The Hoard Limited (scottishantiques.com )

It is a relatively recent departure for us here at ScottishAntiques.com to have begun to curate collections of properly ancient materials. Clearly, it is not generally our place to handle ‘museum-quality’ items of great historical significance (not that we’d shy away from such articles should they become available), but there is no less a ‘buzz’ to be taken from regarding items which date back two millennia or more - be they domestic wares or vestigial pieces of military hardware - rather than treasures from royal tombs or relics of vanished civilisations. It’s one of our most dearly held beliefs that – once acquired – antiques should be used for their original purpose wherever possible, reanimating them after however long it may be that they have spent gathering dust. This is perfectly fine with Georgian drinking glasses (our favourite) or Regency porcelain, but it is – we concede - a little trickier to breathe practical life back in to an Egyptian afet (fly) amulet or a sixth century Longobard broad-blade boar-hunting arrowhead… Pieces of this nature should, perhaps, be regarded more soberly than the majority of those that we sell – but what that does not do is to diminish the sense of sheer antiquity inherent within them. Consider something that was cherished by an inhabitant of the Nile delta some 3000 years ago – the innumerable hands that it has passed through since it was made – the events and people with which it has been contemporary over those many years; that’s where the value may lay with these items – apart from any real monetary worth, which can still be significant – the very fact that they have endured for such a length of time and seen so many owners come and go. It is perhaps a little esoteric to consider this aspect of things, but an appreciation of such qualities is what initially lead us to venture down this path of mercantile enlightenment and is, perhaps, why you yourself are reading this passage right now – welcome to our world !