And you’re still alive?! Amazing!
I have a hard copy of “Punch” from 1854. Also a Bible from 1863.
I have several letters written by my great great grandmother in the early 1920’s. A couple of photographs that are older still (one of my great grandfather circa 1904).
An ammonite fossil
An 1874 complete works of william shakespeare
Fossils excepted, probably an early edition of Huckleberry Finn from the 1870s-80s. Don’t have it with me at the moment, so I can’t look up the exact year.
[quote=“Johnny_L.A, post:2, topic:465523”]
An ammonite fossil, at least 65 million years old.
I have one of those and also a flint arrowhead
I have a commemorative John McCain coin from the year 3000 BC.
I have a student’s desk from the 1700s, beautiful wrought iron with wooden seat and writing surface, including an inkwell.
And I have a 1799 “draped bust” silver dollar.
And a wicker baby carriage, shaped like a swan, from sometime in the 1800s. I keep plants in it.
And quite a few old books.
Very nice.
Speaking of Civil War memorabilia, I have a copy of History of the Great Rebellion, which was written and published in 1865, only months after the end of the war. It’s a very cool book, with highly detailed accounts of nearly every battle, sometimes including the names of the individual soldiers! Unfortunately it’s starting to show its age: the pages are quite brittle (though in fine condition otherwise), and the binding is rather worm-eaten.
I probably have a few things that are a lot older, but none that are quite that interesting.
I think this thread would benefit if we limited the field to man-made objects. Any rock shop has cardboard boxes full of various fossiles, petrified wood etc., xx million years old. Artefacts of great age are another story.
My oldest man-made possession is a quartz core app. 8000 years old.
Johnny L.A. stole my answer but I have an ammonite ring that’s pretty old.
However, if we’re not talking about fossilized items I have a couple of vintage handbags going back to about 1900 as well as some shoes and jewelry.
A large silver cup (looks like a trophy cup) that has been in my family since George III’s reign.
Buncha stuff, among which:
an 1847 Old Farmer’s Almanac
daugerreotype of my great-great-great-grandparents and my great-great-grandmother as an infant, ca 1863
a handmade Swedish wall clock dated 1803 (I don’t technically own this; my mom has it but I would like to get it when the time comes)
several coins from the 17th and 18th centuries, oldest of which is from 1653
five letters home from a distant uncle (brother of the ggg-granddad mentioned above) written while in North Carolina fighting the Civil War. This set is kinda cool because I managed to actually dig up which regiment he fought in (the 16th CT) and found out he got captured and sent to Andersonville, which he survived; then to Florence SC (which he didn’t).
I’ve got a stone axe found by my grandfather in the same way as described here. It is at least 4000 years old. We’ve got thousands of these here in Denmark - most farms will have a cupboard somewhere full of these things. They are usually found during the annual plowings. A friend of mine has an impressive 2-foot long one found by his great-great-grandfather over a century ago.
Of man-made things, a family Bible from the late 16 or early 1700s (can’t remember and it is in another country). Of natural things, a piece of lava rock from a volcano in D.R. Congo which could be millions or billions of years old as it came from magma which has been here since the Earth formed.
I have a 1/2 dozen flint arrow heads picked up around on the family ranch
My house was built by my great grandparents in 1911
A school book called 'The history of Texas ’ copy writed in 1892
and a shed full of ‘younger’ stuff being stored while we remodel the house.
A book on programming micro-computers such as the APPLE II, BBC Computer, dating from 1982.
A van Dyck print from about 1640, and a Burgkmaier print (one of the Weisskoenig series) but I think it’s more recent than it would initially seem (I suspect it’s a 1700s impression). We also have a cheap pilgrim-souvenir type print of Daian-ji temple but I haven’t the foggiest when it’s from-- maybe just 19th century.
I carry an 1899 silver dollar with me all the time, and I’m really not sure why.
I have a grudge against my brother that I have had for 50 years.