Anything that was used in a store before 1900, from coffee grinders to bill hooks and ledger books, is of historic and collector interest today. Cabinets, candy containers, signs, and displays from the old stores are now valuable.
New furniture forms usually appear when a society needs them. The telephone stand was a twentieth-century idea. It wasn’t made until after the phone was a common household item. In the eighteenth century, twin beds, card tables, and upholstered easy…
The best way to judge the age of a piece of furniture is to study how it is constructed. Part of this information is technical, but most of it can be used by any antiques buyer out for a day’s…
The word “ephemera” is the plural form of the Greek word that means something that lasts through a single day, such as a winged insect. Today the word refers to something minor, usually paper, that was made to be used…
Prints, photographs, and all sorts of small paper ephemera, including baseball cards, postcards, and labels, became important to collectors in the twentieth century. Printed pictures, often drawings, were published to illustrate news stories in the nineteenth century. Lithographs, woodblocks, even…