What's the oldest thing in your house?

When we got married on 1970 we could not afford new furniture, Habitat was very in fashion. So my FIL helped us go round some antique shops and we furnished our house. I still use most every day, but think the oldest is an oak plank blanket chest, which has clay pipe burns in the top, from around 1700. Have never regretted having old furniture it has stood up to family life really well.

We have 3 vegetable tureen type things that DH'S father remembered using at his grandmother's farm. FIL would have been 110 years old this year so I guess they are quite old. We also have a Georgian kneehole desk which was left behind in a house we bought.

A coffee set bought about 40 years ago from a seniors home for £3. The owner, an 84 year old told me she was given it as a present on her 25th birthday... it's hallmarked too so maybe a trip to The Antiques Road Show is in order

Hilltopgran Is it like this oak chest of mine, dated early 17th century? I love every mark and repair on it, someone really used it well!

I have an ammonite my MIL gave me - I can't recall why she did so!

My dh has a very old leather-covered telescope and a sword(!) that live in the attic. Also the wooden workbox his father made when he joined the RAF in 1925.

I have a special edition newspaper from S Africa circa 1895 and copies of photos from the same era. My mother has the originals. I also have some pieces from a delicate tea service but they are so fragile now that they shatter if you so much as look at them. I think they're late 1800's.

In common usage, I'm still using flannel cot sheets as under-sheets on my GC's beds. They belonged to my niece who is now 45yo!

Has nobody said "The old git" yet?

My paternal grandmother's watch, though I don't know for sure how old. The oldest dated things are First World War medals, my fathers Uncle was killed in 1914.

We have a 17th Century pickle fork.

A carving knife that was my grandmother's and I think great grandmother's.
It has a horn handle and the blade is worn narrow through being sharpened on the stone back step

I have a daguerreotype, which is from about 1850, as that's when they were made.
I know it's from Hull and am hoping that it was made by the female photographer who had a shop near where my great grandmother had her business.

other than the house itself which is not that old (1897) probably a set of dominoes and their box made by DH's great-grandad.

I have a little statue of Queen Victoria which was my Grandmother's. It has the date 1897 and the words "Original in possession of the Queen" on the back.

elegran
Could your fossil be a crinoid - relations of brittle stars and sea urchins?

A Roman stylus for writing on wax tablets that a friend picked up while mudlarking on the Thames.

I wondered that, oldgoat, but all the photos of crinoids I've seen are cylindrical. This is definitely polygonal (I think hexagonal but my memory could be wrong) I haven't found it yet but when I do I'll post a photo.

My house was built 1903 so is quite old. I have a display cabinet made by my great-grandfather which is late 19th century and some dishes from that era.

oldgoat I have found this picture www.charmouth.org/chcc/rocks-and-fossils/local-fossils/crinoids#!Crinoid_stem Mine is very like the one on the right, though perhaps the ridges are less pronounced. I found it at Whitby.
175 million years old.

My grandfather's Concordance was presented to him by his school, Wolverhampton Royal Orphanage, when he left in the 1880s. My grandmother's little brown jug she told me was her mother's, that might make it earlier than the book but I haven't had it dated.

I have fossils, but otherwise it is my grandmother's grandmother clock!

elegran
I used to have lots of star-shaped crinoid fragments which I found in dredgings from the River Severn. My cache has been plundered by children and grandchildren..

1679. Coins from the reign of Charles 11.

We have a Stone-age axe head, given to us when we were on holiday in South Africa. I think it's authentic.

Some pieces of Lewisian gneiss rock that is 3 billion+ yrs old.
Not exactly rare in Scotland but very old in Earth age times.

We have some Stone Age flint axe heads passed down by DH's grandfather, who was a collector. Most were given to a museum when we moved but we have kept a few good examples. Grandsons very impressed with these.

Yes Lona, very similar. I love mine as well and it has such a wonderful patina build up over the years, I have a drop leaf oak plank dining table as well, really useful when all the family visit.