Antiques Collecting

At least five famous midcentury modern designers made chairs that looked like large hard-boiled eggs with a cutout for seating space.

“Antique mixing table” is what the auction catalog said. Meant to mix what? How did you use it? When was it made? Where did it belong in the house? An online search was no help.

“Figural bottles” are just what you would imagine — bottles shaped like living creatures or familiar objects. The earliest American clear glass figurals were made in the 1860s.

History repeats itself, and collectors who research their collections are often surprised by the findings. In 1892, a group of businessmen in Greentown, Indiana, invested in a company that was brought in by the newly found fuel — natural gas — that had been discovered there.

By 1861, when the Civil War started, there were already several ways to take a picture. The first photos of a war were taken during the Mexican-American fight from 1846 to 1848.

Home schooling and extra time spent with family because of coronavirus health rules has created a demand for maps, globes and more information about other countries. It is not difficult to figure out the probable age of a globe. The older the globe, the higher the price might be.

Vintage but modern-looking plastic radios are popular with collectors today. The art deco design was popular when Bakelite was introduced as the first molded plastic used for radio cases, in 1933.

Umbrellas were invented over 4,000 years ago in China. They were used for protection from sun, not rain. Umbrellas became fashionable in the 16th century, when women made use of umbrellas for sun and sometimes for rain.

Did you know someone invented a self-making bed? It requires special covers and sheets, but with the push of a button, they curl up into the “made” position. Quite an improvement from the first known bed, 77,000 years ago, when the whole family slept on one thick pile of plants.

This is not a bookshelf full of books. It is an antique tin box that held cookies, called biscuits, in England about 1905. Grocery stores in the past were very different. The use of automobiles, starting about 1910, changed the way folks shopped.