The first rule of thumb is that if an object goes back a century, it probably falls into an antique category. Yet that does not make a fossil an antique. The second sign of an antique is that it has value for people who happen to be collectors. An antique belonged to an upper-class genre and was all the rage in its heyday. A sentimental and nostalgic aura about an antique that we live in today and age cannot dismiss so easily.
Value Judgement
Yet the question remains that how do you correctly judge how old an antique is. As a distinguished collector of antique items, you will see that it is a confusing task when you venture into the real world out there. Start by visiting antique shops. There is a prominent antique shop right next to Solar Panels Central Coast that you can visit anytime during the weekdays. Please test the item to make sure it is genuine and not a fake. That means holding it in the palm of your hand and examining it from every angle. If the item is a Victorian Chair, then do at least sit in it. That way, you will get assurance regarding its worth. Gaze at the wood and see if there any scratches on it or if it has weathered the ravages of time. Notice if the mark of the maker is on it or not.
There are many ways of finding out if an antique is a fake or a 100% original. The signs of wear and tear that are genuine show that it has value. Cross-examining the antique from a practical point of view would come in handy. Remember, it is a scrupulous and close-up judgement of the antique that will yield its age for the avid collector.
Signs of the Times
While wooden furniture is comfortable to judge as regards its age as an antique, other items are more complicated and need closer examination:
Silverware: Look for the correct identification mark on it and see whether its criteria fit the ideal ones listed on official sites regarding this precious item.
Books, Magazines & Newspapers: Read the fine print on them and determine the copyright date.
Kids Toys: Make sure they are manually manufactured. Look for any applied stickers that identify the play item as the real thing, what the toy is composed of matters.
There are several ways to identify how old an antique is:
Visit your nearest antique dealer
Get a detailed analysis from the experts
Peruse the guide books in the library
Browse a relevant website
Besides furniture, which you can examine with ease, there is pottery. That Ming Dynasty Vase lying in your home can sell for quite a lucrative sum of money. Test its structure and see what varnish it is covered with. Then sell it at an auction and end up a richer man or woman.
2020 has been a harrowing year for Aussies and the rest of the Global Village population with Covid-19 and quarantine devastating everything including the antique business. Yet there is hope, and life still goes on. The relevance of art objects remains. To own a collectable item means that you feel good about that piece of private property. Paintings and jewellery remain popular on the hot list of antiques. Many people have taken to cooking and baking in these days of the pandemic, and so kitchen goods remain a high-priority genre. Then there are good books to read all curled up by the fireplace in a log cabin. Old books have value and are being sold on sites and auctions, with these come pens, which are the literati trade tools. Since working from home is what most of people do, furniture is another popular antique item at the present moment. According to Sydney plaster, art is a category where the whole world of adults is reverting to being a kid again. Happiness is indeed nothing but a box of crayons as the old sayings go. Besides surges in colouring books and canvas and paints not to mention clay modelling sets, people are buying old paintings by the dozens. They serve as inspiration for artworks created in the present times.
Other Items of Interest
Furthermore, there are other things that people want to buy and keep as souvenirs from a bygone era. They include in their purview:
The 70s, 80s and 90s Retro Fashionable Stuff: While not precisely antiques in their own right (since an antique has to be at least a hundred years old), these objects of desire are up for grabs among the Millennials. Let’s not forget that the Millennials are the Internet Generation and they show genuine curiosity for the fashionable that Generation X thrived on.
Toys: Kids can get a bad case of cabin fever from being confined to the four walls of their rooms. Parents are giving them some loving attention and buying them colourful toys and lending them space to enjoy them at leisure. These include Lego construction blocks and Barbie Dolls.
Wedding Rings: Many financially stable young adults are looking forward to getting hitched with the man or woman of their dreams. Some brides would die to get an antique wedding ring. This symbol of two ones becoming an inseparable two holds infinite meaning for intuitive females.
All Things Victorian: Queen Victoria’s era in history may have been known for its conservatism and strict moral rules, yet it was also a time of stable traditional life with more clarity than the present-day chaos. Everything from Victorian Chairs to fancy decoration pieces is being bought today in Australia and the rest of the world.
Sinophilia: Chinese vases and pottery not to mention statues are artistic objects which the sophisticated and civilized history-loving people love to own. They are preferred by the mature amongst us.
Dinner Plates and Tea Cups: Because home cooking has recently seen a spike, bone china sets have become a demanded item.
Lamps & Lighting: Stylized lamps and lighting fixtures with incandescent light bulbs inside them have undergone an increase in sales. Their warm glow is a better choice health-wise than the glare of tube lights and lightsabers.
Christmas Goodies: The Yuletide that just passed us by less than a month ago had enthusiasts buying vintage stuff related to the time of celebration marked by snowball throwing and gift-giving.
Some antiques sell for hefty sums of money while others fizzle out on the auctioneer’s block. The proper valuation of an antique is big business. Yet there have been specific trends that show which items are the most lucrative in their unique selling point. Below you will find a list of antiques which fit the bill when it comes to making the most money for the owner:
Practical Artworks: A series of useful items made to look beautiful and in a novel manner is way up there when it comes to value.
Dummy Ducks: The decoys hunters use on their forays into the wild jungles are precious antiques which sell well.
Glassware: Nice glass items in various shapes and designs are the best.
Vintage Paintings: A work of art by an artist with a reputation may make big bucks at the auction.
Holiday Postcards: If you have a stash of these lying around in your storage space at home cash them in for what they’re worth.
Cuckoo Clocks: These old clocks with their Roman numerals and pendulums could be replaced with a digital clock more suited to today’s times.
Old Tomes: Even if they are battered, and in tatters, these dog-eared bookworm-eaten paperbacks are valuable in themselves as antique literature.
Wedgewood Crockery: The intricate details on the crockery makes it vintage with a vengeance.
Toolkits: That screwdriver or set of hammer and nails your late grandpa used to own may come in handy today.
Gold & Silver Coins: Unless the exterior has been corroded by acid, coins make excellent things to sell provided they are old and rare to boot.
Typewriters: Nowadays, we have the word processor and Microsoft Word instead of these machines that require much effort and are rickety.
Violins, Drums & Pianos: Musical instruments are an all-time favourite and serve as rare mementos.
Eau de Toilette Bottles: While the ordinary scent bottle will sell for a hundred bucks, those from Queen Victoria’s times may fetch as much as a grand and a half which is not bad at all.
Sheaffer & Parker Fountain Pens: They are unique and singular collectables that hold a lot of interest for writers and poets.
Wooden Furniture: This is the real deal that will allow you to earn as much as two grand in the marketplace.
Fancy Gemstone Jewelry: Whether a woman’s best friend happens to be studded with pearls, diamonds or rubies, the older it gets, the more it counts as a precious item.
Postage Stamps: Such rare stamps as the Penny Black will make you a small fortune.
Music Records: Salvage some of these Elvis memories from that cobweb-lined room and sell them online for fast bucks.
Children’s Toys: Such playable things as Lego construction blocks and Golliwog dolls are something the average man or woman has outgrown since becoming an adult.
High Tea and Fine Dining Porcelain: These bone china sets are useful Victorian artefacts that have outlived their use-value. It is high time that they were sold for a quick profit.
Kids Comic Books: Whether it is Superman or Batman or for that matter Ironman, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will earn you a swell sum of cash.
Electronica: The technology of the 70s, 80s and 90s replaced by better and more efficient stuff can now be gotten rid of at an auction house.
Persian Rugs: These beautiful woven tapestries of Islamic Art fetch a reasonable price at online sites. So if you have one that is getting old and want a new one, sell the former.
Too much clutter hurts mental health. With indoor living nowadays thanks in no small part to the Coronavirus Pandemic, you ought to think about selling all the old stuff collecting dust in your closet. You have many options that will make you some cash and bring clarity and minimalism to your life. Some of the antiques are worth a small fortune, so seek the chances of selling them online or offline. For informal evaluation of the item, Google and eBay are tops. If the antique consists of a painting or work of art, Sotheby’s or Christie’s are willing to lend their services to the eager seller. There are itinerary databases available on the World Wide Web. Get an analysis of the antique item before you sell it to know how much it is worth.
There are newcomers to the field. Then there are the old hands who know all about auctioning off dusty and rusty goods from ancient days. The former can learn tons of stuff from the latter. Expert advice can come from someone who is already adept at the game. Among the different prices you can set for your stale gramophone or cracked painting are:
Retail Price
Wholesale Price
Fair Cash Nexus Price
Insured Price
Tax Price
Auction Block Price
There are two prices in the minds of the buyer and seller. They may not be the same. Then comes the price listed in the official guide. What the item sells for is an altogether different matter. So you have to consider all these points. In Australia as elsewhere, the evaluation of the product depends upon a couple of things. One of them is supply and demand. Then comes the relative state of the antique. Finally, we have its origins, scarcity in the world and beauty. An example would be antique glass items. For these, you would need to look into the following categories:
Hue
Date of Manufacture
Avoiding Fake Facsimiles
The Intricacies of the Item
Some of the Aussie guide books you could consult in this regard are listed below:
The Alan Carter Price Guide to Antiques and Collectables
Carter’s Price Guide to Antiques in Australasia
Carter’s Everything Vintage
There are online auction sites, and then there are actual offline auction houses. eBay is a good site where you can search to your heart’s content. Also, a search engine such as Google or Altavista is ideal for the purpose. There are even online valuation websites that open up a treasure trove of information for the curious user. An appraisal may come in handy for which you will have to cough up two to four hundred bucks. You can also go to a store or dealer to exchange the item for some cold hard cash.
There are so many sites on the Net that offer advice to help you make the desired deal. These include:
Kovels
WorthPoint
Barnebys
MetArt
ValueMyStuff
Never forget that your antique is only worth as much as the buyer is willing to shell out for it. No matter how old or precious, if it has little to no value in the eyes of the buying public, it remains just that – a useless burden.
