What's the oldest thing you own?

[OctaviaTriangle]

For me ... nothing too ancient really

A coin from 1860

A headmasters school log from 1850

A Victorian Bon Bon dish which is about 120 years old

A few other Victorian bits and pieces.

You?

A big case full of my GGM’s books - late 1800s
An original Monopoly set, 1930s
My MIL’s school protractor 1940s

I've got a couple of Roman coins.

Viking age stone spindle whorl.

A copy of the Daily Graphic special edition from April 20 1912, about the sinking of The Titanic.

Probably my house (1880s).

I have a brick from a now demolished building that was built in 1900. Kept for sentimental reasons.

Late DMIL's button tin (a biscuit tin dating from the 1920s).

I have a couple of fossils etc, but the oldest man made thing is a stone axe head. I found it in a stream as a kid, at a site where there is evidence of bronze & iron age activity. My parents were sceptical & took it to a museum, but it's real.

Oldest man made things is a neolithic flint scraper found by DH in the garden. I've also got some Anglo Saxon daub from a dig I worked at (count, weigh, dispose - I didn't nick it!).

Oldest furniture is a Victorian wind out dining table from the 1870s. Super handy and used everyday.

I have a pair of red wellies. I have kept a diary since I was about 12 and I was recently reading it and it said mum bought me some red wellies. I was 15 which is nothing major except I’ll be 60 at Christmas.

A beautiful, frosted glass cake stand that belonged to my maternal grandmother’s mother.
Not sure exactly how old it is, but it survived the Krakòw ghetto and made it all the way to England unscathed! It was passed onto me a few years ago when my grandmother sold her house

My house. 1842.

Bit of a stone tool, the site was pre-Neanderthal so around 250,000 years ago (it’s a really small flake I was given permission to keep as not found in context with any of the main areas)
A book from 1720 which is in a right old state sadly.
I have a few chunks or Roman and medieval pottery.
I have a cabinet that was my great grandmother’s from about the 1850.
I’d love the newspaper about the Titanic!

There's an olive tree on my land which is estimated to be 2,500 years old (and still fruiting).

And I've got a Levis sweatshirt that's 41 years old which I still wear.

@NiceGerbil my DH and I use that sketch so much
If ever a character says anything similar or someone in the news we always add “which was nice”
“So the ring turned out to be a massive diamond, not paste”
“Which was nice”
Sad old gits we are!

My favourite old thing is a bracelet my dad bought home from Egypt after WW2 . He was in the airforce, it’s made from a bomb clip Didn’t find this out till about 10 years ago ! It’s aluminium and looks new despite being worn by mum then me most days .

We have a couple of books that are almost 100 years old but we also have a coffee grinder that DHs great Uncle brought as a present for his Grandmas family when he first met then when he was dating his a Great Aunt. It’s from 1922 and still works, although we dont use it.

I have an ammonite fossil somewhere.
My oldest man-made thing is a little clay jug from Palestine, supposedly from the 4th century BC. I also have a tiny coin (that’s in poor condition), from a similar place and time. It’s called a “Widow’s Mite”.

My house was built in the 1890s but I'm more proud of my still working 25 year old microwave

I have some fossils I found on a beach and a necklace made of large amber beads .... do they count?

A Dresden vase which my ancestors brought with them from Germany to the UK in the 1850's.

My GM's wicker shopping basket from about 1910. We used to keep newspapers in it, but it started to get rather battered so it now sits in spendour in the loft.

Some coprolite which exited a dinosaur's bottom way back when.

A piece of early medieval terracotta roof tile, which I found on the local playing field after river floodwaters receded about 15 years ago.

A fish slice from the 1950's which is in frequent use, together with a knife sharpener, an egg slicing contraption and various other kitchenalia from that era which all used to belong to DM.

Likewise a set of aluminium saucepans (wartime issue) and a colander given to my parents when they married in 1941.

My first 'proper' shoes that DM kept, and which I only discovered after her death.

DM's school cookery exercise book from around 1935.

A musical instrument dated 17xx (the ink has faded on the last 2 numbers). Still playable but it needs repairs that will cost more than its value.

Aside from fossils and rocks (DD1 is a Geologist) we have an Egyptian mummy bracelet, a Roman letter E belt buckle and a Ming Dynasty Jade bracelet.

Next oldest is my bureau circa 1850.

He’s the oldest thing in our house, I think about 1760s. Bought at antique fair years ago, very cheap because he’d been broken and repaired so many times! But I loved that face.

I've got a beautiful Japanese hanging wall hanging of Shodo ( Japanese calligraphy) that I was given by a Japanese student in 1999 when I was living in Japan. She had painted it when she was young and must have been in her 70s when she gave it to me.

It reminds me of the class of Japanese pensioners i taught for the two years I was there and how amazing they were. I was 26 at the time and they were so much fun

I love it, it's very special to me.

My great grandmother's engagement ring. Not sure when exactly it dates to. The late 1910s or early 1920s I would imagine.

I also have an ammonite fossil on my bookshelf - but I guess that doesn't really count.

My favourite "artefact" is a porcelain baby in a rocking cradle from the 1950s. Possibly bought to commemorate my father's birth (or his late brother who died as a baby, I'm not sure). It isn't really to my taste, but I love it because it obviously meant a lot to my grandparents. They had it on their window sill for many years. I have it on my window sill now.

My Dh