For collectors of thimbles, needlework tools and needlework boxes, some of the most beautiful and sought-after pieces are known collectively as Palais Royal.
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The pincushion was created as a means to keep precious pricey sewing pins safe, with pin pillows and other little cushions
emerging in 15th century England. The pastime of embroidery was for the rich, so the pincushion became a status symbol, often worn from the waist like a chatelaine and even mentioned in wills and lists of assets.
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On May 30, 2015, Anne Crane from the UK trade newspaper Antiques Trade Gazette wrote: ‘Tribal art is one of the boom sectors of the art market [and] is gaining in popularity all the time as new collectors join the seasoned enthusiasts for this field.’ We decided to investigate…
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Christmas baubles have been in mass production since 1847, when they were first created by the glassblowers of the German mountain village of Lauscha. The Germans had already invented silver tinsel in the 17th century, using real silver that was sliced into wafer thin strips. In 1847 Hans Greiner made some glass ornaments in the shape of fruits and nuts …
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Collecting antique hand tools is quite a tactile connection to our past. When you pick up an old tool, you see the patina of a lifetime of use (or many lifetimes). It’s lovely to see previous owner’s marks and handprints. Often you will find a tool and start researching the maker, and it takes you down a wonderful rabbit hole of discovery into a bygone age.
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Including: missing in action, its been worn before, sign your name, it’s not all there, don’t show your hand too early, to restore or not to restore, shine the UV light, time ticks on, something to sit on, floor work and the bear essentials.
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The humble friction match – invented by chance by John Walker in England in 1826 – spawned a huge industry worldwide with an ever-increasing number of associated collectables. We take a look at the Australian scene.
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Collector Nick Thomas gives his opinion on the concept of one of today’s antique game shows. We should probably mention right now that the opinion of the writer is not necessarily that of the publishers…
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From the Gay Nineties through the Roaring Twenties, there was a craze for figurines of buxom beauties bedecked in bathing suits. A little naughty but very nice…
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In the peacock world, pretty equals male. Even though his tail makes up 60% of his body lengthy and prevents him from flying far to escape predators, peacock evolution is focused on being the male with the most spectacular tail and that’s because he who has the biggest, flashiest, quivering tail gets the girls.
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Collector Michael Kelly has long been interested in maritime memorabilia, but it was a chance discovery that led him to an appreciations of ships’ menus, cooked turtle and boiled sheep’s head…
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It all began when a picture postcard that she calls ‘the Pyramid’ was handed down to Leanne. Sent by her great uncle when he was stationed in Cairo during World War I, the postcard frames a camel at its centre, carrying a man who is talking to another walking by, with two pyramids in the background. “The Pyramid postcard inspired me to seek out more artefacts and material on camels as well as the history of Egyptian pyramids,” says Leanne. “And that’s how my collection started.”
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Across millennia and continents, the snake has slithered its way into humanity’s hearts, minds and sacred texts, its legends consistently revealing a paradox of beauty and danger, creation and destruction, healing and harm.
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Remember the days when you raced through a box of cereal, just so you could get to the bottom and shake out whatever new and exciting toy was being given away? Digging out a toy surprise from your Cornflakes might be a thrill of the past, but these freebies are now surprisingly collectable.
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Penny woodens, dutch dolls, penny Gretchens, peg dolls, wooden-tops, plain Janes, wooden Bettys, timber tops – by whatever name you call them, for over four hundred years these traditional peg dolls were handmade by peasant families high up in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy.
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For any collector interested in history, collecting Roman coins is not a bad way to go.
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When is a toy not a toy? When it’s a Charley Weaver!
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What does a painter do when he’s camping out in the bush and there’s no canvas or board for him to work on? Well if he’s Alfred William Eustace, he picks up a gumleaf.
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A deadly device in the 18th century because of the use of lead, the wearing of make-up enjoyed a resurrection in the early 20th century and with it came the essential accessory – the compact. Slipped neatly into a clutch bag, the compact was a thing of beauty, designed with the same care as a piece of art and decorated with fine metals and stones.
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Star wars is one of the most loved movie series ever made. The original was released in 1977 and its the third highest grossing movie ever, after Gone With the Wind and Avatar. It won six Oscars from ten nominations and a new Star Wars movie has been made in every decade since the original.
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These days antique and new spoons are often given as presents at weddings and christenings, but they were originally more like love letters from tongue-tied young men…
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Dresden is an area as opposed to a single business. There were as many as 200 porcelain decorating studios operating in Dresden between 1850 and 1914, many decorated with applied flowers adorning the dresses, hair and base of the figures. But the real star of the show was the incredibly delicate Dresden lace.
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When the Blackborne collection of over four hundred antique fans was sold in the UK earlier this year, it was the first time any of the fans had been on the market since 1952.
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The coffee industry is one of the world’s most valuable and the second most traded commodity… Debra Palmen explains why so many people love it and its beautiful and functional collectables.
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It’s good to be emperor. Just ask Napoleon III, who, having fallen in love with the appearance of shagreen, decided to cover his bedroom wall to wall in green shagreen and hang the massive expense.
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From humble beginnings in the small Swiss town of Brienz to royal patronage and world renown, the wood carvings known today as Black Forest captured the imagination of a Victorian public entranced with wildlife.
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In the language of dolls, it’s the head that defines the material of the whole doll. So a doll with a papier mache head is described as being papier mache, regardless of the material of the rest of the body.
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For the 1950’s housewife one of the most trusted household helpers was the Merry Maid Laundry Sprinkler Bottle. In the 1940s and early 1950s the sprinkler bottles came in the shapes of ceramic and glass irons, elephants, cats, a Dutch girl, rooster,
clothespin and the (now politically incorrect) Chinese laundry boy.
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From Whovians to X-Philes to Trekkies, sci-fi fans are some of the most ardent on the planet, so it should come as no surprise that some related collectables have reached interstellar prices at auction.
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They sell for serious money today, but the pocket globe was never intended for serious scientific interest. Their small size made accurate calculations impossible and they tended to lack the rings and dials required for the most common manipulations, but they were highly decorative – and the perfect status symbol for the wealthy gentleman.
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Mary, Martha and Wilhelmina Gore. Their names are probably not familiar to you, but in the second half of the 19th century the three Gore sisters were modellers of some renown.
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If you were a kid in the 1960s or early 1970s, you might recall displays or trays on toy shop counters loaded with bright, colourful toy vehicles moulded in what seemed to be a kind of soft rubber. Promoted as being ‘furniture friendly’, maker Tomte Laerdal sold more than 100 million of them in more than 100 countries.
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It’s not often that we’re lucky enough to be able to follow the fortunes of a pottery through the experiences of the family that founded it. But in the case of Modern Ceramics Products, producers of Australian artware pottery from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, we can do exactly that – thanks to the Impey family.
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They might seem typically English, but fairings – the small, humorous china ornaments that were given away as prizes at travelling fairs in the late 19th century – were actually manufactured in Germany.
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Enter any department store from November onwards and you’ll be spoiled for choice with Christmas decorations, many of which will be made from plastic and will bounce delightfully without breaking when they’re knocked from the tree. But for those who prefer something a little more old-fashioned, there’s still plenty of choice.
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Most readers of this website will be a collector of something. But you need to have a house full – literally – to be considered a Super-Collector…
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In 1574, King Henry III of France arrived in Italy to visit his counterpart, Alvise I Mocinego, the Doge of Venice. He was greeted with an opulent 10-day banquet unlike anything ever seen before – everything was made entirely of spun sugar…
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The pagan association of mistletoe is so strong that even today, there will rarely be any sprigs of it found decorating a church garland at Christmas…
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The social history of asparagus unfolds across centuries and cultures. It was first depicted on an ancient Egyptian frieze as far back as 3000BCE and was admired by both the Egyptians and the Romans for its delicate flavour and purported medicinal values.
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Shimmering and iridescent, dragonflies swooping and diving over a pond in the late afternoon sunlight appear delicate and fragile. But looks couldn’t be more deceiving. Dragonflies are apex predators, with a hunting success rate of 95%.
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Has anyone ever called you ‘my little tomatl’? If so, you might want to think about slapping them. It’s the Aztec word for tomato, so it sounds like a cute term of endearment, but its literal translation is ‘plump thing with a navel’. We look at a fruit with more to it than you might imagine…
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Although not the first to use the sundial, the Romans were the first to use them as a decorative element in the garden. Remarkably, centuries later we have sundials not just in gardens across the globe, but in space: the furthest sundial from earth is stationed on planet Mars with the Mars Rover…
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Their eyes meet across a crowded room and she brings her delicate lace fan up to her face. He waits for their silent conversation to begin… Is she single? Married? Interested in getting acquainted? All will be revealed with the secret language of the fan…
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It’s hard today to imagine a world that did not include moving images, colour photography or glossy magazines, but in the 19th century many city dwellers had no idea what the natural world looked like beyond their own limited direct experience and monochrome book illustrations. And then entered the diorama.
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Most people have heard of ‘ships in bottles’, marvelling at the ingenuity of the carvers and wondering how the ship was fitted through the narrow neck of a bottle. But few people realise there are other forms of folk art in bottles.
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The first record of drinking chocolate came from Mayan and Aztec pots containing traces of cacao beans, with the age of the pots indicating the Mayans were drinking it from at least 1400BC. Debra Palmen looks at the history and collectability of one of the world’s most favourite foods.
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Ivor Hughes takes a look at the stunningly intricate processes involved in cork painting and sculpture, a Chinese specialty a mere century old.
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For generations, the leading brand for domestic scales has been Salters, a company that has been in business for over 250 years. But the history of scales dates back much further than that…
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