What's The OLDEST Thing In Your House?

[arwalden]

We've got a family bible that's dated 1922... and an old (still working) Underwood typewriter from 1899 or 1900.



This is not an actual picture of the one we have... but it's the same model.

[dolo amber]

1. Me

:cry:

[Redstone]

2. A piano made in 1896.

Redstone

[kiraboo]

130. Hey, me too. A piano, that is. 1893. Steinway.

But the house was built in 1881 so it's older than the piano.

[hobo_baggins]

138. Can I have it?

i need a good piano...i'll give you 5 bucks

[kiraboo]

151. Well I'd let you have it

but I teach piano for a living. I need it to practice :D

[arwalden]

3. I'll Have To Send You Some Coins From 1960.

Will that work?

[dolo amber]

I can look up to them as the older siblings I never had

:loveya:

[Radio_Lady]

101. I have theater prints about Ellen Terry the actress doing a play --

from the 1800s sometime. I don't know if they are even worth anything. I was named after Ellen Terry.

[Radio_Lady]

105. I guess it wouldn't be very nice to say MY HUSBAND from 1934!

Naw, his father gave him some circulated silver dollars dated earlier than that.

[Kurovski]

145. I have a period postcard of Ellen Terry, but the most interesting

thing about it is what was written on it. something to the effect of "It may be that we can blow them off for the price of it!" Make of it what you will. I wish I could find it now to get an exact quote.

I imagined it to be correspondence between two ladies of the evening. But then...I WOULD. (The postmark was from a region of the Northwest involved in logging)

[SeattleGirl]

4. Not sure about IN my house, but the house itself is over 100 yrs old

That's a cool typewriter, by the way. My grandmother had one just like that.

[Radio_Lady]

102. Here are two things I have, but don't know WHAT they are!!!

The guesses went nowhere a couple of months ago.

They are nothing sexy (I took them to a couple of "fantasy" stores.)

Nothing having to do with shoes. (Solicited information from shoemakers and manufacturers.)

Still no known use for these gadgets.

[Shine]

5. Hmmm...great question, arwalden!

I would have to say a gorgeous, 2 foot high, solid rose quartz statue of the goddess Kwan Yin. She's been in our family for over 4 generations, which makes her about 100 years old. I was fortunate enough to have it handed down to me recently and I will cherish her forever. Kwan Yin is the goddess of Love and Compassion. Here is a picture of me with her, right after I had received her. :loveya:

[arwalden]

8. Wow! Very Cool!!

Nice!

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Nope...

Ain't. Gonna. Go there.

[Shine]

14. Are you thinking what I think you're thinking??!

:spank: you naughty boy. :evilgrin:

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Uh... I dunno

Whadya think I'm thinking? :shrug:

[Shine]

19. You tell me what I think you're thinking and then I'll think about it.

I know what you're thinking: :wtf:

:eyes: we could be here all night....

:rofl:
besides, I don't want to give you any ideas, if maybe my mind is dirtier than yours....heheheh.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. You tell me what you think I think you were thinking...

Nah, screw it. We both know.



And we're disgusting.



:spank: <--- self-applied

[Shine]

22. LOL! Aha, I knew it.

we're sooooo bad....but some would say that makes us GOOD. :evilgrin:

I will NOT think of Kwan Yin in "that" way. It was just the angle of the photo, you silly.

:spank: <---applied to YOU, again.

[In_The_Wind]

87. Your Kwan Yin is so lovely.

I have two small statues of her, one in rose quarts and the other in amethyst. :)





:hi:

[maveric]

6. 1835 One Cent piece.

[FuzzySlippers]

7. A Piranesi....late 18th century.

[Solly Mack]

9. 1880 butcher block table - I use as a vanity

hmmm...let's see - what else...hmm..anything older than that

1920 woman's Beaver hat made in Italy - in it's original bandbox
A complete set of history books from the 1909 (you wouldn't believe the crap those books spout)
Illustrated History of All Nations
by Israel Smith Clare

cast iron skillet that's a good 100 years old and still in use...

guess not...the table is the oldest thing

[reyd reid reed]

10. I've got some of my grandmother's books

Actually, probably my grandmother's mother's. 1880's and thereabouts, so it would have to be her mother since my grandmother wasn't born until 1900. Uncle Tom's Cabin...some poetry...I'm not sure what others.

[NMMNG]

11. The King James Bible I got when I was 8 (29 years ago)

The second oldest thing would be my dining room set, which is 20 years old.

[WCGreen]

12. I have a foot pumped dentist drill.....

Which was my grnadfathers in WW1...

I believe he said it was old at the time....

About 1890 or so....

Also, a fold down desk that Mrs. WCGreen's grandfather used when he opened his business in 1905....

[LibDemAlways]

15. I have a penny from 1856. It's quite large.

Took it to a coin dealer thinking it might be valuable, but no. Only worth a few dollars.

[Art_from_Ark]

146. Now, if your 1856 penny were *small*

and it had an eagle on it, it would be worth quite a nice chunk of change. (Note: the coin below is shown much larger than actual size. The Real McCoy is the same diameter as today's cent)

[LibDemAlways]

152. Yes, so I understand. The large pennies

are much more common than the eagles. It looked interesting to me, though, until the guy at the coin shop turned up his nose at it. Oh well.

[Art_from_Ark]

157. What kind of coin shop did you take it to?

The big guys will snub their nose at common coins like that, but the smaller shops may be in need of some because the large cents have become somewhat popular in the last few years. Also, do you have any idea what condition your coin is in?

The large cents are still very interesting to me, and I bought my first one more than 30 years ago. Maybe it has something to do with a story I read in elementary school about a little boy who lost a nice shiny large cent while walking to the store to buy some candy, then he found it in the dirt a year later.

[LibDemAlways]

158. The coin is in very good condition. I have it

locked away in a safe deposit box at the bank or I'd take and post a photo.

The shop I took it to is the only coin shop around here. The guy was snotty. I brought that penny and some other coins of that vintage and the guy acted like I was wasting his time.

[Art_from_Ark]

159. A very good large cent would be slightly more worn than this one

A lot of dealers these days seem to want to cash in on the big spreads in the high-grade "slabbed" coins and feel like they're wasting their time with the common collector coins. Of course, it would be in the dealer's best interest to treat everyone with respect. A lot of snooty wannabe-big-time dealers find out the hard way that if they don't cultivate a customer base by treating collectors of modest means well, they can go out of business in a big hurry.

[petronius]

17. A gazetteer from 1652, although it's a bit thrashed

There are some other books and coins from the mid-19th century as well.

Similar to what another poster noted, our 1840s geography textbook has some very 'interesting' things to say about other cultures...

[doc03]

18. I have a violin from the 1800's

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. A 350+ million year old trilobyte

and a bunch of mineral specimens and other fossils that have been around awhile.

In the "man-made" category, a spearpoint that Mr GoG found around here when he was a kid. It's probably about 5 thousand years old according to a friend of mine who's familiar with local native artifacts.

[Hardrada]

32. A piece of preCambrian rock from Sioux Falls SD

2 billion years old I believe.

1536 Lutheran theological book Loci Communes Theologiae

[GoddessOfGuinness]

74. Cool!

How's your Latin? :D

[pitohui]

108. oh wait a minute ... uh oh...we might have a tie EOM

.

[Babette]

54. Yess! Lots of fossils!

Trilobytes, cridoids, a piece of edmontosaurus, fossilized ferns and leaves, and on and on. Mineral specimens, meteorite pieces.

Also have Roman coins from about 100 CE. Not really worth anything- copper, well-worn and not a lot of recognizable stuff on them.

For family stuff- I have a velvet bound copy of Lorna Doone that my great-grandmother brought from Scotland in 1914. I think it was a going away gift to her (from what I get from the inscription).

[GoddessOfGuinness]

76. Even though those coins

aren't "worth" much, it's amazing to think that they've been around as long as they have. And just think...they could have been clinking around in Hadrian's pocket at some point or other!

[GumboYaYa]

65. Same here.

My little guy loves fossils, so we have tons of them.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

77. Do you ever take him

to places where he can find them? We're only about an hour's drive from a beach where sharks' teeth abound. I'm hoping to take my 7 year old there when the weather's warmer. :hi:

[CottonBear]

78. We've got trilobytes and fossil fish and a newly found spear point!

Cool stuff! We found the fish fossil near an abandoned Tennessee coal mine.

Edit: I have a table handmade by a relative in the early 1800's. It's from western NC and it's made of poplar wood. It's pegged together. At some point, my Nana raised it up with a pine section so that modern chairs would fit under it. (Old tables were short because old chairs were short.)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

79. How exciting!

Where there's one, there must be more...

[CottonBear]

82. He found it on the golf course of all places!

I'm sure there are more. Mr. CB once found a matate (confirmed by the anthropology department at the university here) which is a long rounded stone used to crush corn. Pretty darned cool! He found the matate under the crawl space of an antebellum home. :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

86. I've always wanted to visit

a bunch of Indian mounds. I'm fascinated with Native American cultures in the east. All we have left are fragments; and I'd love to see a history pieced together.

A lot of places around here (metro DC) where you could once find artifacts have been bulldozed to make way for strip malls. :(

[CottonBear]

88. Here in the Southeast we have lots of indian mounds.

In GA, where we are, we have the New Echota mounds and the huge mounds near Macon where you can go inside a lodge (I forget the name of those mounds right now). Moundville near Tuscaloosa, Alabama is AWESOME! We've been there several times. The Amtrak Crescent train goes right past them! There are also many sites with petroglyphs but most are on private land and are not publicized for security purposes. On the Georgia coast there are shell mounds which are really neat.

My ex was an archaeologist and my former neighbors are both anthropology professors.

There is an indian mound at the farm where I board my filly, Cotton! We find arrowhead there all the time. The mound is near a surface quartz deposit which was mined back in the 1800s and probably much earlier by native Americans.

You should visit these places if you ever make it further south. Unfortunately, many sites on private land (both pre-historic and historic) are being destroyed by development.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

94. I never realized there were any on the coast!

I thought they were all inland and generally west of the Smokies. Do you know of any coastal mounds that are open to the public?

I'm sorry to hear that they're being destroyed.
I don't understand how little appreciation we have for our history. I guess I have to find a preservation society to donate to...:grr:

[CottonBear]

95. I'm finding some info and links for you now:

(There are shell mounds in California and along river sites too!)

Coastal shell rings: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2530

Cumberland Island National Seashore (a must see natural treasure in non-gnat/mosquito weather only for me!): http://www.outdoorplaces.com/Destination/USNP/gacumisl/

Fort Pulaski: http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/pulaski/1-before/index.htm

Ocmulgee Mounds (the huge ones in Macon): http://www.lostworlds.org/ocmulgee_mounds.html

etowah Mounds (Ga State Park): http://gastateparks.org/info/etowah/

General info: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9067258

Some cool pics: http://www.safetgallery.com/MoundPix/MoundFrameset.html

[GoddessOfGuinness]

96. I've always wanted to visit Cumberland Island...

My mom went there a number of years ago; but she never mentioned mounds. I wonder if they hadn't yet been discovered...

Thanks SO much for the links! I'll check them all out. :yourock:

[CottonBear]

99. You're welcome! I love visiting historic sites and pre-historic sites!

My firm is working on the site for a viewing tower for a rock effigy at a state park. The effigy is similar to the famous Rock Eagle. :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

97. Oh my god!

I've been to Fort Pulaski, and never knew they were there! :banghead:

[Art_from_Ark]

125. ANother tribolyte here

Oldest man-made thing-- a tetradrachm from ancient Greece

[GoddessOfGuinness]

135. That's an interesting coin...

I wonder what the symbols represent?

[Art_from_Ark]

137. The owl is the symbol of wisdom

as is its master, Athene (who is pictured on the other side). The soldiers might be symbolizing one of the many Greek battles, or they might be just a generic "Our soldiers are tough" sort of depiction that the Romans were so fond of.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

139. The Few, The Proud

The Gladiators... :rofl:

[Art_from_Ark]

140. The more things change, the more they stay the same

Eh, wot?

[Susang]

23. The house itself

Built about 1915.

[amitten]

24. This thread.

Kidding! :D

[Tight_rope]

123. I would have to say pictures of people who came before me 35+

[Broken_Hero]

25. our house...:)

Is pretty old. I believe its the oldest thing in our house.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

26. My husband............

And then me.......:blush:

Actually, I have a Japanese school house wall clock, which is about 100 years old.....

It was a gift from my parents......I love it!

:hi:

[SofaKingLiberal]

27. amethyst geode

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. Well, there's this condom in my dresser...

[FunkyLeprechaun]

30. ew... n/t

[Radio_Lady]

154. ew... and not even N-eww. Don't use it. It won't work. Left over from

junior high school, or?

[FunkyLeprechaun]

29. Of my collection,

A 1860s Lincoln political button and an 1865 newspaper detailing Lincoln's assassins' trail. A couple of Civil War Bullets, newspapers, and letters. That's about it.

[Rowdyboy]

31. Michael has a pie safe his granma got as a wedding present around 1890

[Radio_Lady]

103. Pie safe? That's a beautiful thing. I'd take that to "Antiques Roadshow"

if I could.

Is it supposed to keep your pie safe? How did it get that name!

[Rowdyboy]

141. The metal pieces on the front had many small holes just big enough....

to let air in, but not bugs or flies. The pies would cool, make the house smell wonderful, and eventually be pulled out for dinner. They're really neat old pieces and the name means literally what it says, "pie safe". It's a safe where you put your delectably edible assets rather than your money.

.

[terrya]

33. Definitely me

[mikeytherat]

34. Small table circa 1735

mikey_the_rat

[tjwmason]

35. A couple of books which go back to the 18th century.

So nothing very old.

[ET Awful]

36. The walls.

I live in a converted mill building that dates back to the 1830's.

[Left_Winger]

37. My bedroom furniture

which was originally purchased by my great-grandparents at the time of their wedding in 1890.

[Burma Jones]

38. Roman Coins from First century CE

I have twelve......They aren't particularly valuable, just interesting.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. There's no way in hell a 1,900-year old coin isn't valuable.

Unless by "not valuable" you mean "an obscene amount of money that's nonetheless less obscene than the amount I'm willing to sell it for."

[Burma Jones]

57. Roman coins are more common than you'd think

I wouldn't want to come off saying I have a hugely expensive coin collection, altogether, the coins are worth about $1,500 and I started collecting (getting them as gifts) them about 30 years ago. I would venture that a lot of folks here have LP/CD collections worth more than $1,500.

[Art_from_Ark]

143. I can get you a nice boxful of Roman coins for about $10/coin

or maybe even less. The problem (?) with Roman coins is that the Romans made scads of them, especially the little copper ones, that were widely dispersed, and a lot of these coins ended up being buried in places that were not susceptible to copper oxidation. As metal detectors become more sophisticated, many of these hoards are being found througout the old Roman Empire, which is significantly bringing down the price of the more common coins.

[meegbear]

39. An 1880 dictionary ...

beautiful and simple.

[In_The_Wind]

40. Rocks & Crystals from the beginning of time. Also a book from 1893.

The New Waldorf Cook Book by Mrs. Annie Clark.
Publisher: F. Tennyson Neely

[LostinVA]

41. Me

[MissHoneychurch]

75. selfdelete

read the OP wrong

[progmom]

42. misunderestimator

:)

ha - just kidding. i guess it's the 300 year-old dining room table she got from her grandparents.

[Misunderestimator]

43. Hey! I resemble that remark!

Actually, I'm one of the youngest things in the house... next to you, the boy, and the cat. :P

[hyphenate]

44. You got me thinking

because I couldn't think of anything that would be really old, but then I remembered I had my mom's old family bible, too, which is probably dated back to the late 1800s sometime. Unfortunately, it's very fragile, and some of the pages will crumble, so I don't touch it and keep it stored in the cedar chest.

[China_cat]

45. 3 pieces of porcelain

given to us as a wedding present by my husband's grandfather. They had originally been given to his wife on THEIR wedding day by HER grandmother. As there's no maker's marks or dates, we can't say exactly how old they are but close to 200 is a best bet as I am 60 now.

[bridgit]

46. that typewriter is way cool...

:bounce:

[yellowdogintexas]

126. hell, I learned to type on one very similar to it.

Boy things have really improved since then.

[jane_pippin]

47. My grandma's high school diploma from the early 30's.

I think that's the oldest thing anyway.

[azmouse]

48. Some dishes that belonged to my grandparents.

[Deep13]

49. Biography of Lincoln from 1866.

[Maestro]

112. Wow!

I would love to read that one. It would be so "current" and obviously different from today's biographies.

[zanne]

50. A clay marble I found while digging in my garden nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

51. Huh huh. Huh huh. You said "under wood." Huh huh.

By the way, I'm tied with you. I have a compilation of Spanish variety almanacs from 1899.

[RumpusCat]

53. My dad's hippie shirt from the 60s

I live in an apartment and am 25--I just don't have that much old stuff. All the cool old family stuff is still in my parents' possession. The hippie shirt is pretty damn neat, tho'! :D

[RedCloud]

55. I am!

Therefore, I think? :shrug:

[ThomCat]

56. A plush elephant that was my father's when he was first born.

It was given to me when I was born.

[Arugula Latte]

81. You shoulda been a Republican!

:D

[ThomCat]

83. My dad and his whole family ARE republicans.

My elephant and I, however, are proud Liberal/Progressives. :7

[hunter]

58. Our house is full of old stuff.

Quite a few billion year plus old rocks of various sorts, and a couple of good Cambrian fossils.

As far as man-made stuff, we have many things that are old -- lots of stuff more than 100 years old, a few things thousands of years old, but none of it very valuable. It's interesting to imagine the people who made it.

[Ron Mexico]

59. A 1796 Liberty Cap Cent, Sheldon 86 variety

It's not only the oldest thing in my house, but outside of my wife it's also the most valuable.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

62. So, what valuable things...

...are INSIDE your wife?

[Ron Mexico]

63. The biggest heart in the world, and

everything else that keeps her going. But in terms of material things, that 1796 cent is as high as it gets inside of the house.

[Rabrrrrrr]

60. I got you all beat - I got stuff that's 15 billion or more years old

I'm filled up with electrons and protons, electromagnetic radiation from the big bang, and other stuff from the very beginning of the universe.

[Richard Steele]

61. Somewhere, I have a british sixpence from 1752...

It's in slightly shape than this one I found on the web:

[NewWaveChick1981]

64. A spinning wheel from the early 1700s...

...that's been in my husband's family since the beginning. My grandmother was an antique collector and dealer, so I've got a lot of nice antique furniture dating from the early 1800s. Some of them are pieces from my family and some are ones Granny wheeled and dealed for.

[smitty]

66. An English coin, dated 1735, that my father found

while working in his victory garden in 1944. We were living in College Point, NY (on Long Island) at the time. The coin has a small numismatic value but enormous sentimental value.

[Beaverhausen]

67. Photo of my grandmother & great-grandparents from 1900

She was a year old. I look a lot like her.

[Left Is Write]

68. I have a Coronado floor model radio from 1938...

that's the earliest date I can actually pinpoint, but I also have some Homer Laughlin ceramic kitchenware that likely dates to the 1920s or early 30s.

Probably the absolute oldest thing I have, though, is a book titled "Domestic Science Principles and Application" from 1914. Inside is a sticker that reads "This Book Is The Property Of The College Of Industrial Arts Denton, Texas" and was signed out in November of 1915 by someone named Prue Minter. Below her, Cecil Minter also signed it.

Prue and Cecil wrote lots of notes in the margins.

[Maestro]

85. I went to that college in Denton

now called the University of North Texas. Cool!

[arwalden]

163. VERY VERY Cool!!!

:thumbsup: I'm so jealous!!

[gollygee]

69. A secretary desk from 1910-ish

we got it from an estate auction.

[dryan]

71. In my house....

Roman coins from the first century
a Chinese candle holder from the 16th century
a harness maker from the 18th century
a set of Russian bellow from the 18th century

[Katherine Brengle]

70. A book...

The one thing that I know of is a book of Emily Dickinson's poetry from 1924. My paternal grandmother left it to me when she passed away last year.

It's beautiful.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

72. Some crystal bar glasses from the 1700's

[anarch]

73. some of the atoms that make up my bookshelf

are over 10 billion years old. They were originally part of a star that existed when the universe was young.

[Arugula Latte]

84. Whoooaaa, man, you just blew my mind ...

:hippie:

[TheBaldyMan]

80. Me, or perhaps the plumbing.

1922 ? I have dust that's older than that.

on edit: I once stayed at an old manor house in the south of England that had a mediaeval piece of furniture. IIRC it was 13th century, an oak bench, jet black with age and really battered.

[mulsh]

89. piece of the dome of the rock

a girlfriend stole when she was in Isreal in the late 1970's. it was part of the blue ceramic tiles that got blown up in 77/78.
Her uncle was in charge of re-construction. An archeologist friend at Cal authenticated it and nearly had the girl friend arrested. The dome was constructed in around 690 c.e.

My wife was a palontology major and has hundreds of fosil specimines that are millions of years old.

[lukasahero]

90. Our favorite is a Dogon horse and rider statue

Looks a little like this:



Figure it's about 300 years old.

[Alleycat]

91. A Carpenter's Trunk from 1857

I use it as a coffe table. Inside is some scribbled numbers and the guys name and the date he made it.

[Lorien]

92. Man made of natural? I have a book from 1647 (a history of

spiritualism"-bought in an old shop in Paris). A few fossils, and my great grandmother's diamond ring. :shrug:

Cool typewriter, BTW. :-)

D'oh! Almost forgot-I also have a handful of bronze Roman coins, 2000+ years old.

[Sequoia]

93. A school history book published in 1886.

[derby378]

98. Chinese "spade money" coin dating back to approx. 500 BCE

Justified. And ancient.

[Maestro]

106. Whoa!

That has got to be worth something!

[sakabatou]

100. Tifilin from pre-WWI

[Maestro]

104. Here are some items

This is an 1878 7-feathered (rarer) Morgan Dollar coin



The reverse



Here is a 1500's or early era Inca Broche given to me by the daughter of the then Bolivian Cultural Minister



And finally here is the pipe that my great grandfather used to smoke while he raised his family in Mexico. He was Irish so I am not sure if this pipe was bought in Ireland or Mexico but it dates back to at least the 1870s. I love the intricate ivory carving on it. That is the original case too.

[pitohui]

107. from the pre-cambrian

i might have you all beat, i have several 2 billion year old banded hematite specimens

[DoYouEverWonder]

109. My collection of trilobites

There only about 500 million years old.

(The one pictured is not from my collection)

[derby378]

148. Damn! I forgot about my trilobite!

I've got one, too - purchased it at Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio when I was a kid. Mine actually has a tail.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

110. an 1818 stamp from germany. embossed, leaky ink. cool.

or a 1790(?) piece of ivory from Japan.

[alfredo]

111. A 450 million year old fossil of a Trilobite. A piece of a 14th century

ming vase I pulled from an old trash heap next to Fort Jesus in Mombasa Kenya. I had a pre Christian coin from Axum Ethiopia, but I can't find it right now.

BTW, Fort Jesus was an embarkation point for the slave trade.

[Maestro]

113. Have you had that ming vase appraised?

That has to be worth some money!

[alfredo]

116. No, it broken, that's why it was in the rubbish heap. It was probably

there for a few hundred years before being uncovered by weathering. There's a lot of Ming Dynasty artifacts there.

[Fenris]

114. Hitler pin

[CBHagman]

115. Probably photos of grandparents, circa 1918.

If there's anything older, I haven't thought of it.

[jus_the_facts]

117. My great grannie's oil lamp.....

....I inherited it when my Nannie(mom's mom) passed away...it's in this style but it's gold instead of red glass. :hi:

[malta blue]

118. A Nayarit statue similar to this one...

It is from Nayarit, Mexico and dates back about 2000 years.

[lukasahero]

124. Wow - that's gorgeous

How did you get it?

[malta blue]

147. It was left to me by an elderly family friend who knew of my

love of pre-colombian ceramics.

[Jamastiene]

119. There are two tables that date back to the early 1900's.

I have an actual date on one of them and it was built in 1920. My aunt says the other one is older, but she does not know the exact year. Also, my aunt has a deed to the old homeplace dated from the 1880's. Not sure on the exact date. We lost it. My mother promises to buy it when my aunt went bankrupt a couple of years ago and my mother promised to buy it. She later backed out. Damn shame. It's a long story with more drama and sadness that I really want to get into, but that deed technically wins out as the oldest thing in the house.

Great question, btw. I'm crazy about the 1920's table. My late grandmother called it a "library table." It's long and built out of mahogony. The other table is built out of cherry. It's painted white. I had started stripping it to stain it and laquer it, but when my aunt went bankrupt for a while, I sort of lost interest. So there it sits scantily clad with white paint. Much like everything else around me, it's half-assed done and proud that it has survived thus far. Yep, that should be on my tombstone. I did the best I could and I'm proud of it, even if I am half-assed. :P

[Ron Green]

120. A history of England in which Charles I is the latest King.

It was published in 1628.

[Jara sang]

121. A whale bone from the Miocene

At least 5.3 million years old.

[Catfight]

122. coffee grinder from my grandfather's store. nt

[leftofthedial]

127. not counting minerals . . . Mogollon points and sherds

from about 250 AD

[yellowdogintexas]

128. aside from the trilobytes, preCambrian rocks, fossils, and geodes

which my husband collects (well, he is a geologist and both of us were cavers)...
There is an antique clock from Fulda Germany which belonged to my uncle,
an antique hardware cabinet designed to hold nuts and bolts from my grandfather's general store
a dining room table made of cherry wood from the farm in Kentucky, made in 1854 by some great great great grandfather
a silver pitcher which was a wedding present to the same great great whatever
4 pieces of antique cut glass which belonged to my great grandparents and great aunt
a small rocking chair and two marble topped side tables which belonged to my grandmother

boy do we have a bunch of rocks though.

[RPM]

129. table from Tammany Hall

family heirloom - god knows how many bribes passed through the drawers of that table...

[UCLA02]

133. As a US history buff...

I've got to say that is the coolest on the list thus far.

Jealousy is unhealthy, and I reserve it for instances like this. ;-)

[liberaltrucker]

131. Me

:rofl:

[UCLA02]

132. I collect old newspapers...

and I've got some from the mid 18th century. I have a nice one from 1820 discussing the Missouri Compromise, as well as some with classified ads asking for the return of runaway slaves. Others onclude the death of Lincoln, Kennedy, The Liberator (wonderful anti slavery publication), etc.

One of my "funner" ones is a single page from a Detroit newspaper in 1912 advertising return trips to England out of New York on the Titainc. That was why I bought that one and was it's selling point from the dealer. But upon closer examination I found a similar ad in smaller type for passage on the Lusitania, the ship that would be torpedoed 3 yrs later and was a reason for the US entering WWI.

Anyway, that's my story...

[havocmom]

134. Cedar lined mahogany wardrobe

Very special to me. Was in my granny's home since my mom was a little kid, possibly before. Mom said it was always around far back as she remembered.

[0007]

136. If I told anyone. It would be stolen.

[ContraBass Black]

142. Photos of my grandparents.

So far as I know.

[Kurovski]

144. I've a book on etiquette from 1870. And does anyone know

what era these are from? There's all kinds of old stuff around here. I was a regular junk-shop scrounger years ago.

[Magrittes Pipe]

149. My wife.

:hide:

[slide to the left]

150. family photo album

from the mid 1800s. It has everyone's wedding pictures. A doll what was my great great grandmothers. I have the original box. Glass pitcher and glasses from mid 1800s. Mine cut diamond ring (the don't do that cut anymore)that is more than a fe generations old. My great grandmother is still alive so we have a lot of stuff.

[SteppingRazor]

153. I've got a shell fossil, date unknown... but as far as manmade stuff...

I have a Roman coin, circa 40 AD.

[Turn CO Blue]

155. A copper coin from the Roman Empire.

[Hand]

156. 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints...

We've got several framed. I think the oldest is around 1750 or so, still in pretty good condition.
I inherited them from my father, who bought them cheap in Japan many years ago.

[Whoa_Nelly]

160. This 19th C. chair

It was my grandparents...probably circa 1880-1890

(need recovering...last reupholstering was done in the early '60s)

[bertha katzenengel]

161. Mrs. V.'s antique bed, vanity, and chest of drawers.

"Antique" meaning old, not worth a lot. I've no idea what they're worth. No matter; they were her grandparents'.

[msatty99]

162. A roman coin from reign of Claudius and a bronze ring circa 1350 a.d.

Got em both in London in a cool shop across the street from the
British Museum.

[tibbir]

164. A set of really beautiful crystal that belonged to my grandmother.

I should use it more.

[Odin2005]

165. A Paleozoic coral.

My dad works at the sugar-beet processing plant here in Fargo-Moorhead, they put limestone along with the coal used to boil the beets (for reasons I can't rember), and one chunk of limstone my dad saw had the branches of a coral in it.

The oldest man-made thing I have is a 1948 edition of the late British historian Arnold Toynbee's multi-volume magnum opus A Study of History I found at a garage sale for $5. Very good reading for a history buff.

The oldest thing at my Mom's house is the house itself, built in the late 1800's. It used to be a one-room schoolhouse, then it became a home and was added onto in the 30's to be the building it is today.

The oldest thing my Dad has is a few Morgan silver dollars from the 20's

The oldest thing my Grandmother has is a Lutheran bible printed in Norwegian brought over by my great-grandparents.