Talk of the Trade
How to Build a Vintage Brand: 4 Questions to Drive Growth

By Sloane Middleton Mann. Sloane is the founder of Business of Vintage, the world’s only marketing agency specializing in vintage and antique shops. Follow @business.of.vintage on Instagram for vintage marketing tips ...
A New Chapter Begins: Welcoming the Boschettos to the Journal Family

As the Journal of Antiques & Collectibles celebrates its 25th year in publication, we find ourselves at a moment of meaningful reflection and exciting renewal – a milestone that honors ...
Hidden History

We are a civilization inspired by discovery, whether that leads us to look upwards to the heavens, underground for what time and nature has buried, or to the bottom of ...
Reenacting History: Education or Entertainment?

Working and living in the town where Old Sturbridge Village is located, Sturbridge, MA, we at the Journal are quite familiar with historical, especially military reenactments. Every August, OSV holds ...
Ushering in a new year

As we enter a new year, it’s fun to look back a century to see how far we’ve come while we look forward and imagine what will be in the ...
Happy Holiday Traditions

Holidays not only celebrate our culture and religion but bring generations of family and friends to the table. For these occasions, we take out our special china, prepare traditional meals, ...
Online Antiquing

One of the most beloved aspects of antiquing, collecting, and thrifting is what we collectors call “the hunt”; knowing that your next great find is still out there just waiting ...
Celebrating America’s Semiquincentennial

Everyone knows throwing a party takes time, money, and planning, even more so when the party is for the nation’s 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence ...
Space Age Collectibles

"In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and ...
Signs of history are everywhere

On Friday, May 17th, Brimfield Auction Acres in Brimfield, MA, took its place on The National Register of Historic Places as the birthplace and originator of the World Famous “Brimfield ...
Transportation Modes and Makers in American History

Transportation is a subject that seems to be always in the news these days and usually for the wrong reasons: train derailments, bridge collapses, overturned tractor trailers, cruise ships running ...
Gone But Not Forgotten

Live long enough and you’ll outlive many of the companies, products, and brands you grew up with. They may no longer be in business but like many of the companies ...
Glass: Back in style

Glass, an inorganic compound found in many forms in the natural world, has been man-made into practical and decorative objects since the Late Bronze Age. Over the millennia, the process, ...
Saving Mount Vernon

If history has taught us anything it’s that it takes a woman to get the job done! That has certainly been the case in the collector world as we discover ...
Collecting Ephemera – Past & Present

Nineteenth-century paperboard trade cards and their 20th-century trading cards counterparts have long been used as a popular way for companies to advertise their brand and sell products. They are fun ...
What to look forward to in 2024

Each New Year is marked by change and defined by trends. As we wrap up our editorial year for 2023, we can’t help but look forward, which next year is ...
The American Cowboy rides again

Long before Kevin Costner's John Dutton, Rip, and the ranch hands on the Yellowstone Ranch, there was the Marlboro Man, the quintessential archetype, even today, of the American cowboy and ...
The time is right for luxury pre-owned timepieces

As any collector can tell you, luxury watches are much more than a means of telling time. They’re works of high craftsmanship, symbols of taste and status, and, for many, investments that ...
Fun & Games

Every year since 1998, The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY inducts beloved toys from our past into its Toy Hall of Fame. Like other Hall of Fame ...
Sports Fans Collect

You can always spot a sports fan in the crowd - whether at the stadium or on the street – because they’ll be the one sporting head-to-toe branded attire that ...
Variations of Recovery

Whether you are an antiquer, collector, curator, or just someone who enjoys bringing old things back to life, the word “recovery” as it relates to items you restore, unearth, or ...
A homespun compliment

The word “homespun” today is often used pejoratively to say someone or something is “simple” and “unsophisticated” as it relates to look, fashion, or philosophy but its origin in the ...
Collecting Technology

the 19th century, an era of rapidly accelerating scientific discovery and invention. Significant developments in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and metallurgy laid the groundwork for the ...