Antique or Vintage

We were at a lake house on Lake of the Ozarks with some friends. It was a 40-minute drive to the nearest town, so when we went to town it wasn’t just for a grocery run, but we would eat a meal and then have another activity like visiting the local ice cream shop or on one day we visited some antique shops.

One of the shops had the words “vintage” and “antique” in its name. I was curious about the difference between the two words, so I started a conversation with the person working in the store. I discovered that she was one of the owners, so I asked her about the name of their shop. “What’s the difference in antique and vintage?” I asked her. Her reply did not satisfy my curiosity: “Six of one, half dozen of the other!”

Well, I was not satisfied with that response, but we continued talking and it looked like she did not understand the difference. So, being the curious farmer that I am (OK, so I don’t live on a farm anymore, but I have a greenhouse because farmers need to get their hands in the dirt.), I had to do a little research on these two words.

I have learned that to be classified as an antique, an item must be over 100 years old. There is apparently no set age for declaring something vintage. The word literally means “of age.” Most people who are in the antique and vintage business, the lady in Kansas excluded, say vintage items are at least twenty years old. So, apparently anything between 20 and 99 years old is vintage.

I have a German hand-made clock from the 1890s, so it is an antique. We bought a clock in Germany in 1987, so it is a vintage clock. But I have my great-grandfather’s clock that dates back to the 1920s, so is it antique or vintage?

Some vintage items like corning ware and Pyrex dishes make a reintroduction into our culture. Even though those companies are still making new products there is a great demand for vintage stuff. Paper straws are back. And records and record players. Some companies are making repro vintage record players—we have one!

Remember the pressure cooker that was in everyone’s kitchen 40 years ago? I think they were phased out because of all the new safety regs. My mother used hers all the time. When we cleaned out her kitchen after her passing, we disposed of the bottom of her old pressure cooker. She used it until she moved to an assisted living home. Now many homes have an Instant Pot which is an enhanced version of the old pressure cooker.

Some of my grandkids joke with me about being an antique. From now on, I will be quick to correct them and state that I am certified vintage!

While traveling in the mountains of North Carolina several years ago, we saw a sign on the side of the road: “Antiques made to order.”

By the way. A couple of online thesaurus lists “Vintage” as a synonym for “antique.” So the lady in the antique/vintage store in Kansas was correct: Six of one, half dozen of the other!