I am the oldest utensil in our kitchen!!!

/tricia

Well, let's see..my flour sifter and rolling pin that I bought in 1960 as well as several pieces of Revere Ware that were pretty much top of the line then, unlike what's out there now. They were a wedding gift from my co-workers. I'm relatively sure I have more, that's just what comes to mind at the moment. Oh yeah, the small blue enamel roasting pan that Mama gave me when I got married.

jude

Triciae...no fair! I started to say that too.LOL

LOL!Tricia.

My KitchenAid Mixer is 33 years old. It was a Christmas gift.

My Griswold Cast Iron skillets are from the 1940's. Bought at an antique store.

I also have some beautiful vintage wine glasses from the late 1800's that I've had for almost 40 years.

~Ann

I have the cookie cutter that my grandmother used to make buttermilk sugar cookies. It's at least 50 years old but probably much older.

Oops - just read that hand me downs don't count. Never mind. Still a fun idea for a thread. Happy New Year!

This post was edited by deee on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 9:39

Deee, I think hand me downs count. Especially one handed down by your grandmother. Now that is special.

~Ann

If you follow the WFD threads, you've probably seen my glass fish plates, which I bought at the JJ Newberry five and dime store in about 1963. I have been using them ever since then and also have a large fish-shaped glass baking dish that goes with them.

I have many heirlooms in in use in my kitchen too. The oldest are a maple rolling pin and a wire cooling rack made by my great-great grandfather but the fish plates are the oldest items that I bought for myself.

I have a rolling pin and an apron that my father gave my mother on their first anniversary, May 7, 1938.

Ruthanna, I've always loved your fish plates. So when I saw a fish platter in a vintage store earlier this year I bought it. Not sure if it is the same as yours.

I'd love to find some small ones like yours.

I have some of my mother's Revere ware and a cookie press that pre-date my birth by a fair while so that's well over 50 years old.
I have my grandmother's china which would be 1910-1920.
I collect antique scales and kitchenalia, no idea how old some of the stuff is but definitely decades. Some of it I even use :-)
I have things I bought when I first set up house in 1980, including a slotted spoon left behind at a party by a friend- I intended to return it but never got around to doing so as she lived over 100km away, that was well over 20 years ago and I guess she's replaced it by now :-)

I also have my Grandmother's old rolling pin, her potato masher and her meat mallet. I had her old Peach Luster pie plate but dropped with one Easter and broke it. I cried. David (Lakeguy) replaced it for me with a brand new Emile Henry, knowing that another one just like it still wouldn't be the same. Smart man, that's why I love him!

I have some old brown McCoy Dripware that my mother bought in the 50s, but that's also hand me down, and I have Grandma's old blue enameled canner and her pressure canner and her old Farm Journal cookbooks.

My oldest that I purchased is my Griswold deep "chicken fryer", I got that at a yard sale and like Ann T's, it's from the 40s. I have a set of three cast iron skillets that I got as a gift in 1974, as well as a Betty Crocker cookbook from 1969, received as a gift that same year.

My very oldest, though, is a "pickle plate" or "celery plate", depending on who you ask. It belonged to my Grandmother's stepmother, who got it as a wedding gift sometime in the 1800s.

Annie

I have a cast iron skillet that was my grandmothers, as many do, and also a rectangular ironstone platter that was hers.

I used to collect cookie cutters so I have a lot of them as well as old kitchen implements such as cherry pitters, etc. Many of these I would like to get rid of, and none of my children are interested in them at all.

Enjoying this post!

Have my mother's rolling pin from when she first started cooking. Her Candy thermometer would be the second oldest.

I have a bone-handled knife hone which was my mother's. I would guess it's about 50 years old. My Kitchenaid and Cuisinart are both about 30 years old. I have cast iron pots bought about the same time. I have some antique spoons which were in DH's family, from his grandparents. Those must be over 100 years old. And I have a bamboo wok scourer which my mother gave me when I got my first wok, 30+ years ago. I use most of these regularly, so they're not just sentimental pieces.

Cheryl

A set of Depression juice glasses, bowls and salad plates that were my Gram's. On a visit to my grandmother's in Pittsburgh we got juice in green glasses for breakfast. My mom said she remembered they came in oatmeal boxes. My grandmother thought these particular ones came from the movie theatre. I was not quite 4 at the time. The story goes on the last day of the visit, after the dishes were washed, I wrapped some of them in a dishtowel and put them in a suitcase planning on ripping them off apparently. Gram allowed me to take 4 glasses home.

My grandmother died when I was 22. Two of my Aunt's packed up some soup bowls and salad plates of the same pattern and shipped them to me in Dallas. They recalled the story of the "little thief" in a letter and included a picture of my cousin Maureen and I holding the "goods."

I have a set of the fish plates also. I got them for a Christmas gift in the mid 1970s.

Oldest items where I was the first owner are probably my Farberware cookware. My Oster blender probably qualifies as an antique and is living proof that they used to make stuff better than they do now.

As for hand me downs, I have a sifter that belonged to my great aunt who would be 125 if she were living. In the basement I have some of her old brown crockery bowls with stripes around them. They are huge. They might be called brown ware?

We've an oil stone for knife sharpening that may have been taken to Utah by the pioneers. Everyone with knowledge of its exact history has passed as they say.

We've had it since 1985 and actually forgotten it. Had the wife not mentioned it yesterday I probably would have just moved on and never added anything to this thread.

This post was edited by albert_135 on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 13:20

I have a lot of my mother's utensils from the 40's and 50's. The egg beater - grandkids think it's very funny!

Also the cheese grater, the krumkake iron, spatulas, sifter, rolling pin.

I have my mother's china and silver, which we never use. Times have changed.

I have some lovely dessert plates, edged in gold, from one grandmother, probably from the early 1900's, and my other grandmother's LuRay dishes. I'm very sentimental.

I also have my grandmother's old Swedish recipe book - published by a Swedish newspaper in Chicago, sometime in the 1900's. That I don't use. Can't make sense of it.

I have my mom's potato masher and wooden framed mandolin(sp?). The paint has worn off both of them. I don't use the mandolin, but I still use the masher...just used it the other day. There used to be a spatula with the same red and white painted handle as the masher, but I don't know what happened to it and I've moved so many times over the years, I've lost a lot of neat stuff.
I still have and use some stainless flatware the she got in the mid-50s. I even found a few replacement pieces from that online replacement place, but I couldn't afford many. I would still like to though as I've always liked the set...very sturdy, made in Japan.

Oh forgot about about the Stag and Holly Carnival glass bowl from Bruce's great aunt....approx. from 1912.

My grandmothers cast iron skillet when she was in her 20s.
She would be about 130 if she were alive today so has to be more than 100 years old and I use it several times a week.

Have banged up, aluminum, canning funnel from my Grandmother's kitchen... along with her Foley Food Mill. Have lawge bowl from childhood that I don't think has ever had anything but spaghetti in it... big red flower in bottom and some "name"... a W maybe.

Sister has whole set of copper bottom Revere pots/pans that were always around... probably a wedding gift to parents in mid-40's. She also has 4, nesting, Pyrex mixing bowls which have survived since that same time... NO chips and color in great shape... no dishwasher back then.

The Revereware made for Sears has been in constant use since bing acquired by my mother in 1950, first by her and now by me; and chances are it'll get passed down to one of my kids when I no longer need it. I have a number of collectables and antiques that get used regularily, but the Revereware has been in use in the family for a long time.

I have assorted kitchenware I bought at Woolworth's in 1966, when I set up my first apartment. This includes a flour sifter with the classic red apples design, a china gravy separator covered with painted pictures of vegetables, and a cheap aluminum double boiler.

I also have treasured items I inherited from my mother, MIL, and aunt: a serving dish that looks like corn on the cob, a nut chopper, two plastic rectangular pans that are perfect for dipping meats into egg and bread crumbs, a wood-handled scraper, old whisks, round metal cooling racks, and two "tomato sharks" that are perfect for hulling strawberries. I have only one thing from my grandma, a silver-handled bread knife, which I used for slicing cake just this past Sunday, when my sister and her family came for dinner.

Sue

I think my candy thermometer was my great grandmother's. It's not a hand me down because I stole it :-D Nothing I've bought myself is very old, because it's only been 8 years or so since I ventured beyond ramen and overcooked scrambled eggs.

Unfortunately for my budget, I upgrade way too often and I'm not too sentimental so I don't have many old utensils. Probably the oldest and not really a utensil is my Reed and Barton Francis I flatware - 5 piece place setting for 8 with all the serving pieces.

My mom and I put it on layaway 30 years ago and took turns paying the monthly $10 payment for two years. Looking at the Reed and Barton website, looks like is was a great investment. I told DH about it and now he wants me to add it to our homeowner's insurance.

I do have some pink depression glass plates from my grandmother if that counts.

OOOOh, oh, I just thought of something...I have a 70's or 80's crockpot. I like it better than some of the new ones.

This post was edited by mustangs on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 16:33

Hand-me-downs don't count? I guess that leaves out my grandma's china and silver (dating back to the late 1920s), or my MIL's crystal from Korea (dating back to the Korean War). Or the toaster that dates back to the 40s that used to have a cloth cord until the mice chewed it in our travel trailer and we had it replaced. Or the 1950s Mirro pressure cooker.

Everything else -- pretty well late 1970s. They were wedding gifts.

Donna

Donnar57 - who said hand me downs don't count? If they didn't count the oldest thing in my kitchen would only be from the 70-80's when I started serious kichen shopping!

Of course things passed from one generation to the next count! It sounds like you have some gems!

Teresa

I have so many hand me downs, from an old cast iron cider press, potato masher, my Aunt Chris' silver, other aunts' crystal to Grandma's Jewel Tea Autumn Leaves dishes and Red Poppy bowl to a little bit of everything else. What I have that is the oldest, that I was the first owner of is a china tea set in white with violets on it. My cousin, Becky and I started getting the fancy cups and saucers as Christmas gifts from moms and each other when we were starting our hope chests. No chests, but lots of hope. I don't think anyone has hope chests anymore. Anyway, that started back in probably the mid fifties. We both wound up with the sugar and creamers to match, but I don't think we got the teapots themselves.

bcksye, I remember hope chests. I didn't have one, but some of my girlfriends did back in the 60's.

I think my oldest kitchen " utensil" is the Harvest Gold Hamilton Beach slow cooker we got as a wedding gift in 1978. It's still in regular use. Not sexy, but cooks like it should and better than the newer models ( just like me LOL!)

The other old timer is my flat bottom carbon steel wok that I bought at Joyce Chen in 1979. Gets regular, constant use.

Other than a couple of depression glass pieces from each of my grandmothers, those would be my vintage kitchen tools.

seagrass

In Australia a hope chest is called a glory box or bottom drawer. I'm still using a crockpot which was a wedding gift in 1983 and an electric frypan which was second hand when I acquired it at about the same time or before (it's kind of iffy now, can't adjust the temp any more but I'm too cheap to replace it because, you now, it still works ;-) ) and my Kewnwood Chef Major mixers would have to be about 30 years old now too. Oh, just remembered the sandwich toaster (like a panini press but it has interchangeable plates for waffles and jaffles as well) MIL gave us for a housewarming gift over 32 years ago.

The oldest stuff I bought or received new I'm still using are my Farberware pots and pans I got as a wedding gift in 1977, but most of their handles are broken. We also received a large rectangular plastic chopping board which I still use daily. that thing will still be going strong in 2077 and beyond.

DH picks up antiques all the time at estates sales. I have the multi-color stacking pyrex bowls that I use all the time. He's picked up multiple old Sunbeam mixers, none of which I use, but he liked them. They're basically decoration, but could still be used.

I have a Sunbeam electric can opener from the '60's I use all the time. It was my mothers, and I took it when she passed away. I love it, but no one else in the family likes to use it. I think it works like a charm, but for some reason, others find it difficult to use. I don't know why.

I have my mother's Spode, and my grandmother's china, too, but rarely use it. I don't know why other than I don't often have the occasion to use it. Mom used it at least a couple times a year - I should too.

I have my mother's Joy of Cooking from 1972, which is stuffed full of hand written recipes from various people, newspaper recipe clippings, and magazine recipes. It's a treasure I like to get out from time to time and read the old recipes people gave her. I do still use the Joy of Cooking, too.

Sally

It's not my oldest, but I have a platter that was my grandmothers that was free in a box of powdered soap. I think it was Duz. It's all chipped and discolored. But I remember seeing her taking it out of the soap box as a little kid.

This post was edited by otterkill on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 10:00

The oldest item in my kitchen
That I am "first owner" of is a rolling pin
That I bought (as a new bride) in 1957.

I also have dishes, etc,
That were wedding gifts to my parents in 1926.
And some silverware from my grandparents' homes in Germany,
that probably dates back to the late 1800's
Or early 1900's.

And then there is me. . . . .
:>)

Rusty

The oldest utensil that I bought new was either the glass juicer or the cheese grater, which is now black with age but still works well and does not take up much space, since it is flat and hangs in the rack over my peninsula. My silverware is older because I inherited that from my mother, and I have an etched glass cream pitcher that my great-grandparents brought with them from Alsace over a hundred years ago. I used to use the glass juicer quite frequently until I bought the new lime and lemon juicers that squeeze the limes and lemons with a lever action. These work so much better, but I do not yet have one for oranges, and I should have ripe blood oranges in a couple of weeks or so. I tend to eat oranges rather than juice them, unless I have a lot of them, and I won't have that many this season, since it is a new tree.

Spatulas I update on a regular basis, and so I do not have any of those that are very old, and I especially like the new ones that are silicon and heat resistant.

Lars

The only things I still have that I personally bought are some stainless mixing bowls from 1968 and some tupperware from 1973. My original big yellow bowl is now used for potting mix as it is cracked and has a melted hole in the side. I have over the years picked up a couple more from thrift shops. Amazingly I still have lids for all of them, lol.
Otterkill, regarding Duz, I collected a large set of amber glasses in the 70s. I really liked them. They were very sturdy, but over the years they were either over-powered by my son, or lost(again when my son moved out on his own).
Several years ago I started re-collecting them from eBay and thrift stores and got quite a large selection again. When we moved recently, I gave the set to my son and he got a big kick out of it remembering seeing me pull them out of the detergent boxes. He has a large family and I'm sure those glasses will survive many years of use by his kids.

I have my grandmothers angel food cake pan and one of her cake plates and another milk glass serving tray. I use them all frequently!

I have a very neat tin measuring cup from the 1920's that I got from my DMIL. It is cone shaped with all the measurement markings on the inside.....by ingredient, by weight!!

Examples

Sultanas, Tapioca
Rice, Currants , Semolina, raisins
Icing sugar, dried milk , custard powder, flour
Ground almonds, shredded suet (I kid you not)

I keep it our on mu Hoosier for looks but it isn't something I use often ! LOL

chase, that sounds like a treasure!

So, I had to go in to my kitchen... and I know, it is my cookbook I brought with me from Germany in 1972. Oh, and my good stainless steel "silverware". Came from the same place, same time. :)

But I do have some really old gadgets that were my moms and my grandmothers.

Moni

I have a colander with the stand and the old jelly bag and the wooden thingy my mom got early in her marriage in 1926.
My DH is 81 and I have his grandmother's old mixing bowls, too.
Almost everything I have in my kitchen is really old.....stuff from when we got married 50 years ago.
Love it and love reading about others stuff.

A rolling pin that is at least 55-60 years old and still rolls like a dream.

A rolling pin that is at least 55-60 years old and still rolls like a dream.

Probably a mixing bowl that belonged to my grandmother. (I'm 66) I collect vintage kitchen things...so almost everything in my kitchen is prior to 1965. I collect colored pyrex, yellow ware bowls, and vintage utensils, as long as they are stainless and not chrome coated like many of the old wooden handled ones were.

Jvandher, it is a treasure I'll post pics tomorrow....never seen anything like it.

Hmm, I am not "first owner" of anything too old. A French Press I've had since about 1980, is the oldest thing I suppose.

As far as "previously owned" stuff, I use a slicer that my father-in-law used when he was a butcher shortly after WW2. It is about 18" long, slim flexible carbon steel, gets very sharp, I think of him when I take it out.

I missed the part about hand me downs not counting......

So the oldest thing is definitely me.

I'm enjoying this thread. I love how so many collectibles are things soap and other companies gave away. No one does that any more.

Sally