Treasures Hiding in Plain Sight
I cannot quite explain my fascination with old things. I just know that I love them.
I love period dramas. The outfits, the customs, the décor, the art, the treasures and the gardens. Sometimes my attention wanders away from the characters entirely. I am looking at the bowl on the table, the painting behind someone’s shoulder or the garden beyond the window.
Perhaps it is no surprise then, that I find myself drawn to objects that offer a little connection to those worlds.
Some pieces take me to a place of remembrance, (though not all from the same timeline). Moments of joy and happiness, family and celebrations.
Oval meat platters bring large family luncheons and festive celebrations to mind, not necessarily my own. My fascination and love of glass jars are directly linked to the endless jams and preserves in my grandmother’s pantry as a kid, and indeed in my own space as I grew older.
Roses, Lemon Verbena and Orchids remind me of my grandmother's garden. Cultivated land filled with vegetables and alternated with fruit and nut trees, remind me of the farm we lived on, as does the endless array of tropical plants and flowers and an extensive selection of the Protea genus.
Other connections feel entirely my own: like the baking I love with sourdough and foraged seeds and grains and my personal connection to plants and nature.
I took art as a subject at school, I have always loved drawing and decorating with vibrant colours. Of the many things I have done in my life, pottery is still on my wishlist as one of those not yet reached. My link into my own creative creations is part of why I look so closely at what another person has made.
My taste is not simply a reflection of where my family came from. It brings together memories, my own pleasures and desires and all the beautiful new things I have learned to notice along this vintage journey of mine.
I am also learning what others love. As I get to know my customers and their distinctive tastes, I sometimes come across a piece and immediately think of a particular person. Their interests give me another reason to pause, look closer and discover something I might otherwise have passed by. It is a reciprocal experience: as I share what I am learning, my customers introduce me to what they love, and we learn from one another.
But knowing that I love something and understanding what I am looking at are two different things.
The more I discover, the more questions I have. My dad used to say I drove the teachers mad with my endless questions to understand. Even at a very young age, I never accepted “because I said so”. To me, this reflected that the person was not able to convey what they understood, because maybe they did not know the real answers themselves.
So this brings us to the topic of todays blog...
When is something vintage? When does it become antique? What comes after antique, what are antiquities? And where do words such as Art Deco, Retro and Baroque fit into all of this?
There is a certain pleasure in asking these questions without pretending that I have always known the answers. Learning is part of the treasure hunt.
I am a scholar for life. I love learning, honestly. Whenever I have had the time, I have spent weekends studying subjects that interest me and completed diploma courses simply because I wanted to know more. I have quite a collection of those too! I cannot resist a book on plants, or the discovery that there is so much more to the world than meets the eye.
Perhaps that, too, is why I am driven to discover more: the sheer joy of learning.
The Words We Use
One useful distinction is that some words describe age, while others describe style. They can overlap, but they are not interchangeable.
Vintage generally describes objects from an earlier period, often at least twenty years old, with a recognisable connection to their era. There is no single age threshold used consistently across every collecting category. It helps to give the likely production decade or date alongside the word.
Antique generally means at least one hundred years old. That sounds straightforward until a piece’s estimated production range falls on both sides of that threshold. A date is sometimes a range, not a birthday.
Antiquities are objects from ancient cultures and civilisations. Their chronological boundaries vary by region and collecting context, rather than following one universal cut-off date. The word is not simply the next age category after antique. A three hundred year old object can be an antique without being an antiquity.
Retro is more about looking back. It describes an earlier style, or a later revival of it. A newly made object can therefore be retro without being vintage.
Art Deco? The easiest way for me to describe it is ‘very Great Gatsby’! Think bold geometry, stepped shapes, sunburst motifs and a sense of glamour. It became especially influential in the 1920s and 1930s, but its style has been revisited ever since. Like retro, an art deco look does not, on its own, tell us how old an object is.
A reproduction adds another distinction. It may faithfully echo a much older design, but the age of the design is not the age of the object in our hands. The same care is needed with prints: an old publication date reproduced beneath an image does not, on its own, establish when that particular impression was printed.
These distinctions do not take the wonder away. They help us understand what we are admiring.
For a handy reference to age, historical periods and decorative styles, explore The Collector’s Glossary: Age, Period & Style.
When the Word Describes a Style
Baroque is a historical style associated broadly with seventeenth and early eighteenth century European art, architecture and decorative design, with dates and expressions varying by place. It often brings drama, movement, rich ornament and grandeur to mind.
Rococo developed in eighteenth century Europe and is often associated with lighter, playful decoration, asymmetrical curves, scrolls, shells and delicate ornaments.
Victorian and Edwardian are period labels associated with the reigns of British monarchs: Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901, and King Edward VII, from 1901 to 1910. They are not single decorative styles.
Mid century points broadly to the middle decades of the twentieth century. Mid century modern is a more specific design description.
Hollywood Regency brings another kind of glamour: reflective surfaces, rich colour, gold-toned details and theatrical flourishes. My claret jug, catalogued to the 1960s–1970s, captures that spirit with its patterned glass body and ornate scrolling handle.
Farmhouse is different again. It is a decorating description rather than a precise age or a guarantee of where something was used.
That is why a single object might be vintage in age, farmhouse in its present styling and quite modern in the way it was manufactured.
Style Examples From My Catalogue
The dates below follow the catalogue’s researched dates or estimates. A style influence does not make a later object a period original.
Victorian Period: Victorian Gilt Floral Gallery Trays, Pair, catalogued to the late nineteenth century. Painted flowers, warm gilt decoration and raised oval rims bring the decorative side of Victorian domestic life into view.
Victorian, Working Life: Apothecary Pill Roller, catalogued circa 1870–1900, offers a glimpse behind the chemist’s counter. Its grooved brass plate and matching roller were used to shape and divide medicinal pills by hand, showing a practical side of the same era as the gilt floral trays.
Art Nouveau Influence: Solid Brass Tulip Picture Frame, catalogued as mid-century, origin unconfirmed. Raised tulips and flowing stems curve around its heart-shaped opening, showing the botanical lines of Art Nouveau in a later decorative piece.
Natural Forms in Ceramic Design: Ditmar-Urbach Fish Serving Platter, catalogued to the interwar period, offers another way of bringing nature into an everyday object. Its sculpted fins, curved outline and softly coloured details make the serving dish itself part of the decoration. Shown here as a natural-form comparison, it is not presented as a confirmed Art Nouveau design.
Mid-Century Modern Influence: Ken Collins Studio Pottery Pod Vase, South Africa, circa 1970s–1980s. Its rounded, low-slung form and contrasting black-and-white glaze offer an example of sculptural studio pottery suited to modernist interiors.
Mid-Century Modern, Italian Ceramics: Bitossi Rimini Blue Candle Holders, Pair, Italy, catalogued to the 1960s and the designs of Aldo Londi. Their turquoise glaze and incised geometric decoration offer a colourful Italian counterpart to the Ken Collins vase.
Art Deco, Ceramic Design: Shore & Coggins Bell China Tea Duos, Four, Staffordshire, England, 1936–1941. The angular handles with bold black accents make the Art Deco geometry easy to spot, alongside vivid yellow poppies and green pinstripes.
Art Deco-Era Glass: Davidson Jacobean Pattern Glass Pitcher, England, catalogued to the 1930s–1940s. Its moulded geometric panels offer a different expression of interwar tableware design beside the colourful tea duos.
Art Deco Influence, Pressed Glass: Jeannette Glass Dewdrop Pitcher, USA, catalogued to the 1950s. Its angular handle and alternating clear and textured vertical panels show how Art Deco-inspired geometry continued into mid-century everyday tableware.
Art Deco, Silver-Plated Tableware: Angora EPNS Dessert Service, Set of 16. The fan-shaped palmette motifs and reeded handle details described in the catalogue show how Art Deco decoration could carry through to the smaller objects on a dining table.
Art Deco, Colour and Chrome: Keystoneware Ruby Red Glass Coupes, Trio, catalogued to the 1930s. Their fluted ruby-red bowls and sleek chrome stems bring colour and a contrasting combination of materials to the Art Deco examples.
Hollywood Regency, Glamorous Tableware: Hollywood Regency Claret Jug, catalogued to the 1960s–1970s. Its patterned clear glass, reflective gold-toned mounts and ornate scrolling handle offer a different expression of glamour beside the ruby-and-chrome coupes. The historical-looking decoration does not make this later jug an antique.
Farmhouse / Cottage / Rustic: Cora Originale Carved Roosters, Pair, Italy, 1950s–1960s. Their bright red combs, coloured tail feathers and lively poses bring a country-kitchen character to farmhouse styling, without claiming that they once lived on a farm.
Farmhouse, Country Kitchen: T.G. Green Cornish Ware Blue Dreadnought Pitcher, England, catalogued to the 1930s–1960s. Its cobalt-blue bands and practical milk-and-water pitcher form offer another expression of country-kitchen styling beside the decorative roosters.
Learning to See
At first, I simply bought what I loved for myself, pieces I was drawn to for the personal joy and pleasure they brought me.
Mixing bowls are a good example. I love baking, and a beautiful old mixing bowl takes me straight to the farmhouse kitchen I would love to have.
The Joy in an Ordinary Bowl
Then there is the life an object may have had after its maker put it down. We may not know who owned it or what they made. Unless that history has been preserved, we cannot tell it as fact.
But I find myself imagining the possibilities. Cakes mixed for birthdays. Batter stirred on an ordinary afternoon. Puddings made for a family gathering. I like to think that something of the happiness can stay with an object.
And its useful life need not be finished. Another person can take it home and begin making memories of their own.
T.G. Green Cane & White Gripstand Mixing Bowl, England, circa 1940s–1950s.
That instinct has not disappeared. But the more I look, handle, compare and research, the more I notice.
A mark underneath. The way something has been finished. A detail that makes me pause and turn it over again.
Sometimes my first thought is simply, ‘Oh, this is very Bridgerton. I love it!’ That feeling draws me in; the research helps me understand what I have found.
And then I return from an auction, a market or another sourcing trip and discover that I have brought home something much, much older than I initially thought. At times, they are something older still.
I am blown away and in utter awe by it. There is no more elegant way to describe this feeling I have and hold. I am struck by what has survived, by what there is to learn, and by the fact that I noticed it at all.
It feels like an indication that I am honing my eye. Not that instinct replaces evidence, but that instinct increasingly tells me where to look.
Looking at Materials
Stoneware, Decorative Craft: Doulton Lambeth Protea Set, Catalogued to Eliza Simmance, circa 1891–1902. The jug and six cups show stoneware dressed for the table, with painted proteas and leaves that vary from vessel to vessel.
Stoneware, Everyday Utility: Buchan Buttercup Dairy Co Crock With Original Lid, Scotland, circa 1904–1912. Its substantial body, lug handles and fitted lid show the practical side of stoneware, while the dairy’s cow graphic gives an everyday storage vessel its own character.
Ceramic Tea Ware: Copeland Spode Chinese Rose Trio, catalogued September 1948. This ceramic tea trio illustrates the finer tableware side of the collection, with floral decoration and green edging.
Fine Bone China, Tea-Table Companions: Roslyn Pastel Pink Cream & Sugar Set, Staffordshire, England, catalogued to 1946–1963. The pink stippled finish and gilt scrolling described in the listing offer a different decorative treatment and serving form beside the Copeland trio.
Art Glass: Polish Amber Art Glass Vase, Catalogued as Makora Krosno, 1970s. Its flowing, open-sided silhouette makes the form itself part of the attraction.
Art Glass, Italian Design: Empoli Amethyst Compote Bowl, Italy, catalogued to the 1960s. Its hand-flared ruffled rim and amethyst colour offer another expression of decorative blown glass.
Pressed Glass: Federal Glass Sunflower Serving Platter, circa 1970s. Its repeated petal relief offers a contrast to the freely shaped art-glass example.
Pressed Glass, Pedestal Form: Anchor Hocking Fairfield Honey Gold Fluted Pedestal Vase, USA, catalogued to the 1960s. Its moulded vertical panels, scalloped rim and starburst foot show how pressed glass can combine pattern, colour and an elegant silhouette.
A Journey Back Through My Catalogue
That growing curiosity has made me want to look back through my own listed collection.
Not to claim that I began with a perfectly planned progression through the centuries. I certainly did not. I want to discover whether the catalogue reflects the change I feel in what catches my attention.
Did my earlier selections tend towards pieces a few decades old? When did older objects begin appearing more often? How far back can the collection take us?
For this journey, I began arranging pieces from my catalogue by their estimated age, from contemporary creations to objects reaching back through centuries. This is not the order in which I found them, but a way of exploring how far back my collection can take us.
And then something unexpected happened.
The timeline didn’t stop at vintage. It didn’t stop at antique. It didn’t stop at three hundred years.
It kept going.
Age Timeline
From 1998, back through the 1970s, circa 1935 and circa 1900, the journey continued into the nineteenth century, then to 1797, circa 1715–1725 and circa 1672.
And then came two pieces that changed everything.
The Leap into Antiquity
Two objects I found through auction sourcing, a blown-glass unguentarium and a small terracotta juglet, took my research in an entirely new direction.
Holding them felt different. Not heavier, but quieter. As if the centuries had settled into the surface.
They may be the oldest objects I have ever held. That possibility alone has opened a new chapter in what I want to understand.
The ages below are approximate, based on catalogued or estimated production dates and using 2026 as the reference year, not when I bought or listed each piece.
Under 20 Years
Contemporary
Sgraffito Starburst Charcoal Stoneware Pots, Pair
Catalogued circa 2010s–2020s; contemporary studio pottery.
20–49 Years
Late-Twentieth-Century Art
Nikki Swan Ethnic Rock Art Collection (1998)
Created in 1998, approximately 28 years before this 2026 timeline.
50–79 Years (Date Range Overlaps)
Vintage Brazilian Op Art
Abraham Palatnik Op Art Owl Sculpture
Catalogued to the 1970s, approximately 47–56 years old in 2026. Its estimated date range crosses the 50-year boundary, so it may fall in either this band or the preceding one; no exact production year is established.
80–99 Years
Approaching Antique Status
Maling “Clematis” Lustreware Centre Bowl
Catalogued circa 1935, approximately 91 years old in 2026; the date remains an estimate.
100–150 Years
Early-Twentieth-Century Jewellery
Red Branch Coral Statement Necklace
Catalogued circa 1900, approximately 126 years old in 2026. The necklace date is an estimate for the jewellery piece, not the biological age of the coral or a separate date for its clasp or stringing.
151–199 Years (Date Range Overlaps)
Nineteenth-Century Antique
Dutch Colonial Indo-Portuguese Dome-Top Document Box
Catalogued circa 1850–1880, approximately 146–176 years old in 2026. Its estimated date range crosses the boundary between this band and the preceding one.
200–299 Years
Late-Eighteenth-Century Print
Robert Dodd Maritime Aquatint, Catalogued 1797
Catalogued as an original November 1797 impression, approximately 229 years before this timeline. This refers to the print, not its later frame.
301–349 Years
Early-Eighteenth-Century Engraving
Colen Campbell “Blenheim Palace”, Vitruvius Britannicus
Catalogued circa 1715–1725, approximately 301–311 years old in 2026. These dates refer to the print, not its subject or later frame.
350–399 Years
Seventeenth-Century Engraving
Pietro Santi Bartoli “Trajan’s Column” Plate 52
Attributed to circa 1672, approximately 354 years old in 2026 if that dating of the impression is correct. This refers to the print, not its subject or later frame.
400–499 Years
Earlier Centuries
No listed example identified for this age band.
This journey reflects the researched pieces currently identified in my shop; unlisted treasures may yet bring further discoveries.
500–999 Years
Earlier Centuries; Period Depends on Place
No listed example identified for this age band.
This journey reflects the researched pieces currently identified in my shop; unlisted treasures may yet bring further discoveries.
Approximately 1,700–2,000 Years
Roman Antiquity; Researched Attribution
Attributed Roman, circa first–third centuries AD. Approximately 1,700–2,000 years is a rounded range based on that proposed dating, using 2026 as the reference year. Attribution draws on typology and comparisons with museum examples, not independent academic authentication.
Approximately 1,700–2,000 Years
Roman Antiquity; Researched Attribution
Attributed Roman, circa first–third centuries AD. Approximately 1,700–2,000 years is a rounded range based on that proposed dating, using 2026 as the reference year. Attribution draws on typology and comparisons with museum examples, not independent academic authentication. The two vessels share a broad estimated date range; their order here does not establish which is older.
Was Everything Better Before?
People often say that life was easier in the past.
I am not convinced that loving old things requires us to believe that. Every generation has had its difficulties, and distance can soften the picture.
I can admire a period room without wishing to inherit every reality of the period.
What I do recognise in certain older pieces is quality I can examine: thoughtful construction, careful finishing, materials suited to their purpose and details that still reward attention.
Surviving for decades does not make every object a masterpiece. But when a well made piece has remained useful and beautiful through years of handling, I want to stop and understand it.
I am drawn to a more attentive relationship with the things we choose to live with.
The Person Behind the Piece
With some pieces, the connection feels immediate.
When I touch them, I feel what I can only describe as energy, the maker’s joy, the moment they stood back and thought, “I’ve done well. I love it.”
I felt this directly in Chris Patton’s dragonfly charger.
The care is not only something I can see. Sometimes, I feel it.
I felt it in Chris Patton’s dragonfly charger, and I feel it in the Bitossi pieces too. To me, the energy is palpable: the love of creating, the joy in colour and form, the magic of making something beautiful.
I cannot know exactly what the maker felt. But that is how these pieces speak to me, and why the connection feels so personal.
The feeling of experiencing the emotions in pieces is what I refer to as having soul.
The Work of a Curator
There are different ways to work in this industry. Some businesses are built around quick turnover. Mine is not.
I want to identify a treasure, dedicate time to discovering what I can about it, and help it find the right person.
Research is part of that work. So is knowing when an attribution remains uncertain, when a date needs qualification and when a question has not yet been answered.
As is paying attention to the detail, both the visible and the hidden.
I notice something, spend time with it and try to understand what makes it worth another look. Then I share what I have learned so that someone else has the opportunity to see it too.
That is how I choose to earn my living: by doing what I love and giving something back through the knowledge and research I share. Not everyone who visits will buy a piece, but they may leave having discovered something new.
This Week’s Lesson
All around us, remarkable treasures carrying pieces of history are hiding in plain sight. The more I learn, the more I realise how much simply goes unnoticed.
These treasures are not always announcing themselves. Sometimes they are sitting quietly among other things, waiting for someone to turn them over, look more closely or ask another question.
Perhaps what I offer is not simply something old.
It is the opportunity to notice, to care, and to begin another chapter with something that still has so much to give.
The treasures are all around us, hiding in plain sight.
If this perspective resonates with you, like and share, subscribe to the Shift2ThriftVintage newsletter or connect with me on your favourite social platform through the links on my website. There is always more to discover and learn together. If you are searching for a particular piece, Request a Treasure is open for sourcing enquiries.
— Ina Lubbe, Purveyor of Vintage Treasure
Shift2ThriftVintage • Est. 2024 • Curated Vintage, South Africa • shift2thriftvintage.co.za
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