9 Primitive Crafts to Always Buy When You See Them At Antique Stores

5) Dough Bowls and Treenware

Nothing says Americana like these rustic bowls of yesteryear. In the days when the women would make nearly everything their family could need, dough bowls were an essential part of the baking process. Today these relics of another era can sell for as little $10 on the very low end, but many sell for quite a bit more than such as one which recently fetched $800 and items like Treenware containers can be worth a lot more than you might think.

Hand-carved antique items usually don’t have a gloss finish, so be weary of items that do. Other than that, if you happen to be lured into getting something that’s actually a lot newer than you think then there is good news: many hand-carved items have good resale value even if they aren’t antiques! Even if you ended up being wrong and it’s not Early American, it will still probably be worth something!

4) Wooden Buckets

In the days of coopers and barrels full of everything from whale blubber to wine, the wooden vessel was an all important container for any kind of liquid. Primitive wooden buckets were made with great care and skill. Some of the most valuable antique wooden buckets have distinctive milk paint in classic colors. If you see one of these be sure to snag it! Today these buckets can routinely sell for hundreds of dollars a piece.

3) Bible Boxes

Some are beautifully carved and all hold wisdom about the past. Bible boxes were where a family would keep their family bible, one of the most precious artifacts they had. Births and death would be registered in their pages and it would have been one of the few, possibly the only, book the family owned. It was how the children learned to read and as such the family bible kept in a special place, to be unlocked only when needed. While plain family use bible boxes can sell for as little as $50, more ornate ones can go for much more like this 17th century church bible box/ lectern which sold for more than $6,000.

2) Double Weave Coverlets

Woven of 2 colors of wool, these coverlets can date back to the 1700s and usually hold some very interesting designs. Not only were these blankets warm and dense, their patterns are a unique and vibrant art of the Early American era. Usually these blankets only have 2 colors but can vary wildly in colors and patterns, from geometric to complicated damask patterns. In good condition these coverlets regularly sell for $200-400 or more.

1) Crazy Quilts

The hours that went into making a crazy quilt and embroidering each design are not for nothing. These elaborate quilts from the 19th century are often some of the finest examples of using up scraps ever created. To be fair, though, many crazy quilt supplies, like velvet fabric and gold thread, were bought especially for the purpose when these must-have quilts became trendy. In any case, these pieces do tend to sell well in most markets.

While smaller or more plain crazy quilts can be underwhelming in the amount of money they bring in, sellers can seek a pretty penny for particularly fine examples, like this one which they are asking $22,000 for!