I too have a diamond ring that’s been passed down since 1910 or so. 1.5c or so, nearly flawless. It was appraised at $16k.
My current wife wears it. My ex-wife never knew about it. ;)
I own a decent size piece of a German He-111 which was shot down during the Battle of Britain. I’ve got a lot of info about the pilot and crew (one was killed in the attack) as well as the full after action report from the hurricane pilot who brought it down.
Because your mother refused to let that woman have that ring?
I own lots of things that are old and uninteresting, and vice-versa. I suppose the artifact at the intersection of the “old” and “interesting” lines would be my Space Invaders Part II machine (cocktail cabinet).
I also collect old cookbooks, especially ones with color photographs. I was horrifying myself with those things long before Lileks made it cool.
A photograph, from 1903, of my paternal grandfather when he was around 9 months old. My memory of him starts when he would have been around 65. But damn if you can’t see clear as day his 60/70-year-old face in that 9-month old. It’s actually almost scary.
Something like that, yeah. For my current wife I pretty much called her up and said, “hey, you know that giant rock you have on your finger from Grandma? Hand it over.”
I have a silver compact from like 1880 that was passed down in my family, though I think I ended up with it because I found it in a drawer when I was five and said “hey what’s this?”
But Lollipup, as bahimiron stated, is probably the oldest thing that’s ever been mine along with my white blanket. And he’s a fucking liar, stuffing is not coming out of him! He even has a heart shaped patch on his face which is keeping this from happening!
My cello. It predates Stradivari. Best estimates put it around the early 1700s. If it were German or Italian, it would be expensive; since it’s English, it’s affordable.
Sorta.
I’ve got a pottery ladle that was made by one of the Pueblo peoples within 100 years (either side) of the time of Christ.
We have a winner.
Oh well if we’re going by the age of things and not how long you’ve had them, I’ve got some grinding stones that date around 1320 B.C.E. One looks just like an egg, oddly enough, so it is called Edmund the Egg.
Wow, you guys/gals have awesome old stuff! We need more pictures in this thread.
The oldest thing I own is a Mitochondria I inherited from my Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, super great Grandmother- awwh heck Eve.
The other oldest thing I own is a small silver German coin from the mid 1800’s I got from my Grandfather.
Somewhere, I have a couple of tarnished bronze coins from the Roman Empire I found while my parents made me hike past some ruins to go see some Roman mosaics north of the ancient city of Attalia (modern day Antalya). Probably date back to somewhere around 285-300 AD, because they have Maximian written on the front.
Looks like this (from http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?param=39671q00.jpg&vpar=445&zpg=50707&fld=http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Coins2/ )
I have some really old books. One from prior to 1850 IIRC (it’s safely stored and not where I currently live). I also have a really nice roll-top oak desk that I use to think was a family heirloom but really isn’t but is probably at least 100 years old. That’s also safely stored.
Hmm, I could kill two birds with one stone. I could YouTube my cello, so you could see it AND hear it, and at the same time I could demonstrate what a “wolf” is (apropos of this thread), because while my cello has an absolutely awesome low-end and all-around great tone, it has a sometimes horrible wolf.
I also have an unfired rifle cartridge from 1914 I found in my parents garden. I like to think one of the forgotten battles of WWI were fought there, but it is most likely just something a hunter dropped.
I have coins that are about 100+ years old - my brother got the herirloom stamp collection, which I don’t think is valuable but does contain a stamp good for 2,000,000 Reichsmark from the time of hyperinflation between the wars…
My cousin got my great great great grandfathers (perhaps I missed a couple of greats) passports from around 1700 when that part of the family came here from Germany as well as the document showing he was a trained saddler (as was every male of that line up until my grandfather).
I have few harryhausen era/style stop motion dinosaurs. They were not protected though, so while the metal ball joints and armatures are fine, the outer skin looks like someone cooked them in an oven, because uv rays keep cooking foam even after curing…
I own a few small coins from the Roman empire circa 200-100 B.C… They’re only worth, collectively, around $50, but the value is meaningless to me. It may sound stupid, but sometimes I just like to take them out and hold them and think about what life must have been like for the guy who had these coins in his possesion 2200 years ago. Where did he come from? Was he a soldier, merchant or farmer? Did he travel extensively? What would he have spent them on? It’s just an amazing connection to the past to be able to hold something that ancient in your hand and wonder who’s hands were the first to ever hold it.
I’m sitting on a giant piece of rock several billion years old, and I own at least part of it.
I read a story a few months ago about a British woman that found some old coins and sold them only to find out that she had effectively “stolen” them from the UK Government since you’re not allowed to find things in the UK apparently.
Anyway, I really do wonder if you taking those coins runs afoul of somebody’s antiquities laws.
[EDIT]
Man I really am a downer in this thread. I apologize.
The oldest thing I have (that’s interesting) is a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from the late 1800s. I googled it and it’s apparently worth about $20.