Relics & Artifacts

Yes, we’ll get to the Relics and Artifacts in a minute. I just wanted you to take a peek at the video above, to get yourself prepared for what’s going to happen in the realm of antiques and such.

We used to call them “junk stores” — overcrowded, dry and dusty with undisturbed age, the objects lanquished in the darkness, waiting for a new owner and new life.

Sometime around 1950, those same junk shops switched signs, and became “antique shoppes”, with fewer items, better arrangement, and much higher prices.

There were, in the 1960s and 1970s, a smattering of shops that sold things older than antiques — those items that are 2,000 years old or older are now called “antiquities”, to distinguish them from “antiques”, things that are 100 years old or more.

Stuff that’s around 1,000 years old are downright Medieval, and are collected as such. Medieval things are generally at about neolithic or at most, bronze-age in nature. Continue reading

Yet More Stuff Already, Hey

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Here are a few more goodies from my goodie-wagon, all of which are prime candidates for Remote Readings & Viewings (I explain the difference elsewhere):

EGYPTIAN XXX DYNASTY AMULET — $35

Not a reproduction, this elegantly and intricately hand-carved & glazed ancient steatite stone amulet is from XXXth Dynasty Egypt. This carved “faience” can be found in museum treasures around the world.

MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN BRONZE COIN — $35

Not a reproduction, this this large rather common copper coin was in circulation from Late Rome, around 350 A.D., through the Medieval Period in Europe.

HELLENIC GREEK BRONZE COIN — $85

Not a reproduction, this ancient original Hellenic Greek Bronze Coin was struck at the Syracuse Mint, and was in circulation around 433 B.C..

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CRUSADES COIN — $125

Not a reproduction, this rare Medieval bronze coin was found at a site known to have been held by the Knights Templar during the Crusades into the Holyland until around 1187 A.D. when Saladin defeated the Crusaders.

SUMERIAN STEATITE BEADS FROM URUK — $35

Not reproductions, guaranteed authentic ancient Sumerian steatite beads were found in Uruk in 1957, and have been in the U.S. since 1964.

More later,

See You At The Top!!!

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ZOOMSHOP – Medicine Wheel Chokers

 

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Museum Reconstruction of a 4500 B.C. Sumerian Lapis necklace.

The necklace in the photo above looks deceptively easy to acquire, but it isn’t. You can’t buy this necklace at any price. It is a “School Artifact”.

Relics like these can be reconstructed from ancient materials. In this case, note that the maker of all the lapis beads is the same, from the same workshop. This is not the case with beads acquired through the ordinary marketplace. Matched sets of ancient beads is exceedingly rare. Continue reading

ZOOMSHOP – UR Earrings

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Your Ur-Style Pearl & Copper Earrings could easily have been worn by a woman of the early Bronze Age, when metallurgical embellishments included granulation, as do the ones you’ll be making. Granulation is a hand-craft. The beautiful but slightly irregularly shaped off-round pearls are similar to the Mediterranean pearl, the last of which were fished out of the sea many centuries ago.

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ZOOMSHOP – Sumerian Bead Earrings

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Toni sells jewelry at the group’s Copper & Silver Boutique in West Hollywood.

This is your most basic STERLING SILVER earring kit, the Sumerian Steatite Earring Set. Here’s what you should have received in your kit, each packaged in its own zip-lock baggie, tagged for quick identification — check each item off this list to make sure you have everything you’re supposed to have in the kit:

  1.  Four Whitish Sumerian Steatite beads. These came originally from the Susa at Uruk, the main city of ancient Sumer, and were legally and openly brought into the United States prior to 1964, the year when I obtained them from Joe Rose at Superior Stamp & Coin in New York City. Joe was a longtime friend and a very responsible and honest antiquity dealer — that’s not at all rare in the profession — these are amazing and magical beads; almost all of them were intact, and among the steatite beads, I found Carnelian, Jasper, Hematite and Lodestone, among other variants. The white steatite stone-carved beads were made around 4500 B.C. out of flat-cut stone, hand-rubbed and rolled on flat rocks to burnish them down into flattish rounds after drilling the hole in the center with a bow-drill, which is still used in some parts of the world today. Absolutely Guaranteed Authentic 6,000 year-old ancient beads.
  2. Four 3mm modern factory-made .925 sterling silver “spacer” beads.
  3. Four 6mm handmade modern .999 fine silver Bali style fancy spacer beads.
  4. One labeled package containing 12 modern .925 sterling silver wires, about 1″-1.5″ (30mm – 40mm) long, ready for clipping & bending.
  5. One labeled package containing 2 modern .925 sterling silver .22 gauge wires, about 4″, or 100mm long, to form the Core Wires.
  6. One labeled package containing 2 modern .925 sterling silver .20 gauge silver wires, about 4″, or 100 mm long, from which you’ll make the hand-made ear-wires, the crowning touch of a fine set of ancient style earrings.

Continue reading