Archive for Antique
Vintage is not a designer brand
Posted by: | CommentsToday I’m having a rant, not done that on here for a while but some Internet sellers are beginning to annoy me and what much worse they are misleading customers. Have you noticed how words like “Vintage”, “Antique” and “Victorian” are used by many Internet sellers of fashion items these days? Actually I believe that many of them are breaking the trades descriptions act along the way. Hopefully this article will help those looking for genuine vintage or antique to avoid buying new by mistake.
Vintage may be popular but it is not something you can buy wholesale from China, stock up on to a website and sell hundreds of one item. One of the major points about antique, vintage and Victorian is that they are not making them any more. You have to search out pieces and the pieces you find are almost unique.
This guide can also be applied to other terms including Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Georgian and even Retro.
What Vintage is not:
Vintage is not brand new, you cannot buy it wholesale over the interenet from China. It rarely comes all clean and nicely packed. Two pieces are rarely alike .
“Vintage ” ( and Antique, Victorian etc etc) is not a designer brand. You cannot get someone to make you vintage if it is new then it is no more vintage than black is white. On the other hand you can come across some brands which are vintage eg can no longer be bough as new.
Vintage necklace
What is vintage :
What is vintage is a great topic for debate. To my mind it should be at least 25 years old, I accept that others would say 20 or 40 years but I am sure that all genuine vintage dealers and collectors would agree it has to have some age to be vintage. In general an item has not become vintage until it is no longer available as new in the shops in its current form.
Due to its age Vintage ( Antique, Victorian etc) also has other interesting features, its style and method of manufacture is of the past. The pieces are pre-owned and many have signs of age or wear. This is not necessarily damage and some signs of age can be most desirable such as metal acquiring a nice patina. Vintage pottery may be decorated in colours which cannot be re0created today due to the toxicity of the processes involved.
Vintage is Green
Unlike most new stuff, buying vintage is green. You are re- using, re-cycling, spending a lower carbon footprint or whatever the latest term is. Much new stuff these days comes from the other side of the world and a far greater percentage of vintage and antique items were made in this country or closer to home.
How to spot real vintage on the Internet
Many items which are described as vintage or antique on the Internet are actually new. Here’s a few tips for spotting real vintage and antique items on the Internet.
- How many of an item does the vendor offer for sale? If they have more than one then it is likely that the item is new. Occasionally it is possible to have more than one item but it doesn’t happen very often. For example there are over 1200 pieces for sale on AntiquesAvenue.co.uk. I have a few duplicates but this would be way less than 1% of my stock.
- How is it described? Vintage style or vintage inspired are most probably new. Does the site actually give an age for the item? Most vintage sellers will give some indication of how old the piece if, if not ask before you buy.
- Is the website specialised? Good Vintage and Antique sellers tend to specialise in vintage and antique items and have very little new or modern stuff on the website.
- Google Shopping. It is a requirement of putting your items into Google shopping that you state is a piece is New, Used or Refurbished. Many many items described as vintage actually say new as the condition in Google shopping so you can check here.
- Look at the photograph? Is it highly professional? Us vintage and antique sellers have to take a picture of every item we sell and because it is used for just the one sale it is not economical to get a professional photographs taken. We cannot get stock photographs from our suppliers and so many of us have photographs which are taken by amateurs
- Is there a comment about condition in the listing of the piece? If so then it is more likely to be a genuine vintage or antique item. Sellers of new dont comment on condition normally.
Buying Vintage Style
My aim here has been to educate those interested in buying genuine vintage or antique so that they do not fall for buying new by mistake. Should you prefer to buy vintage style but new items then do look out for items described as “Vintage Style” or “Vintage Inspired”.
Happy Hunting Anne x
Style Vintage, Antique, Retro – how old am I?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you collect old stuff? Antiques, vintage, retro, period or antiquity? Today I am taking a look at what each term means – how old is antique or vintage? Here are my definitions and why and how they are applied here on antiquesavenue blog and my antiques shop.
Modern anything newer than vintage eg less than 20 years old. Applied today that would be anything after 1989. These items could also be know as Second hand or pre-owned. I think the Americans refer to stuff of this age as “Estate”.
Antique or vintage?
Antique – the official legal definition of antique takes us to items of 100 years old or more. 19o9 is not a good cut off date for antiques . The official definition now includes all Edwardian items and many Art Nouveau ones too. Stylistically the end of the Edwardian era is not a good place to change from antique to vintage as style advanced very little during the 1910′s, presumably the first world war held back much of the design change which came in the 1920s . Some major antiques fairs are now allowing anything older than 50 years to be described as antique. I actually think this is too lenient as it means that items from the 1950s are antique where as stylistically they fit so closely with the 1960s that it is best to keep these in vintage. You can see I have divided my jewellery in the shop into antique jewellery and vintage jewellery – the cut off date between the two being circa 1920.
Vintage - anywhere between the modern and antique . By my current interpretation of antique that is 1920s to 1980′s. This period encompasses art deco and modern design of the 195os, 1960s and 1970s. Following the first world war and its immediate aftermath came the 1920s and a drastic shift in design to art deco – stylistically this fits best with the modern design rather than the antique.
Retro - This refers to style rather than age of an item. Retro refers to the high style of the 1950s through to the 1980s but can also refer to new items in that style
Period – these are items which genuinely come from the age they are styled for rather than reproduction. So if a vase is referred to as Period Art Deco it is from the 1920s/ 1930s rather than a newer piece. The opposite to this is to call a piece Art Deco style, if you see this beware it is most likely much newer than the art deco era.
Antiquity – items from the ancient world – the Romans and Greeks for example.
Revival – here is an interesting term. Revival means when a style cam back into fashion. Hence we had an art nouveau revival in the 1970s and I think that there is a little art nouveau revival going on right now – just take a look at some of the swirling designs popular in fabrics and on websites at the moment. Some other revivals are: Egyptian in the 1920s, Japanese -1870s, medieval gothic – 1860s and art deco in the 1980s.
I’m onthe look out for more interesting antique time scale terms – can you suggest any?
Antique or Vintage – Poll results
Posted by: | CommentsAs you can see my “Whats hot Antique or Vintage?” poll is now closed. Here are the results;
Vintage = 55% , 21 votes
Antique = 45%, 17 votes
News/modern = 0%, 0 votes
So vintage is somewhat hotter than antiques with new or modern not getting off the starting block. Interestingly vintage has stayed slightly ahead all through the poll right from the start. Perhaps its time to dust out our vintage items and start showing them off.
Wedgwood pottery – Blue Jasper Ware
Posted by: | CommentsWedgwood have made Blue Jasper pottery since the 1800s. Over its history is has changed sometimes having a solid blue colour “sprigged ” with with reliefs and at other times the blue is solid. There are also variations in the blue from a wonderful deep Royal Blue to a much paler almost baby blue. Antique pieces can be very valuable fetching several hundreds of pounds each whilst newer pieces of Wedgwood jasper can be found for less than £10.
The reliefs tend to have classical inspirations – I am in the process of cataloguing them and hope to add a list here soon. Do you havee any rare examples you could send in photos of to add here?
This Wedgwood Blue Jasper Ware comes in all sorts of forms: Vases, trays, lidded boxes, candlesticks thimbles and even table ware. Blue Jasper miniatures are especially popular with collectors.
Wedgwood has also made Jasper Ware in many other colours but the Blue endures as the most popular and the colour it is produced in today is known as “Wedgwood blue”.
When purchasing a piece of Wedgwood Jasper do take care to look beneath the pot. Not all Jasperware was made by Wedgwood and you need to see the impressed manufacturers trade mark to be sure who made it.
There is lots of Wedgwood Jasper to buy on antiquesavenue.co.uk . Here are a few examples as a preview:
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- Antique Wedgwood jasper urn
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- Wedwood Jasper Desk Stand
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- Wedgwood blue Jasper Jug