Oregon photograph by Scott Waite
A cup, a small dish, a spoon, a tin. The shopping takes an afternoon. The discovery can last much longer.
Try this
- Find a place to look. An antique mall, a thrift store, or an estate sale. EstateSales.net and EstateSale.com both list sales by ZIP code, often with photos.
- Choose something small with a mark. Turn pieces over. Pottery and porcelain usually carry a maker’s mark on the base; silver is often stamped. Pick something that costs little and catches your eye.
- Photograph the mark. Take a clear close-up in good light.
- Read the clues. Marks can tell you more than a name. On British pottery, a diamond-shaped registry mark points to 1842 to 1883; “England” was required on exports to the U.S. after 1891; and “Made in England” was common by 1921 (Hemswell Antiques).
- Follow the name into old newspapers. Search the maker, the town on the mark, or a name engraved on the piece in Chronicling America, the Library of Congress’s free archive of nearly 24 million newspaper pages from 1690 to 1963.
- Write a provenance card. One index card: what it is, who made it, roughly when, where you found it, and anything you learned. Keep it with the object.
If it feels hard
- If there is no mark, look at the shape, the material and how it was made. A local antique dealer or historical society can often point you in the right direction.
- If the trail goes cold, that is part of it. Write down what you know and what you would still like to find out.
- If you have a family heirloom with questions, PBS’s Antiques Roadshow tours the country, and tickets are given out by sweepstakes (AOL).
Make it yours
- Alone: take your time in the aisles. There is no rush when you are only choosing one thing.
- With someone: each person picks one object, researches it, and presents its story over dinner.
- Low energy: start with something you already own, a piece from a parent or grandparent, and research that instead of shopping.
- On a budget: a small piece with a clear mark often costs very little, and the research is free.
Why it works
Secondhand is growing fast. In 2025 the U.S. secondhand market grew nearly four times faster than retail clothing (ThredUp). At one antique mall near San Diego, younger shoppers went from about 25% of sales before the pandemic to about 40%. One 19-year-old shopper said he values that every “previously loved” object has a story that can continue (Times of San Diego).
Tracing that story turns a purchase into a small piece of history you can hold.
Where to start
- Estate sale finders: sales near you by ZIP code
- Identifying antique pottery marks: maker’s marks, registry marks and dates
- Chronicling America: free historic U.S. newspapers from the Library of Congress
- Antiques Roadshow tickets: how the free appraisal events work
You don’t need to become a collector. One small thing, really understood, is enough to change how you see the next antique shop.
I hope this finds you well,
Scott