Archive for November, 2008
Get purchase from AntiquesAvenue for Christmas
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick blog to update you on the last dates I will be posting out parcels to ensure they arrive in tie for Christmas. I am happy to send items out after these dates but there will be a chance that you will not receive your parcel until the New Year.
Australia & New Zealand – December 5th
USA, Canada , Japan – December 10th
Europe – December 12
UK – The post office are stating that items posted by Special Delivery on December 23rd will arrive in time for Christmas. My opinion based on 9 years of selling on-line is that items should leave here no later than December 22nd. Having said that I am willing to send your special gifts out on December 23rd but you will need to ensure you are at home on the 24th to receive them.
Christmas Gift Special ~free Delivery worldwide
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In the run up to Christmas I am including delivery in all prices. What you see is what you pay. This includes all items to the UK and nearly all items world wide. There will need to be an extra charge on some of the larger and heavier items if they are to travel outside of the UK.
Examples of heavier items include the Maw tiles panels and Victorian Dump paperweights. For Jewellery, standard size paperweights and 6 inch tiles the worldwide delivery cost is included.
Can you value my antique for me?
Posted by: | CommentsEvery day I receive a few requests for valuations of peoples precious antiques and collectables. As I have mentioned before this is not a service you can expect to have carried out for free. A proper valuation takes time and research, it is like asking any tradesman to offer their services for free:
- People wanting a valuation are normally convinced they have a real treasure and they get upset and argue with me over my opinion on the value of their antique or collectable
- A valuation done properly is quite time consuming and the help I offer here free of charge. Valuations and selling of antiques are two different areas of the antiques and I choose to concentrate on selling them and writing about them.
So how can you get your pieces valued?
- If you have a lot of items I would suggest that you contact your local auction house, they normally offer verbal valuations free of charge
- If you just have a small number of items you can research prices similar items have fetched on the internet. eBay is a brilliant source of prices items have fetched over the past couple of weeks and should give a good indication of the value of your antique
How to value an item using eBay:
Use the eBay search facility. Down the left hand side is a check box for completed items. Enter a description of your antique into the search box and ensure you tick the completed items box. Once ebay has returned results of the sale prices of similar items you can sort these results in price order by clicking on priceallong the top row.
For example: A lady wanted to know the price of some 1960s tiles she had. I entered the word “Tile” into the search box and checked the complete items box. This returned hundereds of results and so I narrowed the search by selection only tiles from the antiques category ( this excludes all new carpet tiles, wall and floor tiles). Now I scrolled down through the pictures until I found some similar to the ones the lady wanted to know more about.
Practice this a few times with items you have around you and you will soon get the hang of being your own antiques valuer.
Collecting preserve pots, jam pots and honey pots
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shorter floral jam pot
Jam pots, preserve pots and honey pots were all made to hold your favourite spreads on the table. Some were meant for the jam jar to fit inside others are for the preserve to be put straight into. Some have spoon shaped cut outs in the lids and others do not.
There is a huge range of these collectable pots available and as they are small and stand easily on their own they are easy to collect and display well. A collection would certainly make a good converstaion piece in the kitchen or dinning room.
Antique preserve pots from the victorian era and vintage preserve pots through to the 1950s and beyond were made by all the major staffordshire potters. They come in all shapes and colours. Some collectors specialise in preserve pots fron a particular era or manufacturer whilst some just collect say Honey pots with bee’s for finials. Starting at just a few pounds these are a collectable for those with limmited funds as a collection can be built without spending a fortune.
The two pots pictured are currenly available from antiquesavenue on ebay
anynsley floral jam pot
Book Review – Wedgwood Glass by Susan Tobin
Posted by: | CommentsRecently I was delighted to bump into Susan Tobin on the interenet. Susan is the author of the book “Wedgwood Glass” which ( to the best of my knowledge) is the only book on wedgwood glass available.
I have found this book most useful and it is always my first call if I have need for more information on a piece of Wedgwood Glass. For me there are two particularly interesting sections – “Paperweights” and “Candlesticks and Candleholders”. There is also a fascinating section about Kings Lynn glass and how where many of wedgwoods famous glass designs started out.
With plenty of colour pictures and a reference section indexing the wedgwood codes to their shapes and colours this book is a must for serious wedgwood glass collectors. I had hoped to be able to point you to this book for sale but unfortunately it seem to be out of print at the moment so good luck hunting for it on second hand book sites.
Published in 2001 and has 26 pages, ISBN 0-9580234-0-9
Wedgwood glass parrot paperweight
Vintage Brooch ~ Novembers free gift
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick note to remind you that this month antiquesavenue is giving away completely free of charge a genuine vintage brooch. Add your comments here or to the original post by the end of this month and I will send this lovely old piece of costume jewellery to the entry I judge best. Also check back soon for news of Decembers free gift.
Vintage Brooch
Vintage silver charms set with crystals
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- Crystal set clown charm
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- crystal set table lamp charm
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- crystal set chick in nest charm
Recently I have aquired and interesting selection of silver charms which are set with coloured and faceted glass crystals. These charms on the larger side and so make a bright and colourful addition to any collection of vintage charms. Imagine a charm bracelet full of these – it would just burst with colour and would certainly be a statement or signature piece of jewelry.
Some of these charms are made by Nuvo charms who are generally acknowledged to be the best English cahrm maker from the 1960s / 1970s. Others are unmarked but due to their high quality may also be Nuvo or possible Chim charms.
The range includes the more usual tea and coffee pots but also some more unusual shapes notably:a table lamp with a crinoline lady, a fat man driving a bi-plane, a dog chasing a cat up a lamp post and Atlas with the world on his shoulders.
Please do contact me if you have any unusual vintage crystal set silver charms. I can add them here if you send me a photograph in .jpg format.
Stick Pins, Tie Pins, Lapel Pins – Jewelry for Gents
Posted by: | CommentsStick pins, Ties pins, Lapel pins - three different terms for the same piece of Jewelry. These little pins seem very quaint and old fashioned these days but they are also very collectible - I recently saw a show on television where even small and humble examples were valued at £100. For the purposes of this article when I refer to “stick Pin” I am also referring to Ties Pins and Lapel Pins.
art nouveau stick pin
What is a stick pin:The stick pin is smaller and less showy than a brooch but can be worn in much the same manner on the lapel of a jacket or pinned through a tie to both decorate it and keep it in place. What differentiates it from a brooch is the way it is made and held in place. The stick pin has the decorative element at the top of a long stick rather than having a pin behind it. This allows the decorative detail to be very small if required. These were worn by Victorian and Edwardian Gentleman and Ladies however these days they are more seen as Jewelry for Gentlemen.
How a stick pin works: Most antique stick pins have a spiral groove around the pin which was used to screw on a “keeper” which acted to prevent the stick pin from coming loose. This is one indicator in telling if your stick pin is antique or more modern as modern copies do not tend to have this groove. You can see an example of this groove in the photo below of the cameo stick pin.
cameo stick pin
What is a Stick pin made of? The actually pin is normally made of metal, Gold, Gold plate , silver or steel. The heads were made of a huge range of materials : Gem set gold, shell cameo, tiny paintings under glass, jet, micromosaics and many more. Please visit my range of antique stick pins for sale