What's The OLDEST Item In Your House?

[arwalden]

Specifically... NOT including people or the house itself... what's the oldest thing you own?

My oldest item is a 1900 Underwood typewriter that looks like this one:

[nini]

1. a crucifix - circa 1850 from Portugal

It was my great-grandmothers. One of the arms is broken off but I still have it up on the wall in her honor.

[underpants]

2. Probably my wife's grandmother's dresser

we repainted it and are using it as a our coming baby's dresser/changing table.

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. dolo amber

*ducks*

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. ahem.

:rofl:

[arwalden]

21. .

[arwalden]

23. Sorry... Your Response Must Be In The Form Of A Question.

... and the clue specifically stated "NOT including people or the house itself"...

[Dogmudgeon]

27. Hey, Trebeck ...

... that's what your Mother said last night.

--p!
Not in the R's, either.

[Magrittes Pipe]

28. What are dolo amber's bones?

:shrug:

[arwalden]

44. Well Done!

:hi:

[benburch]

4. Some Mastadon Ivory jewelry...

Well, at least the ivory is 10,000+ years old. It was made into jewelry much more recently.

[Scout1071]

5. A painting my great-grandparents picked up on a trip through "The Orient"

back in the 1920's.

[LynneSin]

7. I have an atlas that is pre-WWI and

a copy of Audobon Bird Prints from 1910

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. A set of 1856 People's Cyclopedias.

:hi:

[mike_c]

9. I have some confederate bills around somewhere....

Otherwise, a buncha early twentieth-century-ish furniture. Oh, some books published in the late nineteenth century. But I think the Confederate money is probably the oldest.

on edit: sheesh-- benburch's reply reminded me that I've got several fossils, too.

[Hugin]

10. Hmm... Hard to say.

Probably some dirty laundry.

LOL!

[Lilyhoney]

11. Some books from the 1800's

We have a few dozen really old books like Fern Leaves and the like.

[Flavin]

12. A pair of early 1800's slave shackles,

used by my Inner-City Social Studies/History teaching spouse as a teaching aid.
Also the original paperwork from the 1840s where her Itallian great-something or another grandfather arrived in the US.
And lastly a Teacher's Textbook from the 1820's.

Flavin

[trackfan]

13. A book of excerpts from Livy, from the mid-1800s

may be the oldest. We also have some very old photographs, and

some Civil War and Gettysburg address memorabilia.

[El Fuego]

14. 2,000 year old Roman coin

[Hugin]

15. Is that your pension fund?

Sorta like in Ohio?

[El Fuego]

18. LOL!

Ancient Roman currency = bad investment.

[El Fuego]

16. My trilobite fossil

Could be 600 million years old.

[Hugin]

25. That's pretty cool.

Did you find it yourself?

[demnan]

17. I have a silver dollar

from 1873.

[barb162]

19. some books , 1800s

[sui generis]

20. groovy stuff

collection of Roman coins 2300-ish years old
Spanish oil lamp 1200 years (moorish design)
Proto-cello 440 years old (Castagneri)
Maps of Portugal & Germany from late 1400's
Aztec funerary jewelry - about 800 years old
oil paintings of the 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x great greats plus some people I have no idea who they are.
most of the accessories they're wearing in the paintings

Lots & lots & lots of stuff under a thousand and more than two hundred. Even my piano turns 100 this year (Leipzig Blüthner).

eh, what's that you say sonny?

[Texasgal]

41. I have a 100 year old piano too!

Does yours play? :)

[sui generis]

47. definitely

it's a chamber grand - only one of seven ever made by the Bluthner company. It's a full size grand piano but made for small ensemble and salon performance, with a very "sweet" sound and bell clear upper range. It uses a special "Vienna" key action that lets one play very very fast; great for Bach, Chopin, moody introspective pieces - compared to a Steinway which has more power and brightness but makes you work a lot harder on some pieces. It's also a great solo, accompaniment, trio and quintette piano but doesn't have the power and brassiness to balance a large orchestral ensemble as a concerto instrument.

[Texasgal]

50. It sounds like you play?

Do you teach lessons?

I inherited the piano from my dearly departed Grandmother who was a professional pianist. She played weddings, funerals and lots of political events at the the state capitol back in the day.

The piano is beautiful and I would love to learn to play....

[sui generis]

56. definitely play -

but don't have time to teach - sorry. Actually my main instrument is cello & studied both at Juilliard for 2 years but burned out on music as a profession.

It's a great hobby though - keeps me sane, and I still get roped into impromptu recitals all the time.

[Texasgal]

57. Damn...

It would be REALLY cool had I had a fellow DU'er come and teach me... as opposed to some ol' batty wingnut!

Oh well.... :P

[ewagner]

22. A very ornate

picture frame....estimated to be from the 1890's by an art dealer.

[LastKnight]

24. my great great great grandfather's violin

cant remember for the life of me how many greats to put in there. its probably not right.

at least 231 years old, few violin players in my bloodline, but im the only one in the last 2 generations, so... its mine. it was brought over from germany with the family but thats as far back as we can trace it, but it was an heirloom before that we think.

[Debbi801]

30. Wow, that is amazing...

You may want to look into getting it insured, if you don't already. I think violins are one of the most beautiful (to look at) instruments. The richness of the wood is incredible.

[Dogmudgeon]

26. A NAIL from the TRUE CROSS

I'm currently using it to secure a framed poster of Farrah Fawcett-Majors over a large and unsightly hole in one of the walls of my boudoir.

--p!
The Peoples' Boddhisatva.

[Burma Jones]

29. My Wife's Engagement Ring

Handed down since the early 19th century......

After that, some Civil War Ammo.....

[Blue-Jay]

31. John Merrick's skeleton

jam'mon.

[Debbi801]

32. A gold baby bracelet made in 1919. It was my grandmother's...

It has her initials engraved into it and her teeth-marks from when she was teething. I have some other almost as old pieces of jewelry as well.

[Double T]

33. circa 1710 William and Mary Chest of Drawers

made in New England

[candy]

58. Wow! Now that impresses me.

[Deep13]

34. Lincoln biography, 1866

with engraving prints. Cover is pretty nackered. Also, I have a bayonette that I suspect is Civil War era.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

35. My great-great aunt's engagement ring from 1900

I wear it sometimes.

[northzax]

36. man made or natural?

(man made)16th century Spanish chest used to haul silver from the colonies...

Natural: a chunk of Maryland Gneiss. 3.6 billion years old. give or take a few thousand millenia.

[BrotherBuzz]

37. An 1858 model 1855 musket rifle

Navy issue (36 inch barrel) that my great-great grandpa sorta never returned to the navy. He served for (then) Captain Farragut at Mare Island, California and located his family there. He also served under Farragut during the Civil War so we're not sure where he bagged the gun, but I have it and I ain't giving it back.

[Deep13]

39. wow

Are they both rifles or is one smoothbored? Do they have flintlocks or percussion caps? Are they Springfields, Enfields or some other maker?

[BrotherBuzz]

43. Singular as in one M 1855 musket-rifle made in 1858

and it has tapered rifling (each of the three rifles start out at about 1/8" and taper to about 1/16" at muzzle). Option of Maynard tape or percussion cap. No bayonet stud. Springfield. Cool wall hanger!

[Deep13]

45. Black power is a 'low explosive.'

You probably know that the variable twist is to compensate for that. As the poweder burns, the mineball picks up speed and requires a reduced twist rate.

[BrotherBuzz]

49. Not quite...

the twist (about 72") is constant. The actual groves are tapered.

[Deep13]

55. Ah-ha! I misread the post.

I read 1/8 and 1/16 as 1:8 and 1:16 indicating one rotation per 8" and one in 16". Oops.
x(

[Deep13]

38. If anyone has a meteorite, ...

that is as old as the solar sytem, about 5 billion years.

[Deep13]

40. There is this left-over meatloaf in the freezer.

That's pretty old.

[sir_captain]

42. 3000 yearish chinese sculpture

left to me by my grandfather. It's certainly very beautiful.

[RPM]

46. Grandma - and she aint doing so hot

after that, it may be the GM fridge in the basement.

[WeRQ4U]

48. The Arc of the Covenant.

It's in my attick with my original copy of the magna carta.

[LeftyMom]

51. My great grandmother's thimble

engraved with her (and my) first initial and my grandmother's mending kit. The thimble is about a hundred years old, the mending kit appears to be from the thirties. My grandmother gave them to me a few years before she died.

[Bridget Burke]

52. Not counting a few rocks....

A piece from column (with fluting) taken from Roman ruins in North Africa. A relative was stationed there in the 1940's.

Even though the column was already broken, I do not support that kind of thing. But I'm not sure where to return it.

[aeolian]

53. Probably the house itself. Built in 1895.

[Maestro]

54. I have an ancient Inca hair pin.

Actually, it is at work. I'll post a pic of it later. Barring that, I have a 19th century pipe that my great granddaddy smoked. Here is a bad pic of it.



and this out of focus pic.

[skygazer]

59. From the Civil War

Two swords, a dress sword and a field officer's sword (both in rough condition) and my great-great grandfather's uniform belt buckle which looks like this -



This is Grampa -