The Strangest Things Found in Antique Shops

Walk into almost any antique shop in America and you will find at least one object that makes you stop and ask, what on earth was this for? Gears, hooks, odd blades, and strange little cups fill the shelves, and most shoppers have no idea what they are looking at.

The truth is that nearly every strange antique once solved an everyday problem. Here are six of the oddest things collectors regularly spot, and the surprisingly practical jobs they used to do.

01The Mustache Cup

Victorian men often styled their mustaches with wax, and hot tea or coffee could melt it. The mustache cup solved this with a small ledge across the rim that let the drink pass underneath while the mustache stayed dry. They were popular gifts in the late 1800s, and many were made of decorated porcelain.

02Sugar Nips

Before granulated sugar was common, sugar was sold in large, hard cones called sugar loaves. Households broke off chunks and then used sugar nips, a plier-like tool with sharp curved blades, to cut them into usable pieces. Many people today mistake them for odd garden shears.

Nearly every strange antique once solved an everyday problem.

03The Button Hook

Shoes and gloves in the 1800s and early 1900s often closed with rows of tiny buttons. A button hook, a thin metal hook on a handle, pulled each button through its hole. Some came with fancy silver or bone handles, and they turn up constantly in old dresser drawers and estate sales.

04The Hand-Cranked Apple Peeler

Cast-iron apple peelers with gears and a crank look almost like small machines. You pushed an apple onto a fork, turned the handle, and a blade peeled it in one long ribbon. Dozens of designs were patented in the 1800s, and similar versions are still sold today.

05The Darning Egg

A smooth wooden egg, sometimes on a handle, often puzzles shoppers. It was slipped inside a sock so the hole stretched flat, making it easier to mend with needle and thread. In an age when clothes were repaired instead of replaced, nearly every household had one.

06The Bed Warming Pan

A long-handled brass or copper pan with a hinged, often decorated lid looks like a strange frying pan. It was filled with hot coals and slid between the sheets to warm a bed on cold nights, then removed before anyone climbed in.