Antiques Freaks

Put the spider on the cross. Cleanse your sins with fire and lye. The time has come to join the Cast Iron Cult.

What do the Red Barn Murder, the Murders at Stanfield Hall, the Bermondsey Horror, and the Prince of Poisoners have in common? They're all immortalized in Staffordshire pottery! Because the only thing the Victorians …

A bubble that will never burst! Enter the realm of the tube-benders, and join the noble gases on their quest to light up the night!

I Am A Woman (In Love With a Woman - Must Society Reject Me?) and other fantastical tales from the Isle of Lesbos! The true story behind Beebo Brinker! Which man had his fictional protagonist read his nonfiction tome? …

Antiques Roadshow stars behaving badly! Twins bidding against each other! Auction fever blazing! What harm can one or three Coors Lights do? Join us on this wild ride.

What if one of the founding fathers of America had bought wine in Paris? And what if a bottle of that wine happened to show up at a Christie's auction? And what if no one questioned its veracity until it was too late? …

How does one tiny New England town go from chair-making to sewing machines to steam-powered cars in just one century? Come along with us on a wild journey through the history of the New Home Sewing Machine Co.!

Do you wish your door would move less? We may just have a solution. CAST IRON DOOR STOPS! Special shout out to #brickclub.

It begins with John James "Bonkers for Birds" Audubon and ends with the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. With some pit stops along the way for Teddy …

It's time to learn about Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Gilded Age glassware mogul who contributed almost no creativity to the company that bears his …

Delve into the daring adventures of Deadwood Dick - amongst others! Yes, it's time to read up on America's answer to the penny dreadful.

From the earliest piddler to the lion known as Lionel, come learn about model trains! With a slight detour into Gillette Castle.

What's that old Singer treadle cabinet in the attic worth? Absolutely nothing? Probably! But let us explore further and see if we might find some …

What is this antique, and how much is it worth? We're no Antiques Roadshow, but we'll give it a shot, and show you how to do it, too!

From the mysterious origins of Helen Killer to the swift and sudden demise at the peak of popularity, we chronicle the one blog who dared to take on …

Diamonds are a girl's best friend? Nope. Diamonds are forever? Not even close. Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust? Sure! Join us on a nightmare spiral of lies as we discover how diamonds tie into the antiques …

In a dark age before the dawn of zippers, we had buttons. So many buttons. Too many buttons. Solution? BUTTONHOOKS! Warning for terrible things …

It's a hatchet for your face! This week we discuss razors, from their ancient origins to their stage musical and silver screen fame, all the way up to their hipster resurgence. With a pit stop in King Camp Gillette's …

Meet the electric Victorian version of Martha Stewart! Mrs. J. E. H. Gordon, aka Alice, is here to tell us all how to best decorate our London townhouses. With electricity! You won't believe what she does to her …

It's not just a rockin' good They Might Be Giants tune. It's also an incredibly difficult and intricate decoration technique that may have …

Get your goggles, cogs, and corsets ready! It's time to delve into the wild wild world of steampunk. Pour one out for all the antique clocks destroyed along the way.

From Gibson to Vargas, the Antiques Freaks discuss the history behind saucy illustrations of ladies.

It's kitsch gone wrong! Will the true artist behind these weepy-eyed waifs please stand up?

...Because we have to congratulate them on getting an …

Fraudulent fossils abound in 18th century Germany! Tune in to hear a tale of academic pranking gone horribly awry.

Postcards! It all started with legendary Regency prankster Thomas Hook and only got weirder from there.

Happy Boxing Day! In the second half of our holiday special, we cover lights from candles to bubbles to NOMA and beyond; tinsel, pavuchky, and the …

It's the first half of our two-part Christmas special, featuring Shiny Brite vintage ornaments and Kugel balls! Other talking points include Charles …

What do the Salem Witch Trials and Benjamin Franklin have in common? A cool $2.4 million at Christie's. With special guest appearance by the Witch …

Antiques Freaks drops some pearls of wisdom just for you. About pearls! You have to bite them. (Don't bite them.)

Yet another occupational hazard of the antiques industry dating back to the age of antiquity! Join us as we explore which antiques contain lead and …

It's not a gravy boat. It's a downward spiral into Victorian sanitation failure and ill-advised website names. (Apologies for sound quality - our …

Everyone's favorite horrible little shifty-eyed gremlins! But did you know their secret history? Spoiler alert: it involves parachutes, burglary, and …

Before we had Beanie Babies, we had Hummels. These cutesy collectible porcelain children pissed off Hitler something fierce. #hummelbrag

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! To celebrate, we've brought out one of Dee's favorite collections: poison bottles. Please do not use them to serve spooky cocktails …

What do you get when science and history collide? ODDITIES! We close out Goth Month with special guest Olivia, here to tell us all about what …

Dee's out-of-studio this week, so we put together an assortment of the best deleted scenes from our Patreon! Covering everything from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to Drug Abuse Resistance Education to Singin' in …

In today's episode we give you blood, blood gallons of the stuff, and share a little on why you would take the blood out, and with what! Warning for …

What do you get when you turn a 19th century textile mill into an antiques shop? GHOSTS! We kick off the month of Halloween with haunted …

Not gallant glass, but GOOFUS GLASS! Long thought to be a prank, now we know it's the Next Big Thing in collectible glassware. Also, notoriously ugly.

BOOKS! How can you recognize a first edition in the wild? How many first editions are hiding in your house RIGHT NOW? And which rare first edition has the most inappropriate price tag? All this and more as we dive into …

Cameos! The ultimate souvenir for the distinguished Victorian tourist. See also: sardonyx, the sarcastic cousin of onyx. And just how much is Lance …

Antiques Freaks chat about some fine equines as we delve into the magical retro world of My Little Pony! What is "pony cancer" and how can you prevent it from destroying your mint-condition Minty? How is a plastic pony …

What are you doing with all that hair collected in your hairbrush? Just throwing it away? WASTEFUL! The Antiques Freaks tell you how to put that hair …

Once upon a time, in a world before electronic-mail, we had stamps. From the penny black to the pony express, Antiques Freaks will tell you which stamps are hot, which stamps are not, and which stamps might be secret …

Start sunning purple with the Antiques Freaks as we tell a tale of beauty and deception. Sun-purpled glass, an innocent aesthetic alteration, or a plague of fraud and lies? You decide!

From batteries to casseroles, Pyrex has got your back. In this listener-suggested episode, we learn about literally the only antique you can put in …

How is an antique bookshelf like a rabid raccoon? What's a doily good for, anyway? When will science give us an endangered sites list, but like, for antiques? The Antiques Freaks tell you What Not To Do to your antique …

It was the best of eyes, it was the worst of eyes. The creator of the best-selling poster in America brings you the Snellen reform eye, the greatest prosthetic eye of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There's just …

Guillermo del Toro's Gothic romance masterpiece gives the Antiques Freaks an excuse to talk about chatelaines, hair jewelry, spirit photography, and …

Chairs? Lies. Desks? Also lies. Antiques Freaks learn which fraud fooled the furniture experts at Versailles and how you can avoid making the same …

It's time for the teddy bear parade, starring Steiff! With special guest appearance by the darkest teddy of all time.

We answer a listener question this week and discover just why there are so many gosh-darned pineapples all over antique furniture. Ken writes some pineapple fanfiction.

It's our first listener-suggested episode topic: Majolica! The Victorians went wild for it. Queen Mary destroyed it. Many strong feelings this week. …

It's the Magic Mike of furniture, Chippendale!

Fashion... to DIE for! Antiques Freaks explain the deadly Victorian pigment Paris green. (Warning: if you're sensitive to bad things happening to kids, you may want to listen with one finger on the skip button.)

One potter to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them. We delve deep (perhaps... too deep...) into the life and times of Josiah Wedgwood and his …

How do you pronounce "sevres"? We don't know. But we do know why all dolls are haunted. Join us on a journey of ceramics discovery.

Transfer where? Transfer here! With transferware. Learn how to live up to your blue-and-white china. (Apologies to Oscar Wilde.)

Check your pockets! There might be antiques in there! Tune in to learn the scandalous history of the fabled wheat penny.

Are you a big nerd for Victorian nonsense? Tune in to learn all about the bizzare social ritual of calling cards, from A Member of the Aristocracy.

Antiques Freaks are not doctors, but even we know mercury isn't good for you. Learn which antiques will definitely for sure kill you with mercury poisoning in this week's episode!

Our hearts are in Ohio this week as we tackle Roseville pottery! It's very valuable and prestigious. Ken has literally never heard of it before. …

Don't get sad, get happy! Learn all about the brightly colored glassware that cheered up miserable folks of yesteryear.

What do fish forks, grape shears, and tracheotomy tubes have in common? STERLING SILVER! Dee goes off on scrappers. Ken has no idea what electroplating is. Join us, won't you? Thank you.

Dive into early plastics and learn the difference between Bakelite (not flammable) and Celluloid (more flammable than paper).

The antiques are streaming this week as Dee and Ken binge and review HGTV's Flea Market Flip! Please stop spraypainting over solid mahogany.

Move over, Macklemore. The Antiques Freaks are here to tell you how to sniff out hidden treasures at your local thrift shop!

Gather round for an extra-long episode explaining the scourge of the collectibles industry: Beanie Babies. They're completely worthless. Enjoy!

Antiques is a liar sometimes. Dee explains how to spot the fakes in glassware, porcelain, and mirrors. Ken knows too much about vampires. The wine fraud documentary is Sour Grapes (2016).

Dee tells us all about how to conduct ourselves at an antiques action. Protip: no cussin'.

(Since recording this episode, we have been informed that …

Dee explains the mineral jet and its history in antique jewelry. Ken explains its role in one of the many, many subplots of the novel Les Miserables. …

Not just a two-bit Sailor Moon villain! Remake yourself in Martha Stewart's image with the soothing soft greens of jadeite glassware. #thanksmartha

Ken hates haggling because he fears and mistrusts that which he does not understand. Fortunately Dee is here to explain it all!

The shiny garbage of yesterday is now highly collectible! Dee explains carnival glass and Ken tells of corn.

What am antiques? Not to worry. Dee and Ken define antiques, vintage, retro, Victorian, and a bunch of other words abused by Pinterest.

(Ken is confused about the interim period between the Regency era and the Victorian …