what was an old fashioned Antique store like back in 1890 - 1920?

[green papaya]

did people still collect antiques & collectables back then? I wonder what you would find if you were in a antique shop back in those days? Im guessing probably old lamps, tables, chairs, art / paintings, old watches or jewelry?

what about militaria? would they have Civil War items? swords, guns, knives, uniforms, hats, etc

 

[Stearmen]

I know one thing you could buy in 1890. A genuine Egyptian Mummy, and all the assorted accoutrements, for your mummy!

 

[Fading Fast]

Two thoughts.

(1) I know in "House of Mirth," written in 1905 or there about, one of the characters collects "Americana" and goes to antique stores and works with antique dealers to buy it. And "Americana" in that book seemed to be antiques (to a 1905 world) reflective of the American experience. And I have read in other contemporary-to-the-time-period-you-reference books that talk about antique collecting etc. Also, I have definitely seems old street photographs from the 1920s and 30s that have antique stores.

(2) Lizzie is going to give you a much more comprehensive answer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Antique collectors around the turn of the century tended to be wealthy -- there was a very sharp distinction between antique dealers and second-hand furniture dealers, and absolutely no intersection between their clientele. If you worked for a living, you didn't buy or collect antiques -- but you might very likely buy and use second-hand furniture.

"Antique" a hundred years ago was far more strictly defined than it is today. An "antique" in that time was furniture or art dating to the Colonial period -- "Americana," as Fading says -- or European or Asian furniture or art dating back before that time, and the definition was rigorously and snobbishly defended. An antique collector would have sniffed with derision at a chair or a table from the 1850s.

You might find Revolutionary-era guns or swords or older European weapons in an antique dealer's inventory, but Civil War stuff was only forty or fifty years old, and would have no appeal at all to such collectors. If it was to be found anywhere outside of Pa's attic, it'd be in pawn shops.

Second-hand clothing stores did exist and were very popular in cities. They were nothing like the "vintage stores" of today -- they were usually dark, shabby storefronts in the dodgy part of town, full of plain pipe racks with clothing very tightly packed on them. Miscellaneous items were usually stored loose, in crates or trunks in the rear of the store or in the basement. Comedian Fred Allen, in his autobiography, talked about going to a prominent "moth mart" in Boston to buy second-hand hats to use in his juggling act, and of being invited into the basement of the store where hundreds of dusty, rusty hats were stored in bulk. This type of arrangement was typical of the time.

 

[Fading Fast]

...(2) Lizzie is going to give you a much more comprehensive answer.

QED

Thank you as always Lizzie for some great insight.

 

[Stanley Doble]

There were collectors of antique coins, statuary, art works hundreds of years ago. In fact a lot of surviving statues from the Roman Empire are copies of older Greek works, made for collectors.

In the late 19th early 20th century antiques meant hand made furniture, art works etc from before 1840. Nothing machine made or mass produced could qualify, in fact this was part of the definition of antiques for the purpose of customs and import duties.

And in the US there was a very definite line between "Americana" or "colonial" and European made antiques. Both had their adherents but collectors tended to go exclusively for one or the other.

There were also collectors of rarer more exotic items from Asia, especially in New England where sea captains in the China trade brought back a lot of furniture, ornaments, carpets and china.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I would dispute the idea that all antique collectors were rich. Then as now a fascination for the past cuts across class and wealth barriers. In those days especially, a canny collector could find overlooked gems in second hand stores, at auction sales, in dusty barns and attics.

I used to know some old timers that put together impressive collections on very little money, but they started buying in the thirties and earlier when such things were much more common, and cheaper than they are now. Some even became dealers when their collections threatened to push them out of the house.

 

[green papaya]

Thanks for all the interesting replies! sounds like there have always been collectors around, I know militaria collecting started way back when soldiers kept the enemies captured weapons & armor as souvenirs back in the Roman times.

 

[sheeplady]

I have a ladies vanity with a 3-way mirror (center mirror and two wing mirrors on either side that can be adjusted.) It is not "fine" furniture by any means- the veneer is rather poorly applied and I restored the finish a couple of years ago. The mirror is smoked and of low quality.

It's the type of mirror that went with a nice bedset that a working class person could afford buying new in the 1920s. I've seen several in my life, they typically sell at auction for around $100 to 200- people who know their antiques typically know they aren't worth much.

To modern eyes, it is a beautiful piece. My grandmother paid 25 cents for it at an auction during the early 1950s. Everyone shakes their head in amazement when I tell them that. Then I remind them that it would be like paying $5 or $10 today for a low end second hand piece of furniture from the late 1980s. Heck, I went to an auction once and the auctioner couldn't get a bid on a 1930s veneer cabinet, I offered $10 and got it. Most of the time they can't get rid of furniture post 1970.

I give that example because the things we think of as "antique" change over time. In the 1950s my vanity's dark wood stain and curvy ornate lines made it unstylish, dated, and icky to most of the population. Much the same as Victorian pieces were viewed- the kind of furniture your parents had.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My parents were given an 1890s bedroom set by a friend of the family as a wedding present in 1959. They thought it was ugly as sin, but they were poor and couldn't afford any better, so they thanked the donor -- who told them, "well, it was either give it to you or chop it up for firewood."

My mother's still using that bedroom set today. She has no idea if it's worth anything, but she doesn't particularly care -- it's "furniture" to her, not "antiques."

New England was ground zero for serious "antique collectors" in the Era and before -- that's where all the "Americana" was, after all, and they came thru here in force during the twenties, thirties, and forties, picking every old farmstead they could find as clean as they possibly could. There are several antique stores around here that have existed as such since the 1910s, serving that sort of clientele.

 

[Stanley Doble]

'The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that might have been designed in dreams. The haggard aspect of the little old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he. '

From The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens London 1840

 

[sheeplady]

My parents were given an 1890s bedroom set by a friend of the family as a wedding present in 1959. They thought it was ugly as sin, but they were poor and couldn't afford any better, so they thanked the donor -- who told them, "well, it was either give it to you or chop it up for firewood."

My mother's still using that bedroom set today. She has no idea if it's worth anything, but she doesn't particularly care -- it's "furniture" to her, not "antiques."

New England was ground zero for serious "antique collectors" in the Era and before -- that's where all the "Americana" was, after all, and they came thru here in force during the twenties, thirties, and forties, picking every old farmstead they could find as clean as they possibly could. There are several antique stores around here that have existed as such since the 1910s, serving that sort of clientele.

I have been told that a lot of antiques are bought in the Northeast (whatever the current fashion is) and sent down South (Texas in particular) and out to the West coast where they are more valuable.

Lot's of people don't understand that age doesn't equal value, demand equals value when it comes to antiques. Something can be really old but out of style and be near impossible to sell, when ten years ago it went for top dollar. (Like carnival glass did.)

I've seen auctioners try to get a dollar for furniture with accolades like, "It's dry, it'll burn," "good fire starter for cold nights," and "it will make good firewood." At this point, a lot of seventies and eighties stuff- particularly those decades version of "country furniture" in that awful orange-ish finish can't be sold around here. I have a dining room table in that style given to me by my parents and it is also as ugly as sin. My joke whenever something happens to it (a dig, watermark, scrape) that it's my precious heirloom table that I love. It's functional, that's all.

Maybe if they burn enough of the other 1960s through 1980s does country orange furniture, my table will be worth money. That would be hilarious.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Lot's of people don't understand that age doesn't equal value, demand equals value when it comes to antiques. Something can be really old but out of style and be near impossible to sell, when ten years ago it went for top dollar. (Like carnival glass did.)...

"Antiques Roadshow" on PBS does a lot of shows where they rerun an episode from a decade or two ago, show the price that an antique was worth when the show originally aired, say in 1998, and, then, what it is worth today. A meaningful number of antiques - things that (to your point) are rare, seem unique or, at least, hard to come by and have some historical significance, go down in value - sometimes just a small amount, sometime in half or more. IMHO, it is a great education in how most of this stuff has value only because it's in vogue at some point - there is not a lot of intrinsic value to most of this stuff. At the end of the day, something is worth what someone is willing to pay and, for many "antiques" that is a fickle thing.

 

[sheeplady]

"Antiques Roadshow" on PBS does a lot of shows where they rerun an episode from a decade or two ago, show the price that an antique was worth when the show originally aired, say in 1998, and, then, what it is worth today. A meaningful number of antiques - things that (to your point) are rare, seem unique or, at least, hard to come by and have some historical significance, go down in value - sometimes just a small amount, sometime in half or more. IMHO, it is a great education in how most of this stuff has value only because it's in vogue at some point - there is not a lot of intrinsic value to most of this stuff. At the end of the day, something is worth what someone is willing to pay and, for many "antiques" that is a fickle thing.

Yes, it really is fickle. I can remember my grandmother spending a good sum of money on amethyst glass and carnival glass, which was in vogue in the late 80s and early 90s before she died. Luckily my grandmother had pretty good taste (I have 4 or 5 of her pieces), was pretty frugal, and she was smart about purchasing only what she liked and therefore didn't get caught up too badly. I am glad that she bought things that made her happy.

My parents on the other hand were the "antiques are an investment" type of people who bought all sorts of strange things expecting them to increase dramatically in value and then got angry when they find out they've been "had." No, you haven't been had, it is the market- you bought high or low and now the market is worse... no one wants what you bought.

You should buy and use the things that make you happy, not get caught up in some get rich scheme.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

- ... there is not a lot of intrinsic value to most of this stuff ...

I'll go out on a limb and say that nothing has any intrinsic value. Something has value to a person under specific circumstances. A bar of gold on a desert island versus a sandwich, for example, has no value if you haven't had anything to eat for a week

 

[LizzieMaine]

You should buy and use the things that make you happy, not get caught up in some get rich scheme.

It serves the get-rich-quickkers right when it turns out they can't sell their five hundred unopened cases of baseball cards from 1989 because every other now-middle-aged "collectibles" speculator put five hundred unopened cases of baseball cards in their own attics in 1989. Enjoy your stale bubble gum, chumps.

 

[Stearmen]

It serves the get-rich-quickkers right when it turns out they can't sell their five hundred unopened cases of baseball cards from 1989 because every other now-middle-aged "collectibles" speculator put five hundred unopened cases of baseball cards in their own attics in 1989. Enjoy your stale bubble gum, chumps.

I saw the same thing with the NASCAR toys! I told one collector back then, they will be worthless in a few years, he pointed to how much 60s and older toys were starting to bring. I told him, there's a reason for that, we played with our toy cars tell the wheels fell off, then it became a flying car, and we played with it until nothing much was left! That's why there are so few pre 80s mint in the box toys.

 

[tonyb]

I'll go out on a limb and say that nothing has any intrinsic value. Something has value to a person under specific circumstances. A bar of gold on a desert island versus a sandwich, for example, has no value if you haven't had anything to eat for a week

Yup. Certain circumstances are likelier to appear than others, which makes some bets safer than others, but even something of such "intrinsic" value as unimproved real estate can drop in price.

 

[tonyb]

I suppose there are people who regard their antiques (or vintage goods or old junk or whatever you might call it) as "investments." And I suppose a subset of that subset actually turn a profit on it.
But for most of us, it's the stuff we use on a daily basis. It's our furniture and housewares and whatnot. Sure, we could sell it for more than we paid for it, which is more than can be said for most new stuff, but if we were to realize that profit we'd be left with nowhere to plant our somewhat wealthier bottoms.

 

[F. J.]

What she said . . .

[...]
My parents on the other hand were the "antiques are an investment" type of people who bought all sorts of strange things expecting them to increase dramatically in value and then got angry when they find out they've been "had." No, you haven't been had, it is the market- you bought high or low and now the market is worse... no one wants what you bought.

You should buy and use the things that make you happy, not get caught up in some get rich scheme.

Yep.

I was looking through phonograph records in a thrift a week or two ago and was asked if I was a collector. My reply was that I just liked to listen to ’em.

For my birthday a few years ago, I got an unopened two-disc Lawrence Welk album of great big band hits from 1985. I was quite impressed with how well the Welk orchestra could jazz up some favourites, especially their rendition of “A String of Pearls.” My dad told me that it might be worth some money if I left it unopened. Of course, then I couldn’t listen to it, so what’s the point?

I buy stuff from thrift stores and antique store not as an investment, per se, but rather for the utility they bring me, to use an economics term. I just like to use old stuff.