I am fascinated by really old things. I know in a cosmic sense, everything is really, really old. The little bits of gold inside my computer were created in a supernova, for example. However, I'm talking about old things made by humans. When I go to a museum and they have pots or simple artwork that's really old - like 5000 or 8000 years old, I'm just astonished. A local museum has a good collection of very, very early Asian and pre-Columbian artifacts. Maybe it's just an American thing ("In America, 100 years is a long time; in the UK, 100 miles is a long distance"), but the direct connection between that artifact and some human that lived that long ago resonates with me. The oldest thing I own is a Roman coin. It's not in good condition, but it's ca. 330 CE. It's not particularly rare or valuable, especially in its condition - they find caches of thousands of these things from time to time. It's amazing to me that I have something in my drawer that was minted 1700 years ago, though - who minted it? Who spent it? What was his life like? Will a quarter that I have in my house today end up in the drawer of some guy in the year 4000? It boggles the mind. FOCUS: What's the oldest thing that you own? Where did you get it?
I have a .58 caliber Minie ball fired at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. As far as I am aware of, it is the oldest thing I own.
I have a small collection of antique tools, my most prized one is my Sugar Devil, the name and use is obvious when you see the picture (it's used for grinding). I think it was made around 1828-1835. The oldest (and most valuable) I have is a Goosewing Broad Axe, made in Vatican City in about 1780.
When I was a kid, my great uncle gave me one of these along with a box full of medals: He had pulled them off dead Germans after he faught in Ardennes. I also technically own a stamp collection from the early 1900s, but I won't get it until my grandmother dies.
I inherited a German Bible published in 1811, as well as an English Bible published around 1830. Both from my grandfather.
Not man made but I own a small megalodon tooth, which was found by my father near a cliff. The tooth is quite small, it can fit in the palm of my hand. The discovery channel showed the area in a documentary a few years ago and since then I haven't found any other shark teeth, except for very small ones from great white sharks.
We've got a tractor from the early fifties. I have no idea what it is or what brand or anything but it's rust colored and still kicking. Other than that...my family doesn't have much that they've passed on...my dad's hanging on to his Chevelle for dear life...even though he's not doing anything with it. I've told him I want it, but I'm pretty sure my brothers will elbow me out of the way to claim it.
I inherited my granddad's '30 Chevrolet that he restored. I don't drive it regularly but it is still in pretty good shape. It features manual spark advance, throttle lever on the column along with a foot throttle, manual choke, and a Chevrolet electric in cab heater. It has an inline 6 cylinder and is capable of speeds up to 40mph. If you have never driven an 80 year old car, you have no idea how far we have come with automotive technology. My granddad restored several cars over the years and the oldest one belongs to my uncle which is a 1916 model T Ford. That is the first one he showed me how to drive. How many of you have ever started your car with a hand crank? Also, no one back then must have been over 5'7". I am 6'3" and can barely get behind the wheel of the '30.
I have an early 1900s edition of Hoyle's card game rules. I think it cost me about $20. It's in decent shape, but apparently a zillion of these things were printed, so they don't cost much. I still think it's pretty cool though. I'm not home, so I can't check the date, but I have a 19th century English language French history text book. It's something like "The History of France in Words of One Syllable." And not as old as some of the other stuff, but I have a propaganda poster from China's Cultural Revolution in near-mint condition.
I love old things. Flea markets, vintage shops, and antiques stores are a few of my weaknesses. There is a bunch of good stuff at my dad's house, like my grandpa's camera that's so big you need a trunk to store it in, and relics from my great-grandparents' candy shop in Queens, like old-timey seltzer bottles and signs, but I guess that doesn't really count for the focus. The oldest thing I have in my apartment are my initials in wooden letter blocks for a printing press with moveable type from the early 1900s. I also have a Max Factor ad from the forties staring Rita Hayworth. The rest is my collection of vintage clothing: a leather jacket from 1940s Germany, a dress from 1940s France, a mink stole from the forties, saddle shoes from the fifties, my grandpa's fedora from the fifties, a cape from 1960s England, a silk shirt dress from the seventies, a Versace jacket from the eighties... I think that's everything.
I have (according to the veteran who gave it to me), a WWII anti-personnel mine. It's blue, about the size of a baseball, with metal clasps holding it shut.
Call me ignorant, but I think most antiques are just old junk. The plunger I use today is the same plunger that could be a relic 1000 years from now. Some items have stories but age alone doesn't impress me much.
My dad's family had generations of old furniture. None of it was bought second hand, never threw it away either. Under a tarp in my garage is a bedroom set from 1865, including the dresser and mirror, and a stand alone cabinet with a marble top. In my hall is a claw-footed game table from the late 1700s. Aside from a couple cracks and dings it's in impeccable condition. Still has the manufacturer's label. My uncle has even more: 1800s flax wheel, chairs and rockers from the 1860s, clocks, a 1911 organ with an air bladder, his mom's hand painted china circa 1910 (my grandmom and grandpop were both born in 1892), and a ton of solid silver silverware from about 1865. When he dies I have no F'n clue where to put it all. His house is practically a museum. He still uses the same shit-tastic 1950s furniture. Do you know how much sag a 60 year old cushion has? It might as well be a dish rag. The spring in the bottom tries to puncture my balls every time I sit in it. Note antiques are nice to look at, but they are uncomfortable as hell. The beds are about 4 inches too small for me. So I either lie at an angle or in the half fetal position. I woke up every hour or so because I had full on kicked the foot board. Not good. The chairs feel like ogre fingers are clawing your sack. Also have a few Bibles from the 1930s. A copy of Crown and Cross by McCabe 1874, in shit condition. Next time I'm at the uncle's I'm going to purloin (eh, he lets me take his books) his first edition of "In Cold Blood." Dust jacket is brittle, and he put his name label in it, but it's in pretty good condition otherwise.
The oldest thing I own is my bed, desk, and dresser. My great-great-grandfather owned a furniture store in NYC and gave the pieces to my grandmother for her birthday. They were later passed down to my dad and then to me. It's not the nicest stuff ever, but it's from the early 1900's and has my grandma's name/address written on the back of the dresser for delivery.
My wife's aunt's mother-in-law owned pretty big farm and house in the Hamptons, and when she died, they gave us a few pieces of furniture: three chests of drawers and a gateleg table all made in the mid 1800s. Each piece appraised for $1500-2000, and that was over 15 years ago. We had the table and one of the chest of drawers refinished and put the other two in storage for our kids. I have a bamboo flyrod that my godfather gave me that is from the 1930s. A friend refurbished it for me and I took it to a fishing show and was offered $1000 for it, so I suspect it's probably worth a little more. And my father-in-law gave us his grandmother's set of sterling silver flatware she brought from Germany when she came to the states in the 1800s. I get to polish it every year at Christmas. Also, his mother's collection of pre-WWII Hummels.
When my grandfather died last October I was put in charge of cleaning out his closet. No one else in my family is really into old things so I kept anything I wanted. The oldest things in there were a few confederate paper dollar bills from 1863 featuring Jefferson Davis on them. They're not worth very much but they're definitely cool.
I have a large very old shark's tooth as well. I was taking a geology class and a fossil club (who knew my professor) invited us to Wilmington to go on a dig with them in a huge limestone quarry. The girl I had paired up with was doing well, something and I was sitting on this big ass fossiliferous limestone boulder when a dark spot about the size of nickel caught my eye. I took a hammer & chisel and got the top of the tooth uncovered and was scared that I would break it trying to get it free from the rock below it. I hit it once just off one of the bottom corners and it popped out perfectly clean into my lap. (The tip was broken already) About the shark it came from: I also have a slave contract from a will that's dated 1832 and from North Carolina. My parents bought it about 20 years ago, mostly because it's in remarkable shape and that old, not necessarily because of what it says.