What is the oldest thing in your room?

Hmm...I don't think there's anything in this room older than the farm diaries we picked up at an auction years ago--the oldest is 1884. But my husband is an archaeologist, so it's well possible there's an older pot shard or bit of glass somewhere in here.

Most unusual? I'll see your Dalek pen and raise an engraved copper picture of the TARDIS my son picked up from an artist in Quebec City. Or maybe my muse, Temperance, a doll who looks like one of the secondary characters in my WIP and is currently holding a little sign that says "Now get off Facebook." He may have to cross out that last word and write in "AW."

I've a trilobite fossil in the Davus Roomosaurus. So that'd be 350 million years old. Ever see them shelled little bastards? No wonder why they went extinct.

Got a chunk of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest gift shop. Trees are overrated and should be stopped. They produce everlastingly rakable leaves, little propellers flying all over the joint - and they suck all the moisture out your lawn. Trees deserve to go out on a limb of the Tree of Life and then saw themselves off.

Got a cribbage board on my desk. Remember the days of yore, when people used card-playing as an excuse to get together and socialize and have a friggin' blast??? My parents did. We're advanced now. Today we sit in front of a glowing screen and - yeah, get this - WATCH other folks playing cards.

mccardey said:

ETA: The most unusual thing is definitely my husband.

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Hahahaha

A trilobite fossil I found on a beach in England many years ago, so somewhere between 300-500 million years old at a rough guess.

Apart from that, it's probably the 2nd edition Treasure Island, or it may be Sue's wedding ring which came from her great-grandma.

In my office? Definitely me. Everything's pretty new, even the building. At home, we've got a handful of fossils of varying ages. Don't know if we have a trilobyte, but we do have a sweet megalodon tooth. Without more knowledge of our collection (it's Mr. Maxwell's family collection) I'm gonna go with that one as the oldest. Outside of the fossils, we've got a three book set of Les Misérables we've put at around 1880-1900 publication date.

We have a megalodon tooth as well. Also a bunch of other fossils. My husband likes to walk the beaches looking for them.

We have two gorgeous, heavy mantels my husband got off a job site from the 1840's-50's. Original glass and wood. The wood, unfortunately, has been painted so many times that we have to keep it painted at this point, but they are beautiful.

We have an oriental rug from 1910 we found in an antique store.

We have a lot of other random antiques of uncertain age. We like to browse antique shops. Our home is mostly just classic, I guess. Classic modern? Not modern as in straight lines and edges, but modern as in mostly new stuff...with some old stuff thrown in.

Oh, that reminds me of the gorgeous old wardrobe we put in our daughter's' room. I think that's 1800's.

And I just remembered - the winner other than the fossils is probably an emerald pendant my husband gave me after some crazy finagling that was made from an emerald found on a sunken Spanish Galleon. 1600's, I think?

I'm at my desk at work so I am not looking at my usual variety of stuff.

But here I have an iridescent ammonite fossil, which is probs 240 million years old (the trilobyte folks beat me out on that score) and a chunk of South Dakota rose quartz, which is more like 1,700 million years old.

Most unusual is probably me. *grin*

My desk is probably coming up on 100. I don't know for sure. I bought it from the second owner in 1985, and he thought it was from the 1920s. Have some chunks of petrified wood. And a very old inkwell/pen rest. The kind of glass that turns purple with age/sunlight.

MM

The oldest thing here is the water in my cup. Water is pretty old, no? The strangest is the naked doll I'm repainting to sell. Gotta get the nipples just right....

A 1947 Underwood typewriter against the wall. The stand it is sitting on might be older, though. Some pictures in a shoebox (I've been doing some scanning in the dining room), one of which is a black and white photo of my dad, probably from the 40s.

Some Wedgewood china, not sure how old it is, but it was from my mom's best friend.

Oh, speaking of Mom, a small heart-shaped case containing some of her ashes, circa 1936.

A photo of my Mom and Pop on their wedding day, NYC, early 1950s.

Probably either the collection of Little House books I inherited from my mother (1953 editions) or this amethyst pendant I have. It was made after my grandmother passed on just about 10 years ago, but the stone is from an amethyst ring she used to wear. After her death my aunt had the stones removed from the setting and turned into pendants for all of the grandchildren. I'm not sure when my grandmother got the ring, though, so the books might predate the amethyst.

A cross section of a "petrified" log from the end of the oligocene age, at least 5.332 million years old, found east of Crabtree, Oregon, part of the Sweet Home Petrified Forest.

Cool thread!

Oldest? An excavated bullet from the Siege of Corinth, MS - my g-g-grandfathers, one from each side, were both there, shooting at each other. It's a great reminder that just one little thing can change history forever... if either of them had been a better shot, I wouldn't be here typing this.

Oddest? Two cast iron signal cannons that Ol' Boy's grandfather brought here on the Mauritania from Sweden over a hundred years ago.

mccardey said:

I don't have that. I would love that tin. I'm a tin-freak, too. Tins are great.

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Do you have a Tintin tin?

In my desk drawer I have a deck of Tarot cards that I inherited from my dad, who got them in Paris some time in the 50s. They weren't new even then, so they've absorbed a lot of gravitas over the years.

It's an Italian deck, the TAROCCO PIEMONTESI which is unusual because unlike most tarot decks the cards are double headed like modern playing cards.

A silver pin to hold clothing together that was Viking, I believe. I'd have to look it up again to make sure it wasn't Roman!

shakeysix said:

...No, wait--there is a photo of my great-great grandfather when he was seven years old--really a group of people--adults, nuns, priest, kids-- strung out in front of a small village in Moravia. Someone passing through the village had a camera so everyone came out to have his picture taken. The photographer developed the photo on the spot. The print came to us wrapped in newspaper--very fragile. My grandmother found it in an old trunk packed with dishes. She also found family photos taken in front of the dugout that her grandparents homesteaded. They were in pretty bad shape--broken and discolored. We had the pictures restored a couple of years ago. --s6

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I'm of Moravian (but German) ancestry! So I'll go with the most unusual thing in the room right now being a couple of beeswax Moravian candles from Lovefeast last Christmas Eve

A book on coal law, published in 1902. I found it in the fundraising books pile in my library and got it for a pound.
Oddest? Me, by a wide margin. I mean, who in their right mind carries the title of picpic?

thepicpic said:

who in their right mind carries the title of picpic?

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To say nothing of a book on coal law from 1902...

A two volume edition from the 1700's of Macrobius's Saturnalia and his Commentary on the Dream of Scipio.

Other than me? Not a thing. Not even the room itself, which was built in 2001.

Um, I think the Chinese Dragon statue on my husband's desk is something he's had since high school, so Mid-80s.

Oh! I'm not the oldest thing. We have a WWII vintage ship's clock hanging on the wall behind me. I plum forgot.

Ally Atherton said:

Look around the room that you are sitting in right now. What is the oldest thing in the room and the most unusual thing? If you are the oldest thing in your room you are fossil like me!

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I think my 1G Apple Jack pony is a tad older than me The most unusual is either me, or a stuffed doll I have which is the shape of a triangle, with a long braid, a 10 inch red trunk, and checkered shoes.

I have a few roman coins in very bad shape. They're far and away the oldest things I own, but I have a couple of Victorian antiques, including my desk (it's a darling little student desk with a top that lifts so you can store things under it).

ME

The oldest thing in the room is the room. This part of my house was built c1610. The most unusual thing is the opening to the brick built bread oven, also c1610. It is about a foot square and leads into the bee hive shaped brick oven. The previous owner used it as a wine cellar!