Weloveoldestuff

16/11/2023

Just stunning

25/04/2023

17/02/2023

This 2,000-year-old sapphire ring is thought to have belonged to Caligula, the notorious ancient Roman emperor that reigned in 37 A.D. The portrait carved into the sapphire is thought to be of Caligula’s last wife, Caesonia.

22/01/2023

7 minutes! Made popular in Victorian period France, candle boxes were most commonly used by prostitutes as a method for which to time their services.

A candle would be lit to signal the John that their time had begun, and once the candle had gone out, their time was up. Many ladies were known to trim the wax from their candles in an attempt to hurry their less favourable client…

14/12/2022

This is so cool. One of those dogs is flat out asleep!

Knife grinders in France circa 1902. They worked lying down to save their backs and had dogs sit on their legs for warmth.

20/09/2022

The Imperial State Crown in gold, platinum and silver. The interior is lined with a velvet hat hemmed with an ermine border.
The crown is adorned with 2868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 rubies including the Saint Edward sapphire, the no less famous Black Prince ruby (which is actually a spinel) as well as the Cullinan II diamond and the Stuarts' sapphire.
Photo: Royal Collection Trust

04/09/2022

lol…not for me!

09/05/2022

Lol and in todays world they don’t recommend burning candles for more than four hours. We’d all get to sleep in!

24/04/2022

Lest We Forget…

08/04/2022

Estimate, £2000-£3,000
Sold, £17,000!

From the Antiques Trade Gazette:
A good example of mid-19th century Company School art was eagerly contested at Roseberys’ sale of Antiquities, Indian & Islamic Art in London on April 1. This 10 x 9in (26 x 22cm) painting of a monkey c.1850 is based on a Mughal painting of the same subject.

The original, attributed to ‘the Stipple Master’ and dated to 1705-10, is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. According to an inscription on the reverse, the monkey was named Husaini and owned by Daud Khan Panni, a faujdar (military commander and territorial administrator) who served the Mughal emperors from Aurangzeb (1658-1707) to Farrukhsiyar (1713-19).

In this later version some details, such as the grass and rope from the monkey's neck, are removed in favour of a simplicity characteristic of the period. Such a striking and well painted image guided at £2000-3000 was always likely to sell over estimate. It sold at £17,000.

12/02/2022

Now you know a good housewarming gift!

29/01/2022

The Coffins of Arthur’s Seat

Arthur's Seat is a rocky peak which overlooks the historic Scottish capital of Edinburgh. It was on a summer’s day there in 1836 that a group of young boys made the discovery of 17 intricate miniature coffins made of wood and tin. Each contained a carved and clothed wooden figure. Approaching two centuries later and the origin and meaning of the Coffins of Arthur’s Seat remains a subject of bafflement and intrigue and arguably the most peculiar ancient discovery in Edinburgh’s long and storied history.

The find was first announced on July 16th, 1836, after a lengthy publication was released in The Scotsman. The boys had been hunting for rabbits on the mountain’s slopes and stumbled across a small cave blocked with slabs of stone. Having moved the stone, the boys uncovered 17 coffins, each just 3.7 inches in length. Every one housed a wide eyed figure with a painted face and dressed in stitched cotton attire and boots. Some of the figures had their arms removed. The Scotsman noted that some of the coffins were in a much worse state of decomposition than others, an indication that the process of leaving these mini-coffins in the cave may have been a continual one over time and not just a one-time thing.

“…facts indicated by the rotten and decayed state of the first tier of coffins and their wooden mummies, while the coffin last placed, and its shrouded tenant, are as clean and fresh as if only a few days had elapsed since their entombment."
The Scotsman, July of 1836

The find caused a great murmur of excitement. Some theories were plausible and serious and for which rational evidence existed. But these were more than offset by the outlandish and supernatural suggestions that enthralled the inhabitants of a 19th century Edinburgh still deeply mired in superstition leanings. With Edinburgh’s long association with witches and burnings at the stake in Edinburgh Castle many cried witchcraft, while others surmised it to be a dark ritualistic offering to Satan himself. Another hunch was that they were the result of an ancient Saxon custom where effigies are buried in a surrogate commemoration of “departed friends who died in a distant land.” A further suggestion is that they mark the death of sailors lost at sea, left there by grieving widows.

But a theory emerged in 1994 that now probably persists above all others; the dolls were closely associated with Edinburgh’s infamous serial killing duo of William Burke and William Hare. Burke and Hare were involved in a dark underground cadaver trade in early 1800’s Edinburgh. They began their began their murderous career almost by accident, when an elderly tenant of Hare’s boarding house in the West Port died, owing him money. To recoup the losses, Burke and Hare sold the old man’s body to Dr Robert Knox, for use in his anatomy school in Surgeon’s Square. After killing multiple vagrants they then would lure people to an inn, murder them and for a sizeable fee deliver their still-warm co**se to the University of Edinburgh where it would be used for medical dissection and training by students. The exact number of Burke and Hare victims is often touted as being 17, which would tie in nicely, a coffin for every killing.

It was only a matter of time before the law caught up with them, and in November 1828, the murderous duo were arrested. Hare turned King’s witness and, granted immunity from prosecution, he sold his old friend down the river. At 8.30am on Christmas morning, 1828, Burke was charged with murder. On 28 January 1829, he was hanged in Edinburgh’s Lawnmarket before a crowd of thousands. The following day, his body was publicly dissected at the University of Edinburgh Medical School – the punishment fitting the crime indeed.

But not everyone buys the Burke and Hare theory. First and foremost, all the dolls are dressed as men. Burke and Hare indiscriminately killed men, women and children. Also, the figure's eyes are wide open, which would appear to contradict the appearance of a deceased person. Furthermore, they potentially pedate the timeline of the dastardly duo.

In 2014 there was a peculiar addition to the coffin’s lore. The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh which houses the Coffins of Arthur’s Seat received a box with no return address. Inside contained an exact replica of one of the coffins, exact down to the details on the coffin’s lid. Contained with the mystery offering was a handwritten note thanking the museum for "caring for the coffins". The note began with the Roman numerals "XVIII". It was a likely nod to it being the 18th coffin as well another layer of intrigue to add to the mystery...

18/11/2021

How to put a dress on in 1860!
One of the fashion trends of the 19th century Victorian Era that stirred lady fashionistas was the so-called “Crinolinemania,” a craze that referred to the fashion obsession with the Crinoline, a stiffened underskirt made using horsehair and linen or cotton, invented in the early 1840s.

24/10/2021

This was used for teaching midwifery by Madame Du Coudray who. spent 25 years travelling the towns and cities of France, teaching her methods and selling her mannequins during the 1700’s.

In 1759, Coudray met King Louis XV who asked her to teach midwifery to peasant women in the rural areas in an attempt to reduce infant mortality. Between 1760 and 1783, she traveled all over rural France, sharing her extensive knowledge with poor women. During this time, she is estimated to have taught in over forty French cities and rural towns and to have directly trained 4,000 students, and more than 500 male surgeons and physicians.

To aid in her teaching of rural midwives, Coudray created a life-sized obstetrical manikin she called “the machine”. The manikin was a model of the lower body of a female made of fabric, leather, and stuffing, and on occasion, real human bones to form the torso. Various strings and straps serve to simulate the stretching of the birth canal and perineum, to demonstrate the process of childbirth. The head of the infant mannequin has a shaped nose, stitched ears, hair drawn with ink, and an open mouth and tongue. The machine was so detailed and accurate that the Academy of Surgery approved it as a suitable model for childbirth practice.

The only surviving example of the womb mannequin, is on display in the Museum of Flaubert and the History of Medicine, in Rouen.

13/08/2021

Ewwww. And I already have an aversion to the dentist! :)

A brown velvet hat that belonged to a street "dentist" or travelling tooth puller in London in the 1820s-50s. It is decorated with 88 decayed human teeth from his former patients, each drilled with a hole and attached with twine. ⁣⁣
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In the days before anaesthetic, this cap was meant to reassure potential clients that the dentist had "magician-like" skills, and could magically remove your rotten tooth without pain or infection. ⁣
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He couldn't. Despite his magical tooth hat, the procedure would hurt like bloody screaming hell as he yanked your decaying molar out of your mouth with his rusty germ-infested tools. But at least you could take a little comfort in the fact that your dentist looked GREAT.⁣⁣
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From the Cuming Collection of the Southwark Heritage Archives, London, UK. ⁣⁣

19/07/2021

Thinking about a glass of red? What about this! A rare bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange has sold for a record $122,001 making it the highest price ever paid at auction for a bottle of Australian wine.

The signed bottle by creator and Penfolds chief winemaker at the time Max Schubert, sold in just two bids in an online auction yesterday.

The re-corked bottle in 1988, because the original cork had perished, is listed as having minor label damage with a wax stamped seal now over the original white foil capsule.

Today, a bottle of Penfolds Grange starts at $900, but the older and rarer stock fetches significantly more.

11/06/2021

Well! Who knew... might try it 😉

08/06/2021

To be clear...

To avoid any confusion: Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit has no association with other antique publications in Australia. Christine Carter is not working with, nor associated in any way with Antiques to Vintage Magazine.

24/05/2021

February 1504 Christopher Columbus was on his fourth voyage. The previous June, his fleet had been caught in a storm and nearly wrecked off the coast of Cuba. It was all he could do to limp into what is now St Ann’s Bay in Jamaica – and he had been there ever since.

When Columbus realised that there would be a total lunar eclipse on 29 February 1504, he knew exactly what to do. A few days prior, he met with the Arawak chief. By refusing to feed his men, Columbus said, the natives had made his God angry, and he could prove it. His God would project his wrath onto the moon, turning it the colour of blood.

Three days later, when the full moon rose it was not an iridescent pearl, but a fiery crimson orb. The Arawaks were panic stricken and sprinted to Columbus’s ship to beg that he intercede on their behalf. Columbus, the story goes, said that he had to retire to his cabin to pray. Once alone, he used his hourglass to time the eclipse, emerging only when it was at its peak – a point that astronomers describe as totality.
Columbus told the expectant throng that he had – with no small degree of difficulty – appeased his God on their behalf. And of course, now that totality had passed, the moon slowlyreturned to normal.

The Arawaks began bringing Columbus and his men food again after that, and they continued to do so until he rescued on 29 June. They had been stranded for just over a year.