What are the Oldest Objects you Own?

[Shangas]

I searched for threads like this on the Fedora Lounge and I failed to find one. I apologise if there is one already, but it didn't turn up in my search-results.

I'm interested in finding out what are the oldest objects that you own?

This is, without a doubt, my oldest object:

It is a portable writing-case manufactured by the great, late Toulmin & Gale company of London, England. It dates to ca. 1862.

All fittings in the box are original with the exception of the pen and the inkwell-insert. I was originally told the box dated to 1900, but I recently found information that led me to believe that it was significantly older, to around the time of the American Civil War.

So, what are the oldest things you own?

 

[dhermann1]

I have a couple items about the same age, a valentine card sent to my great grandmother in 1857 (or 54, hard to tell from the tiny writing), and a little diary, never used, with neat little clasp and a tiny mechanical pencil, from 1864.
Hmmmm . . . I gotta see if there's anything older in the family archives.
There used to be, and I haven't seen it in years, a volume of La Fontaine printed in 1723 that my mom bought at a Paris book stand in 1937.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

a 1731 or 32 silver sixpence.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have a 500-million-year-old trilobite sitting on my mantel.

 

[Nick D]

I have a coin of Constantine the Great, which probably is the oldest. Some medieval artefacts, too. A couple books from the 1850s.

 

[Nick D]

I have a 500-million-year-old trilobite sitting on my mantel.

I was going to mention the several fossils I have (my grandpa was a rock hound), but I took 'object' to mean man-made.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I have lots of rocks.

 

[Shangas]

Just so long as you have the two that count.

But yes, this thread was really meant for things like antiques. Not fossils. Man-made stuff. Jewellery, books, antiques, etc.

 

[Tomasso]

An Oriental rug and a Chinese screen, both from the early 1700s. And a table that might be older though it has a dubious provenance.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

The oldest thing I own is actually probably a little Sheffield knife made 1840's-50's.

 

[scotrace]

I have an Ohio coverlet from about 1820, and my dresser is marked by the cabinet maker, 1831.

 

[scottyrocks]

One of my pocket watches, an Elgin, dates back to about 1885.

 

[DNO]

A miniature landscape on ivory together with an ebony and mother of pearl box containing sewing items dating from the last quarter of the 17th century.

An 1804 model Royal Navy cutlass actually produced in 1804.

 

[lolly_loisides]

I have a coin of Constantine the Great, which probably is the oldest.

Me too, it's an early solidus from approx 335AD.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fossils aside, I have a counterfeit British halfpenny dated 1737 -- these were more common in the Colonies than the real ones during the years before the Revolution. Probably the oldest thing I have that's still in regular day-to-day use is my great-grandmother's breadboard, which most likely dates to the 1880s.

 

[Magister]

Me too, it's an early solidus from approx 335AD.

Excellent! I have a handful of asses (Roman pennies) from the same period, and a Nero silver denarius from 65AD.

 

[jamespowers]

A Chinese Han Dynasty Ding similar to this:
(206 B.C.–220 A.D)
I have a few other things from the era as well---some neolitihic stuff that I cannot confirm the age of too.

 

[rue]

I have these two chairs that have Neptune and a Roman Goddess (no idea who she is though) that are supposedly from the late 1700s.

 

[jamespowers]

I have these two chairs that have Neptune and a Roman Goddess (no idea who she is though) that are supposedly from the late 1700s.

I hope you have those insured well because they can cost as much as the house.

 

[rue]

I hope you have those insured well because they can cost as much as the house.

I'm actually planning on selling them, since I have nowhere to put them. Interested James?