November 2020
You’ll probably notice as you are walking around Canton First Monday Trade days that there are a lot of different words used to describe something that is “old”. Antique, vintage, collectible, retro, classic, vintique, authentic. Depending on who you ask, and what their credentials are, you will most likely get a number of different answers for each term. If you are out shopping for something that you prefer to definitely fall within a typically agreed upon definition of any of those words, you should probably have a working definition yourself so you can make purchases with a certain level of confidence that you are indeed getting what you want and are paying for.
Antique
This is probably the most important word of the bunch. It’s the one that in most circles is going to command the highest prices and has with it a certain expectation of age, quality, and authenticity. The United States Custom Service defines an antique as being “not less than 100 years of age”. There are other criteria that must be met, but the Custom Service is interested only in items that are being imported. The age definition is, however, generally accepted as the main defining criteria for what is and is not antique.
If you are looking for a real antique, the best thing to do, if you don’t have immediate access to an expert, is brush up on the characteristics of objects made during the time period that you are interested in. This will help you determine whether what you are looking at is indeed old enough to be considered an antique.
It is important to also understand that some industry experts take a small amount of license when applying the term “antique”. Depending on an items historical significance the rule can be stretched some to include newer items while at the same time excluding others that are considerably older.
Additionally, not everyone that labels items that are clearly less than 100 years old as “antiques” is intentionally trying to misrepresent items.
Vintage
Vintage has been, and still is, used to describe items that have a particular style such as things from the 1940s and 1970s. More recently it has become the label that has replaced collectible as the term du jour to describe anything that is old, but does not meet the definition of antique. And because it is being used more and more as a formal category for items, it has also been defined so that shoppers can have an idea of what they are being sold when they see the word. Most often it is used to describe anything that is at least 20 years old.
There are, of course, those that dismiss the idea of calling something from as recent as 1990 “vintage”.
Collectible
And that brings us to the third word that can be used to describe anything that is not necessarily old, but certainly not new and modern. Collectible, though it does also denote things that are mass-produced such as sports cards and limited edition dolls, is generally prescribed to items that are certainly not antique and questionably vintage. It’s a nice catch-all that hasn’t received a formal definition yet and can be used to describe anything that is simply not new. Old-fashioned might just be the next "new" term that becomes de rigueur.
Whether you are looking for antiques, vintage items, or just plain old collectibles, Canton First Monday Trade Days is most certainly a shopping destination that has a lot of all three. Use the Canton Shopping Guide to find vendors that are selling just what you are looking for.
