can't remember the brand name but it had four stacked "trays" that would allow you to cook products of varied cooking time at the same time. That I gave to my mother when I was leaving home. It was too big for me then.

Lastly, my grandmother had a brass plant pot that every weekend, as children, we had to clean it with burnt charcoal and lime juice. I could not wait to grow up to get the younger ones to do the cleaning. One day I went to a garage sale and found one just like it. I bought it because now I can buy silvo or brasso :).

I love old things especially if they bring back memories. They must also be unique.

Just my 2 cents.

I have my grandfathers sleigh bells...not sure how old they are but I remember him taking us for horsedrawn sleigh rides and the bells were used..that was late 50's and early 60's

I love this thread. I have a picture of my GreatGrandma, from the 1800's, and other old family photos (grandma's is the oldest one). I was fortunate to receive them from relatives when I did our family genealogy years ago.

I also have two oil paintings my Mom did in the early 50's.....one of Lake Erie shoreline, the other of Notre Dame Church/school here in Cleveland, Oh.

linda

I have a child's handmade chair made from willows on the North Platte river. My elderly neighbor man had bought it years before from a peddler. He had the chair when I was born. He always gave the children in the neighborhood little paper sacks filled with candy for christmas. He paid me 10 cents to scoop the snow from his sidewalks.
When I married, my brother brought him to my wedding as Mr. M couldn't drive anymore. He died shortly after. He was very special to me and now I have the little chair that sat in his living room and it has moved with me. I am 61 now but can picture him so clearly. I drove him crazy climbing the chinese elm tree and hanging upside down from a branch. BUT I know he loved me like his own granddaughter.
Lynn in Alabama

I love this thread! I have stubbornly kept and displayed my tow favorite stuffed friends, Patches the dog and Humpty Dumpty, since I was 2 years old. Patches is patchwork of course and had only one button eye for as lng as I can remember, until a few years ago I was sorting through a bin of antique buttons in an antique shop and found his other eye. He was made for me by my mom's best friend, Aunt Lilian.Humpty was made for me by my mother. He has red "lipstick" now, added by my own daughter when she was small ;-)

My other prized possesion is a beautiful little desk. I don't know much about it's age but it has a French Marquetry inlay on the front. It belonged to my Great Grandmother. When she passed, it was packed in a crate with no padding and shipped to my mother. It fell off the truck and one of the delicate legs tore off. I had it repaired and you can't even see the scar unless you look very close. Here is a pic of it.

A quilt we just inherited when MIL passed that was made by her grandmother in 1838, still in great shape.

My primitive mustard cupboard that my great grandpa made many many years ago (early 1900's). I had to resuce it from the back shed where my dad was storing car parts in it!! My other favorite is my coffee table which originally was my grandparents first kitchen table.

I have my grandmothers wicker rocker. I remember sitting in it when I was little and I am almost 69. My oldest daughter wants it passed down to her. Grandma died in 1973 at the age of 75.

I have many old things that I treasure but one of the most interesting stories (I think) is that of my baby ring. It was given to my parents for me when I was baptized about 47 years ago. It is a beautiful, delicate little gold ring and as an adult I wore it on a chain around my neck for years. When I was 40, while packing and moving from one part of the country to another, I took the necklace off and the ring went flying across the carpeted bedroom (I thought). I searched for days and never found it. We moved, and I was very sad about my loss. I couldn't believe I had lost something that I managed to hang onto 40 years. Years passed, we moved to 2 more states, had numerous garage sales and "purges" of old stuff. Six years and 3 houses later, while having a garage sale, my husband was sweeping the garage floor, getting ready to fling the dirt out into the gravel drive and I saw something gleaming on the floor. Yep, it was that baby ring making a reappearance after 6 years of apparently riding around in some old clothes or stuck in a box somewhere! I still don't know how it is possible but I am happy to have it back and wear it again (carefully) on the old gold chain that it was always on!

I own a lot of things that I treasure because they remind me of people I loved: rocking chairs, hand-painted cocoa cups, funny tree ornaments that the kids made, jewelry handed down in the family, etc. It makes me feel bad that, even when these things are either passed on to family members or sold, the memory of those people disappears (even though others will enjoy the objects themselves). That's probably why I keep holding on to all this stuff, so those people won't vanish!