Top 8 Signature Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Vintage hotel silver pieces come from the finest European hotels, restaurants, ocean liners and even the earliest passenger trains. This dealer, from Connecticut, travels all over the world to salvage these pieces when hotels fall on bad times. They were made to last, so they're usually in excellent condition. They can be used in everyday life as containers to hold flowers or herbs, or to use when entertaining to add a luxe touch. Matching sets of dishes, bowls and flatware are very hard to find, but if you see a great tray or ice bucket at a good price, grab it. They make wonderful gifts, too.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

This dealer from Lake Lucerne, New York, spends her long winter days crafting together vintage hand-painted miniature illustrations with salvaged antique frames. The result is just exquisite. They would look wonderful hung in a small grouping on a narrow wall in a powder room or other vertical space.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

These simple, oversized glass containers are wonderful decorative objects. This dealer came from Ohio, but he had bought them from a farm in Texas. They had been used at one time to store and transport grain and most likely had muslin lids tied with string and sealed with wax to keep insects and vermin out. At $60, vessels like these are a great find; you only need one (although multiples are always great) to rotate seasonal branches, hydrangea or winter greens in throughout the year.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Vintage French glass containers like these were used to store wine. They've got a lovely history and a wonderful sculptural quality. We've found them to be kind of expensive, so choose wisely.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

A dealer we respect told us that many pie safe cabinets were lovingly made by young men for their new brides in the early nineteenth century. This one, from the Delaware Valley, and others like it were used to store freshly baked pies, breads and other baking goods before the invention of ice boxes and refrigerators. Often they've been painted numerous times as they were passed along through families. The intricacy of the punched tin work (used for ventilation) increases the value of these pieces as they are considered works of folk art. This piece was expensive, at $5,800, because it has a drawer at the top (not typical) and it retains its original paint color, a lovely pale mustard yellow. This would make a great investment piece for a dining room or a kitchen, to be passed along for future generations.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

This fabulous sofa came from a dealer in South Glen Falls, New York. It was originally made by Baker Furniture in the 1970s. Whenever we find vintage furniture pieces like this one, they are usually very well made (a lot better than some of the upholstered pieces sold at retail today) and you can get great deals. This sofa has a very modern, unusual shape and the dealer was selling it for $1,500. Hard to walk away from. It's covered in muslin right now, so you could either upholster it right away or live with it as is until you're able to have it covered in a fabric of your choice. (Realistically, a sofa of this size would require about 22 yards of plain goods, so keep that in mind when you're hunting!)

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Here's a great example of how to use a piece of American history for decoration. These pig cutting boards were part of a collection culled from many sources. Boards like these were made in wood crafting classes ("shop" in public schools), by cub scouts and even in prisons. The entire collection was priced at $600. We could see this collection, or even part of it, it hung as is on a dining room wall or in a large country kitchen with a sense of humor.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Brown transfer-printed ware is one of our personal favorite collectibles. This happens to be a particularly strong collection. Each piece is in mint condition (no chips or cracks) and the variety of designs printed on each platter is rare to see in one setting. Each of these platters range in price from $165 to $295. Dealers will often make deals with buyers who buy multiple pieces, so be sure to try to negotiate a better price when you can. If you're thinking of starting a transfer-printed ware collection, ask the dealer to show you the markings on the back of each piece, to validate the age. Remember to look for different patterns, shapes and sizes; if you decide to hang them, the arrangement will be much more interesting to look at. This dealer hung them on a green backdrop; we love them against bird's egg blue walls.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home

Decorative lighting can have an impact on any interior design project, but it can cost a fortune if you're buying from retail stores. We find lighting to be one area where you really can find extraordinary pieces at great value. These Art Nouveau sconces came out of an opulent Park Avenue apartment undergoing a major renovation. They had already been electrified, which is an important cost saver. A pair of these flanking a fireplace or in the hallway of a large vestibule would be breathtaking and you could take them with you from home to home. These were going for $1,575 for a pair.

The next time you're looking for a signature piece for your home, try your hand at flea market or antique fair shopping. You'll enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the sweet satisfaction of bringing a great piece (and hopefully a good story) into your home. Don't forget to share your finds with us at Good Bones, Great Pieces.

Vintage Collectibles for Your Home