Hi everyone! I'm definitely new to all of this, so I figured I should introduce myself and explain why I suddenly seem to be crawling around the forum researching everybody's antiques. I'm not a professional historian, appraiser, archaeologist, genealogist, or antiques dealer. I'm simply someone who became fascinated with the history behind old objects and discovered that I genuinely enjoy the research involved in figuring them out. If I see someone post something interesting, I'll often start digging through old catalogs, museum collections, maker histories, trademarks, serial-number records, auction archives, newspaper archives, collector references, and whatever other sources I can find. If I uncover something useful, I like sharing it and hopefully helping the owner get a little closer to an identification. This actually started because I have quite a collection of antiques and unusual family pieces of my own, many of which came through several generations of a family that traveled extensively and lived overseas. Once I started researching their genealogy and provenance, one object led to another and I basically fell down the antique-history rabbit hole. One of my ongoing projects is an Ansonia "Butte" mantel clock. I've located the Butte in period Ansonia catalogs, but my example has an unusual configuration of the side ornaments that differs from the standard catalog illustrations. The underside also has a handwritten "Jan. 1907" notation, along with other internal numbers and evidence suggesting that the ornament configuration may have been altered or serviced very early in the clock's life. I'm still researching that one rather than pretending I've solved every mystery surrounding it. I also have an ornate National Cash Register, believed to date to the early 1900s, that I've been researching by model, construction and serial information; an Arthur Umanoff globe wine cart; a German Franklin Mint pewter chess set that has been in my family since before I was born; and a rather unusual black ram's-head piece that sent me down another research trail entirely. Some of my favorite pieces aren't necessarily the most valuable ones, either. Their provenance is what fascinates me. My grandparents lived and traveled internationally through government/embassy work, including time in Africa and Europe, so I've been trying to connect surviving family objects with the places and periods where they may actually have been acquired. That means genealogy and antique research have started overlapping quite a bit for me. That's really what got me started: I realized that an old object isn't just an old object. Sometimes there's an entire little piece of history sitting there waiting for somebody stubborn enough to follow the clues. So that's why I'm here. I'm learning as I go, researching my own collection, and when I see somebody else's mystery that catches my attention, I'll probably research the hell out of that too. I'm always happy to share what I find, and I'm equally happy to be corrected when somebody has better evidence. That's how we all learn something new.
