Identifying Those Mystery Antique Objects…

If you’ve ever come back from the flea market triumphant, – you found something amazing, you can’t wait to get it home,  (- but the only problem is you’ve no idea what it is….) then this post is for you.  Sometimes we have to buy fast, going on just a ‘hunch’, with no time to do the research till we’re back at the kitchen table. But once you’ve sat down here’s my tips for identifying those Mystery Antique Objects.

Why Did You Buy That Thing?

Obviously if the seller had any ideas then you can start with those, but what if they didn’t? The very first place to look for clues is within yourself.

Something in your memory, or maybe even your subconscious mind, has attracted you to this object in the first place. Does it remind you of something else? Is it in a style that feels somehow familiar? was it the materials it’s made of that attracted you? Your very first hints will probably come from the archives of your own mind… Whatever it was that attracted you, or feels even a little bit familiar about it – start with that.

When thinking on this I’ll often suddenly realize that I’ve seen something similar in one of my reference books at home, or in a particular museum I’ve visited. But other times its just a vague feeling – I know I’ve  seen something like this somewhere years ago…

Even when its this vague I still try to track that thought or memory right back to its root. It’s good training to try to dig up these connections from your memory. It may well give you the right starting point for your research, and this ability to quickly retrieve information and spot similarities from memory soon becomes a huge part of the skill of good buying, it’s fundamental to developing a ‘good eye’ (a topic I’ll write a whole post on soon).

Casting Your Net In Google Images

If you’ve drawn a blank so far, or the feeling of familiarity is so vague you just can’t quite catch hold of it, – it’s time for Google Images.

Whatever you do recognize in the object, put that in the search bar, and see what comes up, even if you end up searching random phrases, like ‘antique carved wooden demon face’ or ‘old witchcraft bundle’. You might get a hit straight away, probably you won’t, but just try out your guesses, however tenuous they seem. Sometimes the tiniest similarity can be just the toe-hold you need.

Add in new details as you discover them, examples from my own searches might be; ‘African bronze buffalo’ ‘Ancient Britain stone heads’ and ‘ antique green hardstone tool’. skim every image that comes up, – test out different cultures and regions, I usually concentrate on identifying the style and region of the piece first, (this gets way easier as you gain a little experience).

Chances are that by this point you will be starting to get warmer, you may notice a similar style of carving somewhere? or maybe a clue to age or use? Pinterest is another great place to do image based searches too. This is a real down the rabbit hole exercise, so any time something comes up that seems similar in some way, get back in the search bar, follow the lead, and keep digging.

 

With twenty minutes of these searches I’ll reckon you will probably have found something close enough to start getting to grips with your mystery object. Almost all antique or ancient objects belong to a known and identifiable style, period, and culture. Some are harder to track down than others – but (bar personal spell workings and one-off artworks) examples of pretty much everything are online somewhere.

The Devil’s in The Details

Sometimes you’ll get close, but still not quite hit it. Take my ‘green stone tool’ for example.

I had genuinely no idea what this object was I first saw it, it didn’t seem like an amulet, it wasn’t quite a tool either, but it was very old, and interesting, and definitely had something about it.

It’s often a single detail that will be the key. Once I had identified that my green stone was some sort of Jade, the rest fell quickly into place. I searched for which ancient cultures used Jade, there are only a few, so that narrowed things right down, and it didn’t look Chinese to me so I started with the others first.

Within a few more searches under Maori, Mayan, and Aztec Jade, I found an almost perfect match for an early Maori ceremonial ear ornament. And this is the way it often goes – just that one extra detail, by identifying the stone as Jade, made the rest pretty easy. So look for the details, it’s often where your answer will be hiding…

>click here to read about Jade in the ancient world<

Why I Don’t Bother With Google Lens;

The last year or so I’ve seen some online antiques blogs talking about Google Lens, how this amazing App had helped them to make huge profits on buying trips and so on… At first glance it does sound amazing, just take a picture on your phone, run it through the App, and (apparently) it will tell exactly what the object is and how much it’s worth – so I decided to test it out with a few of my own pieces, – and this is what I found;

This is AI so I guess what it does is a lightening speed comparison with millions of images online to look for the closest possible match. Now that’s great if your object is visually distinctive and very similar to other examples of the same thing. Definitely give it a try when you’re just starting out, it will be a great help with fairly standard styles and pieces that you personally are seeing for the first time.

But here’s a few of the things that it can’t do;

(and why I definitely wouldn’t be depending on it to make me a living…)

Google Lens can’t;

– tell an authentic antique from a fake, copy or reproduction

– identify unique objects

– identify very worn or aged objects

– distinguish between similar (but different) artistic styles

– tell the difference between two similar objects of completely different levels of quality

– ‘read’ what materials something is made of

(in particular it seems to really struggle with heavily patinated or rough organic surfaces)

– and finally, it really can’t tell you what something is actually worth (although it may tell you what someone somewhere thinks they might get for something that might be the same)

But the good news is that all these skills, even if they seem impossible at the beginning, – are things you will quickly start learning to do for yourself. It’s exciting when you start to get a feel for this stuff, when you start to see and understand the important differences or the tiny clues. – Many collectors and dealers will say the research ends up being one of their favourite parts of the whole game.

Asking Around;

It’s pretty rare that you can’t find your answers through the ways we’ve already discussed, but it does sometimes happen. Another route is to get online and ask the ‘community’. There are enthusiast groups for all sorts of fields on platforms like Facebook, and they are more than willing to share their knowledge and opinions. There are groups for ‘Oddities’ collectors, for general antiques buyers (although they may be a bit too mainstream for the really strange items) – and hundreds of groups for enthusiasts of witchcraft and the occult. There’s a lot of knowledge in some of these groups (as well as some proper nonsense), and ive seen online communities get really excited with everyone pitching in to identify the mystery objects that members have posted . Whatever suggestions seem plausible, check them out, run them through google images, keep going.

If you think you’re on the right track with a piece but need to get a real expert to verify for you, I have also sometimes reached out to dealers online, who specialize in really small niches but with a vast level of expertise.

In the past I’ve reached out to an expert dealer in ancient rings who was able to fully identify a medieval seal ring I had, and on another occasion a specialist in Oceanic Tribal Art helped me out with a confusing carved figure. But I only do this rarely as these people are not a free resource to have their brains picked any time we feel like it – they are in business and usually pretty busy themselves, usually they are willing look at items because they are interested in buying good pieces that come up. They may make you an offer, or tell you what your piece is and that its not good enough quality for them to buy – that can be a bit gutting, but don’t be offended if this happens, and definitely don’t be rude to them. They are still sharing their expertise and helping you learn even if the results are disappointing.

So What’s Next?

Identifying mystery antique objects is going to be a part of life for any collector of ‘the magical’. It’s Soo gratifying when you finally get an answer you’ve been looking for. In this post we’ve really just covered identification – that might be enough for you, you know what it is and your happy. You’ve probably learned a good bit in the process and you can stop there, but often for me that this is just the starting point of my research.

Once you know what something is there will be a whole world of knowledge to dig through. The history, culture, beliefs and practices associated with your new object will all have been written about by some brilliant people out there somewhere. It’s just up to you how deep you want to go…

So get in there, enjoy the challenge, – here’s to the hunt x