iOS app
Trovel
Trovel: Antique Identifier
Field notes
- Where it's from is when it's from One word on the base can pin a find to a twenty-year window — sometimes five.
- The lion on the spoon Stamps, hallmarks, and the wear-through tells that separate solid from plated.
- The backstamp keeps talking Pattern names, mold numbers, painter's ciphers — the fine print under the glaze.
- Run it under hot water Hot tap, quick sniff — real Bakelite tells on itself in thirty seconds.
- Rough casting, wrong weight Old iron runs smooth and light — the fakes feel like sandpaper and lead.
- Wear where no hands go Real age follows fingers and floors — fakers forget how a piece gets used.
- Where the seam stops Run a thumb up the side — the seam quits right where the truth starts.
- Metal teeth, good sign The dress won't say its age — the zipper and the tags will, every time.
- Square nail, old bones Pull one drawer and the hardware confesses the whole biography.
- The glaze that's still boiling West German uglies — some are pocket change, some are a tidy sum.
- Sold, not asking Any fool can ask the moon — the ledger only counts what actually sold.
- Ugly, heavy, underpriced The dull shelves pay the rent — planes, Pyrex, and forty pounds of hi-fi.