Old & Interesting?

This site is about . . .

. . . how people furnished and equipped their homes in previous centuries, and how they handled household tasks. Plans are to keep adding more articles, with the homepage updated every Wednesday - at least. Please email if you want to suggest a topic connected with the history of everyday home life, housekeeping, domestic objects, or any related bits of social history.
 - Lel -

FAQ

• Which countries are you talking about?
  Mostly the English-speaking world and Western Europe, with a few references to the rest of the world. I know most about the UK, followed by the USA.
• What timespan?
  There'll be an emphasis on the last 3 centuries or so. We know more about the way our recent ancestors managed their home lives. Lots of Victorian writers had very definite opinions on how housewives and servants should arrange domestic matters. And it's interesting to pick out what we can from earlier writing - and painting too.
• Why no comments from readers?
  I'd like to set that up some time - but getting to this stage was enough of a technical challenge for the moment.
• Are you going to discuss the value of antiques?
  Not usually, except perhaps for the occasional exclamation like "Can you believe that price?!". Please note the disclaimer at the bottom of the page. I have no expertise in appraisal or valuing.
• Where do you get your information?
  There's a bibliography growing on the books page, there are references under the quotes used, and I'm also building on general reading over the years. Lots of the embedded links lead to authoritative sites, like museum sites.

Some questions I answered for Google Answers

Quite a few were history questions. Here are some which overlap with the antique household objects and domestic life theme of this website.

• French butter dishes
  Since answering this question, I've found a few more reasons to believe that these butter keepers (the kind which became popular in the US a few years ago) only go back to about 1800, and aren't centuries old as some people believe, but . . . I'm still looking for something really authoritative. Surely somewhere there must be an expert on French ceramics who could settle this? Help if you can . . .
• Knitting sheaths
• Club chairs
  Like 'French butter dish', 'club chair' is mostly a North American phrase, I think, even though it evokes the world of English gentlemen's clubs. In the UK they're armchairs (though this used to refer to hard straight-backed chairs with arms, too) or easy chairs.
• Napkin dolls
  Very 1950s USA.
• Pub meals in Victorian London
  I enjoyed doing this one. It's about household eating habits as well as going out for a meal.
• Clarice Cliff pottery
• Palestinian domestic life and recent history
• Traditional house design in the UK - when is a cottage really a cottage?
• Upholstery terms
• Pant stretchers
• Furniture design in France

By the way, you can still put questions to ex-researchers from Google Answers here, or just browse past answers. This quirky Q&A about a chapter in the history of wallpaper is worth a look.

Back to top of page

For sources please refer to the books page, and/or the excerpts quoted on the pages of this website, and note that many links lead to museum sites. Feel free to ask if you're looking for a specific reference - feedback is always welcome anyway. Unfortunately, it's not possible to help you with queries about prices or valuation.