Learn about antiques and collectables...
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Learn about and understand the items, manufacturers, designers and periods as well as the specialist terms used in describing antiques and collectables. Either click one of the letters below to list the items beginning with that letter, or click on a category on the left side of the screen to list the items under that category.
Canes
Canes
From around 1550 to 1930, canes were a dressing accessory without which a lady or gentleman, properly dressed, would never leave the house. However their use went out of fashion after this, leaving the market to collectors.
For a collector, the main interest lies in the handle, which could be made of wood, bamboo, ebony, ivory, tusk, animal horn, or bone. Sometimes they were made out of porcelain, Bakelite, gold, silver, or glass; enameled or cloisonnéd; or sprinkled with precious gemstones. The height of good taste was a gold handle with minmal decoration, as silver handles were despised by the wealthier classes. However silver handled canes have survived in large numbers, and exhibit a wide variety of decorative treatment, from the comparatively plain, armorial or regimental style to the more flamboyant excesses of Art Nouveau.
Carved handles can be found depicting grotesque animal or human forms, and are highly prized nowadays. Also keenly sought are multi-purpose canes, with a concealed spirit flask, tobacco pipe or even a tiny fire-arm for personal safety.
Cartier
Cartier is a luxury goods manufacturer founded in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier in Paris, France. The company began as a jewelry workshop and soon gained a reputation for producing high-quality, innovative designs. In the late 1800s, Cartier began to expand its product line to include watches and other luxury goods.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Cartier became known for its Art Deco designs and its use of precious materials such as gold and diamonds. The company also began to produce a wide variety of luxury goods, including pens, lighters, and cigarette cases. In 1917, the company was sold to the jeweller Alfred Cartier, Louis-Francois' son, who further developed the brand.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Cartier continued to be a major player in the luxury goods market, and it began to develop its own line of perfumes and accessories.
In 1972, the company was acquired by a consortium led by Joseph Kanoui, who helped to expand the company's presence in Asia and the Middle East.
Today, Cartier is a subsidiary of the Richemont group and it continues to produce a wide range of luxury goods, including watches, jewelry, and leather goods. It is known for its high-quality craftsmanship, distinctive design, and iconic brand.
Chanel, Coco
Coco Chanel (1883 – 1971) opened a millinery shop in Paris in 1909 and went on to launch her own couture houses in Paris, Deauville and Biarritz. From humble origins, she became one of the greatest icons of fashion in the 20th century.
The creator of the little black dress and Chanel No. 5, Chanel pioneered a new style of women’s clothes, combining simplicity and comfort with elegance, to create an unmistakable style which had a great influence over the fashions of the 1920s and 30s.
Her innovations in costume jewellery were introduced through her Paris salon, where she opened a boutique specializing in accessories and jewellery.
Instead of copying the style of fine jewellery, her costume jewellery was designed specifically to reflect the elegant simplicity of her clothes and to compliment and ‘finish’ an outfit.
The simple but effective use of multiple strings of faux pearls with a black pullover epitomises this style. Other key pieces for Chanel include gold tone chains, pate-de-verre jewellery from Maison Gripoix and classic Maltese cross cuffs designed by Verdura.
Chanel closed her business when she was exiled to Switzerland during World War II, following her affair with a Nazi officer.
She re-invented the Chanel brand throughout the 1950s and into 1960s, working with designer Robert Goossens, producing long, rosary style necklaces, with chains of pearls and beads, and Maltese cross brooches decorated with glass cabochons in her signature colours of red and green.
In the mid 1950s the House of Chanel introduced leather handbags with metal and leather chains, which allowed carrying the handbag from the shoulder or in hand, and later, quilted-leather handbags.
After the death of Coco Chanel in 1971, control of the company passed to the Wertheimer family who had been shareholders and partners in the business since the late 1920s.
In the 1990s the company diversified into other luxury goods, including watches, sunglasses, all types of clutches and bags, and affordable jewellery.
As of the present time, Chanel S.A., known as the House of Chanel, is a French private company, that remains in the ownership of billionaires Gerard and Alain Wertheimer.
Chatelaine
Originating in the 17th century as a device for suspending seals, by the late 18th century the chatelaine had evolved to become a major item of jewellery, worn from the waist, to which a variety of small implements, cases, and containers could be attached.
It took the form of a metal shield or plate fitted with a hook at the top to attach it to a belt, with a number of hooks at the bottom from which hung a number of short chains.
The objects attached to those chains covered the full gamut of household and personal activities and depending on the station of the wearer, could typically include about 4 to 6 from the following selection: sewing scissors, a scent bottle, keys, a spectacles case, a seal, a sovereign case, a vinaigrette, a vesta case, a pin holder, a snuff bottle, a tape measure, a thimble and a notebook.
Again depending on the station of the wearer , materials used included gold, sterling silver and silverplate.
Nowadays it is common for single items from the chatelaine to come onto the market.
Dressing Table Accessories
Many collectable items from the late Victorian and Edwardian periods are associated with the dressing-table. Jars in glass or porcelain, often highly decorative, were produced at this time for face powder, with silver mounts decorated in Art Nouveau styles. Glass trays in matching sets accommodated hairpins (themselves widely differing in decorative treatment), trinkets and rings. Matching sets of brushes and hand mirrors may be found with silver, electroplate or enamelled backs in contemporary motifs. A wide variety of perfume bottles were made, including by such luminaries as Lalique, Daum and Galle.
Dunhill, Alfred Ltd.
Alfred Dunhill Ltd was founded in London in 1893 as a motoring accessories business.
In the 1900s, the company expanded into luxury tobacco goods. As cigarette smoking took off in the 1920s and ’30s, Dunhill became one of the most famous names in the field, opening shops in Paris, New York and Toronto and expanding into menswear, toiletries and other areas, but it is with smoking accessories that the firm is most notably associated.
Dunhill was particularly known for lighters, most famously the Unique lighter, launched in the early 1920s with the slogan ‘The lighter that changed public opinion’. Coming in various designs, the Unique could be operated with one hand; its design lessened the risk of petrol evaporation and it rarely needed filling. Dunhill also developed the first butane gas powered lighter.
Dunhill began manufacturing cigarettes in 1963. In 1967, Carreras Tobacco Company acquired a 51% interest in the company, and the company is currently owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, a Swiss based luxury goods manufacturer whose brands include Baume & Mercier (watches) Cartier (jewellery and watches) IWC (watches), Montblanc (pens), Piaget (watches and jewellery)
Alfred Dunhill have retail emporiums for men in the major cities of London, Shanghai and Tokyo, and Hong Kong, referred to as the 'Homes of Alfred Dunhill'. As well being a retail outlet for Dunhill goods, these 'Homes' offer a range of services including a bespoke tailoring service, barber’s shop, fine wine cellars, bar or restaurant, screening room, and spa.
Dunhill's current product range includes men's luxury leather goods, writing implements, lighters, timepieces, fragrances and clothing.
Factice
In the nineteenth century a lady possessed her own scent bottle which was refilled by the pharmacist or perfumier as required.
With the advent of perfume being sold in bottles produced by the manufacturers, there arose the need to market the product, and thus a marketing version of each scent bottle was required. These bottles are known as factices, and they are generally loaned to the store by the manufacturer for display, and then returned.
They are usually replicas of the product they represent, but in many cases are 10 or 20 times larger so they catch the eye of the customer.
A factice is not usually filled with perfume but with a substitute such as coloured water.
Fans
Fans were first used in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Many of the more intricate ones carried concealed knives or stilettos, as it was often dangerous to walk alone after nightfall or in a dark alley, especially in Renaissance Italy. Fans were of course functional, serving to keep off flies, shield one from the heat of a fire, or create a current of fresh air. Gradually, fans became an almost essential accessory for the fashionable, and no skill or expense was spared in their design and manufacture.
At the beginning of the 19th century, fans were considered an indispensable dress accessory for ladies attending balls and other functions. Three major types of fan were in use at that time.
Folding fans, the most common, consisted of leaves mounted on sticks which were joined at the foot. Paper was used in the cheaper fans, but parchment, made from the skin of young turkeys or silk were preferred in the more expensive varieties. The leaves were richly gilded and painted, often with Neo-classical motifs and scenery spreading across the leaves, so that they presented a panoramic effect when the fan was fully-extended. Some were made of lace, allowing the lacemakers of France, Brussels and Nottingham to display their skills, The ribs and guards were made of exotic woods or ivory, embellished with tortoiseshell, silver or gold mountings. Mother-of-pearl and boulle inlays were fashionable, and semi-precious stones and pearls were also favoured, especially in fans decorated in the Art Nouveau style.
The brise fan, in which the leaves were replaced by broad-bladed sticks held in place by a ribbon threaded through slots at the broad end, was also popular at this time, and the broader surface of the sticks afforded greater scope for Art Nouveau decoration.
The fashion for all things oriental included Japonaiserie open fans with broad leaves of parchment painted in oriental styles.
Because of their fragile nature, fans are often damaged: the fabric or other material has started to rot, the tassels are missing, or the ivory or shell is cracked.
Hat Pins
Hat pins, usually from 10 to 30 cm long, were in use from about 1880s to the 1920s to anchor ladies' hats to their hair. For collectors, the interest lies in the heads. As to the pin, values are enhanced if the pin was made of silver and gold rather than steel. Other technical innovations also add value, such as swivel joints and point-protectors. Heads varied from plain glass to jewels, wood to porcelain, and there were novelty hat-pins which incorporated peep-scopes with scenic views and hat-pins where the head was a huge lightweight sphere.
Opalescent / Opaline
The descriptions of glass as "opalescent" or "opaline" are often used interchangeably by dealers and auction houses. At the upper end of the scale, opalescent / opaline glass can refer to the opal-like milky blue glass produced by Lalique and Etling. It also refers to the pressed glass mass produced in Britain from the 1840s with a milky white edge as sugar-basins, milk jugs and vases were made in great quantities for the mass market, and were sold at fairs along with Staffordshire figures and wooden dolls. A less common type of opalescent glass was made from two layers of glass blown into a mould.
Paisley Pattern
The Paisley motif is a decorative design element that originated in Persia (modern-day Iran) and became popular in the West during the 18th and 19th centuries. It is characterized by a teardrop-shaped or leaf-like design with a curved upper end and a tapered, pointed lower end.
In rugs and textiles, the Paisley motif is often used as a repeating pattern or border, and is typically woven or printed in contrasting colours to create a bold and vibrant look. The motif can vary in size and complexity, from small and simple designs to larger, more intricate patterns.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, shawls woven with Paisley motifs were highly prized luxury items, and were exported from Persia and India to Europe and America. The motif also became popular in the design of carpets, upholstery fabrics, and clothing.
Parasols
Parasols were used by the ancient Sumerians as long ago as 3000 BC and they have been made ever since. However they did not come into use in Europe until the 16th century.
Accepted terminology is that a parasol is designed to protect the user from sunlight, while an umbrella protects the user from rain. Thus the fabric from which a parasol is made is usually not waterproof, and often of much lighter fabric than an umbrella, such as silk, cotton, nylon, gingham and lace, with ivory or wooden shafts.
Victorian era umbrellas had frames of wood or baleen, but these devices were expensive and hard to fold when wet. Englishman Samuel Fox invented the steel-ribbed umbrella in 1852, however metal ribs were known in use in umbrellas and parasols in France at the end of the eighteenth century.
Our grandmothers' parasols had a lot of use, on summer walks in the park, at the races, on or near the river.
It was apparently considered fashionable to have one's dress and parasol in matching material, with the result that the frame was continually being re-covered. Many of these nineteenth century parasols have perished or only the frames remain.
Pucci, Emilio
With his extremely brightly coloured geometric or wavy patterns, the designs of Italian nobleman, fashion designer and politician, Emilio Pucci (1914-1992) became iconic during the 1960s.
His instantly recognisable clothes are also immensely fashionable and wearable today and go through periods of popularity every few years.
As with many popular designs, there were copies, both contemporary and modern. Genuine pieces should include a ‘Emilio’ signature, denoting it is an authentic Pucci piece.
Scent Bottles
In the Victorian era scent bottles were often made of pressed glass, with silver or silver-plate rims and cut glass or imitation cut glass stoppers.
Generally, the customer purchased the bottle empty and had it filled by a chemist or perfumier, as ready filled bottles of perfume were not yet on the market.
The variety of shapes was enormous. The larger scent bottles were made in the shape of flagons or decanters. In the 1870s a new design was produced: the double ended bottle. This was a slim cylindrical bottle with a round or polygonal surface. Some were produced in clear glass, some coloured dark blue, red, green, or yellow, and some were decorated in the Nailsea style. At each end were silver or plated caps, which were heavily chased or moulded. One half of the bottle was for scent and usually had a screw cap, while the other end was hinged, often spring loaded for fast access, and was for smelling salts.
Some bottles hinged in the middle, and when you opened them there was the grating of a vinaigrette on one side and on the other a recess with a glass-covered photograph. The outer ends had normal hinge- or screw-caps so that either part of the bottle could be filled with scent.
The production of scent bottles continued into the twentieth century, though it became more customary to buy scent in ready-filled bottles from cosmetic houses. These 'package' bottles in themselves have become the object of much decorative skill, and no doubt in the not-too-distant future they will be sought after by collectors.
Some manufacturers supplied scent bottles with rubber bulbs, which could be attached to the top of the bottle to produce a fine spray of scent. Although some types of scent bottle can be expensive, there are still many examples available at a reasonable price.
Stourbridge
Stourbridge in Worcestershire was an important glass-making centre from the 17th century, but production declined from 1745 with the introduction of the Glass Excise Acts which raised the price of raw materials for the English glass makers. The glass tax was abolished in 1845,
enabling the factories to compete with the long-established glassworks of Bohemia, many of the products of which were copied by the English manufacturers. Products included vases, scent-bottles, candle-sticks, plates, drinking vessels, and paper-weights, as well as large exotic one-offs reflecting the interest in the past, and prestige pieces, such as cameo glass. Manufacturers based in Stourbridge included Thomas Webb & Sons, Stevens & Williams and H. G. Richardson & Sons.
Walking Sticks
A walking stick was an integral part of every well dressed man's wardrobe in the nineteenth century, and his collection of walking-sticks were probably kept just inside the hall in a stand, sharing space with umbrellas.
Walking-sticks and canes derive from the cudgels and staves carried for defence, evolving into dress accessories topped with silver or ivory, with a ferrule at the point to cut down wear. Many had elaborately carved heads. Sometimes these unscrewed to reveal space for a snuff box or other article. About 200 ancillary accessories are known to have been incorporated into walking sticks, the best known being the sword. Sword sticks date back to the sixteenth century, and often the sword just slides out with the stick acting as a sheath. Other sword and knife designs had a spring mechanism and would release on the press of a button or lever.
Other sticks pull apart, revealing a dagger with a handle for the left hand, and a stick with a blade for the right hand. Two steel blades sliding into the shaft from each end probably represent duelling weapons. The poacher's gun was a simple weapon in the shape of a walking stick; more sophisticated was a six-barrelled revolver, exposed by pressure on a trigger-spring that expelled part of the cane, and which had a dagger in the centre of the barrels.
Most extravagant was the machine-gun in a rectangular cane. "The kit", as it was 'known, was a pocket violin; this was developed into a violin fitted into a cane with a two-inch (5cm) diameter. Other canes contained music-boxes, harmonicas, flutes, piccolos, pipes (including opium pipes), vesta boxes, cigarette holders, candles, battery torches (dating from as early as 1882), contraceptives, poison, and a whole tribe of canes known as working companions (scalpels for doctors, small spades for botanists, safety lamps for miners). Among the most curious is the voyeur's cane with a mirror above the ferrule enabling the user to look up women's skirts.