Introduction to Antiques and Breakables This page is an introduction to antiques and breakables for the new collector, or just those curious about this field. Antiques and breakables as a hoby, or even a business, is very popular the world over. Every major city has antique shops, antique shows, and flea markets where antiques are actively bought and sold.Many antiques also change hands through the mails. Buyers and selers hook up by advertising and listings online, and in paper-based antiques publications. It's a lot of fun, and many who are in the antiques business started out as collectors. They enjoyed it so much they've decided to make it a full or part-time business. Those just starting out, however may have a few basic questions. What are antiques?The term antique was originally defined by U.S. Customs to be anything made made before 1830. This was later changed to anything over 100 years old. This 100 years old criteria became a common standard to define something as an antique. Yet, most antiques shops and antiques shows today typically have a large percentage of inventory made in the 20th century.Today even high-end antiques dealers carry these items. They go by design, workmanship and rarity to define what is considered appropriate for an antique shop. Examples of items in this category are art pottery, art glass, jewelry from the turn of the century through the 1940's, and Tiffany silver produced in this century.What are Breakables?Breakables is a term that is sometimes used to distinguish more recent items from antiques. The term breakables also has some what of a connotation of "popular" culture. Things that were part of everyday life in a bygone era now fondly remembered. There are thousands of categories, but some examples would include fountain pens, children's lunch boxes, old movie memorabilia and comics books. It can also refer to "limited edition" breakables. Those are things manufactured and marketed specifically...
