THE VANISHED ERAS "ABOUT US" PAGE
About Us - A Message from the Proprietor
If you require further information about any of our stock (including shipping costs for overseas or Special Delivery), or are looking for any particular item that we do not currently have for sale, please feel free to get in touch. We recommend that you contact us via e-mail at:
Alternatively, you may contact us by telephone at (01726) 73886 (UK landline - please ask for Peter), or 07815 568818 (mobile - you may receive an answerphone message); please phone us during normal UK working hours if possible.
We aim to answer all genuine enquiries as soon as possible, and usually within 24 hours. However, we will not normally respond to emails soliciting unwanted business (for example, any communications from wholesalers dealing in new reproduction goods) nor to any unsolicited junk mail. If you email us, please enter an appropriate subject heading, such as "Vanished Eras" or "Denby plant pot" (or whatever particular item you are interested in), so that we know that your enquiry is genuine.
ABOUT US
VANISHED ERAS is an independent, UK-based, online-only antiques and collectables store, where you will find a wide range of interesting, useful and ornamental articles from times gone by. We seek to cater for a varied international customer base, ranging from specialist collectors to interior designers and casual shoppers; with this in mind, we stock a general range of antique, vintage and retro pieces to suit many different tastes and pockets, although we specialise in vintage ceramics, glassware, advertising and packaging, Bakelite and early plastics, kitchenalia and lighting. In sourcing and selecting our stock, we choose not only those items for which there is a proven demand, but (within certain limits!) anything that we believe will appeal to somebody, somewhere, some day - regardless of prevailing fashions and trends.
With a few clearly identified exceptions, all items offered for sale at VANISHED ERAS are, to the best of our knowledge, genuine antique or vintage pieces and NOT recent reproductions (some may of course be old reproductions - now collectable in their own right - of even earlier pieces); many of these items, having survived the ravages of time, will display varying degrees of age-related wear and other defects. In view of this, we pride ourselves on giving as full and accurate as possible a description of each item and its condition, together with up to five carefully-taken photographs - we would rather make the condition of an item appear worse than it actually is by mentioning defects that may be quite trivial, than risk disappointing our valued customers. We aim to dispatch all orders within two working days of clearance of payment. All orders - especially those of a fragile nature - are packed with great care, using good quality recycled and/or new materials as appropriate.
We hope you enjoy visiting our site. If you do not find what you are looking for on this occasion, please come back soon - we frequently add fresh items to our stock. You will find our contact details at the top of this page - please let us know if you are looking for any particular item, as we might just come across it in our travels, or may even have one waiting to be listed for sale! Likewise, if you require any further information about any item we have for sale, or need additional photographs, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Finally, if you happen to know anyone else who would enjoy browsing our site, or who would be interested in anything that we have for sale, please tell them about us - it would be greatly appreciated!
Peter Tylor (proprietor)
A MESSAGE FROM THE PROPRIETOR
From an early age I have had a strong interest in history, manifested not only in an admiration for historic architecture, but also in a desire to collect objects from bygone eras. I started collecting tins at the age of eight or thereabouts; bottles, coins and early electrical fittings soon followed. Whilst my classmates at secondary school saved up for the latest CDs or video games, my pocket money was spent at fleamarkets, car boot sales and charity shops, where I became well known as a buyer of early packaging, Victorian religious texts, 1930s imitation tortoiseshell dressing table sets, 1960s lampshades and much else besides.
Having gone up to the University of York to read History, I intended to pursue a career in archives; the idea of working in a semi-academic environment with historical documents appealed to me, whereas the conventional, if more lucrative, career paths certainly did not. Thus I embarked upon some very enjoyable periods of work experience at archives in London, York and Truro, in the hope of gaining one of the few available places on an Archive Administration course. However, I did not succeed in this at either my first or my second attempt, and so the door of the archives profession remained firmly shut as far as I was concerned.
After much thought, it became clear that the best way forward would be to turn my hobby of many years into a career, and (incidentally) follow in the footsteps of my great-grandmother, by opening an antiques shop. Unlike my great-grandmother's business, however, mine would be located in cyberspace; not only would an online shop have a much wider potential customer base than the average "bricks and mortar" business, but the starting-up and running costs would be considerably lower, at least to begin with. The name "Vanished Eras" was decided upon, as being memorable with a suitably upmarket "ring"; incredibly, it was not already in use as far as I could ascertain, and had not yet been registered as a domain name. Much of my starting stock would consist of pieces collected over the preceding fifteen or twenty years, which I now felt prepared to part with; at the same time, I began to buy fresh stock at local auctions and elsewhere.
After several months of preparation, VANISHED ERAS opened for business in December 2006. Since then, we have sold many period pieces of all kinds to a wide range of customers, mainly from the United Kingdom, but also from Europe, Australia and the USA. Some have found items to add to their own collections, or to those of their friends or family. Others have come to us for items that they required for use, but which could no longer be obtained new; for instance, one lady replenished her depleted stock of 1950s hair grips of a type she deemed superior to modern ones, whilst another found a pair of Bakelite door knobs to match the originals in her 1930s house. However, it gives us particularly great pleasure to be able to reunite people with items fondly remembered from childhood, or with artefacts related to former employers or family history; one of our first customers bought a perfume sachet produced by his ancestors' perfumery business.
At the present time, I am responsible for most of the day-to-day running of the business, including all photography, description and listing of stock, account-keeping and answering of enquiries, together with most of the packing of orders; as the business grows (as we hope it will), this will most probably change. However, I would like to acknowledge the help and support given to me by the various members of my family, without which this venture would not have been possible; I would especially like to thank my brother, who (having computer skills far superior to my own) has spent many hours designing the webpages and working on the technical aspects of the site, and my parents, for their continued interest in and respective contributions to the success of the enterprise. Finally, I would like to thank you for your interest in this site, and hope you enjoy visiting it as much as we enjoy running it!
Peter Tylor, June 2008
Page last updated 12 May 2012