Those aren’t old except the case on top of the ice box (which is an antique inlaid wood case from Syria), but I do have a mix of old and new.
I’m the pretty sentimental type, and I like to collect things from where I’ve been, what I’ve experienced, stuff related to my family, or things that mean something.
My house is small, I live alone, and so I had to be careful to not overload it, or overwhelm/crowd it out. But I think I managed to pull it off. Here are some of my favorite things.
Antique Burmese Kammacava (Bhuddist script) case (Here it is open, likely 1800s), alter table (China), antique woven door hanger (Uzbekistan), propaganda poster (North Korea): https://i.imgur.com/16aSYkz.jpg
Antique doors from China from a 200-300 year old house which was being demolished. I put rice paper in the windows and hinged them together to make a divider. They look cool when lit up at Christmas.
Flying flaming dick (Bhutan). It’s one of their national symboles, seen everywhere in the country.
My living room. It looks pretty nice when done up for Christmas also. Here’s another angle.
Antique marionnettes (China) (I keep them on my stairs, turn out the lights, put a light behind them, and scare the crap out of my nephews! (my sis-in-law yells at me for it).
Antique food storage cabinet (China). Before ice boxes or fridges. The slats prevented food from going stale or mouldy, and the slats were narrow enough to keep out the rats, pets and birds.
From travels throughout North Korea: pins, with the Kim Pin given to me by the govt when I travelled there on a diplomatic passport... Here are some postcards I had framed... Here are some books published in North Korea
Case with various religious tokens: Voodo dolls from West Africa (Here’s the voodoo market where I bought them), Also in the case are Shamanist idols from the Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan border, mini Buddhist temple from Tibet, Buddhist idol from Mongolia.
Some other cases around my living room: Antique Chinese typeset, antique Tibetan prayer wheel, old traditional cap from Tajikistan, Antique dagger from Oman, Traditional African dolls from Togo, Benin and Ghana.
Chinese Antique camphor wood shelf (Camphor wood large enough to make these is now extinct)
Antique Chinese ceramic roof tiles which I grabbed from the wrecking ball as 300 year old buildings were being demolished. Also an old wooden storage box.
Rare antique Tibetan gooso-embossed leather covered storage chest which was used for nomadic or pilgrimage travelling by donkey and cart.
Other antique or vintage furniture, or stuff scattered elsewhere around the house. Antique Chinese armoir, a mid-century Falcon chair from Norway, Antique Armenian Kilim rug.
My 50 year old vintage restored camping trailer (because I did so much camping as a kid, and so it means a lot to me and fills my summers).
My antique WWII motorcycle (used to have one when I worked overseas, and it brings me such great memories)
