Antiques, Antique Collectables and much more....

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Welcome to Absolutely Ancient - your place on the Internet for information about Antiques and Antique Collectables

Welcome to the world of the Antique

Though the name suggest something that has been around for Centuries (in some cases much longer) the concept of “The Antique” has really only been in popular usage since the mid to late 1960’s.

Prior to then really, the term "antique" referred primarily to something that had been manufactured on or before 1840. This rather rigid definition was gradually expanded and widened to cover all items over the age of 100 years.

Nowadays however, the term Antique is generally used to describe any item of collectable interest that was made up to and during World War II. Another watershed has been crossed in that latterly, the collecting field has been widened substantially to cover previously “un collectable” and disregarded items such as contemporary furniture and rock and pop memorabilia (possibly the Antiques of the future).

Possibly one of the most important reasons for this ever increasing interest in Antiques has been the voracious appetite from the Media for “all things cultural” and where better to exemplify this than the world of Antiques. This has been accompanied by an ever increasing number of Daytime and Prime time TV and Radio programmes designed to cater for our rapidly increasing interest in Antiques. These programme have in many ways stunned the programme schedulers on a number of fronts primarily the fact they have demonstrated their “staying” power and also the viewing figures along with now cult celebrity status of some of the TV Presenters has mean that they are serious rivals to some Daytime and Primetime “Soaps”.

Because of the advent of Digital Television and the ever increasing number of TV Channels that are now available the world of the Antique Programme has been able to expand into ever more specific niches within the world of Antiques and still our appetite appears to be insatiable.

Latterly, possibly one of the biggest and si8ngle most important influences on the World of Antiques has been the massive growth of EBay and its ability to service in a cost effective manner the most diverse and specialist areas
 

Antique Glassware - A Basic Guide

Antique Glassware has three basic categories. Soda Glass which is occasionally or sometimes referred to as soda-lime glass, potash and lead glass. This latter category is sometimes referred to as Lead Crystal.

Each of these categories of Antique Glassware has their own individual source of and mix of ingredients and as such these lead to each type and variety of Antique Glassware having their own individual characteristics and peculiarities.

The sort of thing we are talking about here would be colour, light refraction and handling abilities, resonance and weight etc.

As has been mentioned each type has its unique mix of materials and ingredients, forming techniques, decoration, colouring, engraving and cutting peculiarities.

Lastly as you can imagine depending upon the level of skill, age and condition, Antique Glassware can vary in price from the very cheap to the prohibitively expensive depending upon your budget.
 

 

Interesting Resources

WW2 War Memorabilia

 

 

 
Antiques, Antique Collectables and much more....