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<p>[QUOTE="Shangas, post: 197459, member: 360"]Another big issue, if you want to make it one, is that of DATING items. Sometimes it's really easy to date something. Whistles, razors, watches, etc. You have serial-numbers, stamps or models that you can look up.</p><p><br /></p><p>But other things are just impossible to date. All you can do is look at it and go: "Yes that's old", or "No it's not". Asking for a specific date, even a specific ERA and getting an answer, is almost impossible. This is because some things are so generic, or because they made the same model or type or style for DECADES. Sometimes even centuries.</p><p><br /></p><p>It's not that people don't want to help - it's just that sometimes it's not possible to help.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'll give you an example.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have four antique telescopes in my collection of old optical equipment...</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0b/d4/7a/0bd47ac78bc2bb717b3db639a50d9494.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I know they're old. I can tell that just by looking at them and feeling them. But if you asked me which one was the oldest, I wouldn't be able to say. They made the exact same style for about 200-300 years! All four of these are assembled, and disassembled - exactly the same way.</p><p><br /></p><p>They all have draw-tubes with threaded couplings. They all have five lenses inside them. They all have two-piece lens-housings. They all have erector-lenses inside the barrels. They all have sliding shutters over the eyepieces and they all have accommodation for a brass lens-cap to protect the glass (only one of them still has its cap, though, as you can see in the photo). So dating them is not going to be easy. </p><p><br /></p><p>I date the two in the middle to AROUND 1890-1910. That's based on old advertisements I've found online. But I might be off by as much as 10 years either side. And there'd be no way to prove that either way, unless there's a maker's mark or a date engraved on them - which there isn't. The big one at the back was sold to me as being from the 1850s. I have no idea if that's true or not. Sometimes these things are just not possible to find out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Shangas, post: 197459, member: 360"]Another big issue, if you want to make it one, is that of DATING items. Sometimes it's really easy to date something. Whistles, razors, watches, etc. You have serial-numbers, stamps or models that you can look up. But other things are just impossible to date. All you can do is look at it and go: "Yes that's old", or "No it's not". Asking for a specific date, even a specific ERA and getting an answer, is almost impossible. This is because some things are so generic, or because they made the same model or type or style for DECADES. Sometimes even centuries. It's not that people don't want to help - it's just that sometimes it's not possible to help. I'll give you an example. I have four antique telescopes in my collection of old optical equipment... [IMG]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0b/d4/7a/0bd47ac78bc2bb717b3db639a50d9494.jpg[/IMG] I know they're old. I can tell that just by looking at them and feeling them. But if you asked me which one was the oldest, I wouldn't be able to say. They made the exact same style for about 200-300 years! All four of these are assembled, and disassembled - exactly the same way. They all have draw-tubes with threaded couplings. They all have five lenses inside them. They all have two-piece lens-housings. They all have erector-lenses inside the barrels. They all have sliding shutters over the eyepieces and they all have accommodation for a brass lens-cap to protect the glass (only one of them still has its cap, though, as you can see in the photo). So dating them is not going to be easy. I date the two in the middle to AROUND 1890-1910. That's based on old advertisements I've found online. But I might be off by as much as 10 years either side. And there'd be no way to prove that either way, unless there's a maker's mark or a date engraved on them - which there isn't. The big one at the back was sold to me as being from the 1850s. I have no idea if that's true or not. Sometimes these things are just not possible to find out.[/QUOTE]
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