Hobbies And Interests
History
Primitive items were the utilitarian or "make-do" items used by early Americans in their everyday lives, from 1700s colonists through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Often, these items were made at the person&'s home from everyday materials such as wood, pottery, and early textiles like muslin and wool.
Types
Primitive antiques fall into many categories: furniture, household wooden items, kitchen items, metal items, pottery, household textiles, and decorative items like pillows, rugs, curtains, and wall decor. Metal items can be made of tin, copper, or enamelware. Rugs can be wool or cotton, and come in varieties like braided, wool hooked, and penny rug style. Kitchen items may be pots and pans, utensils, and tools such as a cheese grater. Household textiles can be cotton, muslin, wool, linen, burlap, or any other natural material. Wall decor consists of stitched samplers, painted landscapes or portraits, and wooden signs. Primitive antique pottery includes yellowware, redware and stoneware. Children&'s toys and games have also become popular primitive antique collectibles.
Design
Primitive antiques are characterized by their hand-made quality and early American designs. Primitive antiques often feature folk art designs of birds, animals, flowers and fruits. Primitives were designed in a simplistic fashion, with a rough or hand-hewn quality. These household and farm items were designed to be used, not decorative.
Colors
Primitive antiques have survived decades or centuries of wear, so their colors are usually faded and the paint chipped. Popular colors for primitive antiques are muted or distressed, and come in shades of black, colonial blue, barn red, mustard, sage green and cream. Primitive antiques were often painted with organic plant-dye paints, which do not hold the color as long as modern paints. Many collectors find the muted colors part of the antiques&' appeal.
Collecting
Collectors seek out early American antiques made before 1930, with a handmade or rough-hewn quality to the item. Chips, cracks, stains and distressed paint add to the overall look, and a piece that is not in perfect condition should not be discounted. Different parts of the United States feature different types of primitive antiques. Any household item with an antique, faded, distressed, handmade, or simplistic design can qualify as a primitive antique.