What Is The Oldest

[Barmaid]

a) thing in your house which is still used
b) thing in your house which is purely decorative

(I'm ignoring the fabric of your house and referring only to its contents)

Jokes concerning your OH are taken as read.

I'll start

a) I have a collection of antique silver and I regularly use a spoon which dates to 1705
b) I have a silver coin from the reign of Elizabeth 1 which is probably about 1580 ish. I'll bet that is modern compared to fossils etc!

[weecalf]

Have a clock it says 14 23 must change that battery Sorry Barmaid

[LadyCG]

My husband is the oldest thing in the house that is still used ;)

Everything else is rather new.

[Buenchico]

The oldest thing in my house that's purely decorative? Me, of course!

I've got a piece of rock, containing fool's gold, that was given to me in Australia. So I suppose that it could be said that it's really old. (I might still have a couple of little boxes containing samples of different types of quartzes, etc, somewhere around the house; I can't remember whether I donated them to a charity shop or not though).

I still use a hammer that my father got from his father (and which might have been fairly old even then), so it's likely to be more than a century old.

[DTCwordfan]

1 a 17th century cork cupboard
2. a watercolour by David Cox dated 1845 - which I bought for my parents for £30 in 1973 from an antiquarian bookshop in my school town.

3. To extend the question - oldest things in the kitchen and still in use, Le Creuset and my cherished Moulin....from 1983!

[Lie-in King]

a) 2 really scratty baking trays that should really go in the bin.
b) An oil painting by my grandfather.

[nicebloke1]

I have many, and still collect copper ornaments from the 60s and older, you can pick them up very cheap from a lot of the charity shops when people pass on. Not many people want them because of the polishing, some look better not polished. The ones i do clean gives me something to do in the winter months.

[Peter Pedant]

snap David Cox as well - Haddon Hall.

Johannes Bleua map 1640

Durer prunt 1520

[DTCwordfan]

I've got a couple of Newlyn pieces of coppe, two trays, that could do with a polish, nicebloke....hopefully made of Cornish copper too.

[lady-janine]

I'm the oldest thing in our house which is still used on a regular basis.

Decorative thing is a bedspread used by my g/father bought before WW11.

[Vagus]

I have a beautiful clock which I rescued from the garage when I was a teenager. My grandad brought it with him when he came to live with us and my parents wouldn’t have it in the house. It bongs every 15 minutes and on the hour. My grandad bought it in a stately home sale, for my grandma, in the 30s, the clock is considerably older than that though. We had it restored a few years after we married and it sits in the hall on a set of drawers we bought especially for it, I love it.
Purely decorative has to be a sampler passed down through the family, it’s ancient and fraying at the edges. We had it framed by a specialist, fraying edges included. It hangs with a number of other embroideries, done by various family members, on the wall going up the stairs. I love that too.

[rowanwitch]

a). One of my grandfather's screwdrivers, has a wooden handle that fits my hand perfectly
b) my great grandmother's Doulton vases, or some of her embroidered tablelinen. Not sure which is oldest I wasn't around at the time, although I also have a tea service which is pretty old.

[LadyCG]

OH has a collection of old coins and banknotes from around the world, Vintage golf programmes and quite an impressive stamp collection. Other than that the only old things in this house are person items such as jewellery, etc.

We literally replaced everything in this house after we renovated. Even vases and photo frames are new.

[Barmaid]

Some great answers.

To extend as DTC says, I have a couple of plated tablespoons which were my g grandmother's and will probably date from the 1920s or even earlier. They are my "go to" measuring spoons and basting spoons. They are dreadful, but I like them.

[DTCwordfan]

for the record, actually I do have three pieces that are roughly 100 ln years old, even older than TTT and the Ed....three Cretaceous coral limestone fossils but I guess these don't count - inherited from my old man.

[DTCwordfan]

100 mln years old, to be clear....

[Barmaid]

They do count! And OK you take the very very very very old category.

[ducksie]

I've a silver plated brides basket (belonged to my Mam) with cranberry glass bowl.
A wooden carved bird from a very old tree (well, the tree was very old)

[Moorea7]

Have three GeorgeIII pennies though not very valuable. Some of Great Grandma's rings (handed down), She must have been tiny as her wedding ring doesn't even fit on my pinkie finger. Various Doulton and Beswick ornaments. A few old books.

[ubasses]

A German anniversary clock circa 1912 that was my great grandparents.

[Arksided]

Probably Culturally. without mentioning record collection... it may well be a couple of 'nik naks'... given to me by Ma when I first moved here over 20 yrs ago.... "they make it more homely" apparently a wooden Squirrel and an a porcelain elderly couple sat on a bench