For the Sake of Vintage

    Hello friends! I'm here to ask for some help. But first... Are you interested in getting scammed out of a few bucks? No? But it only costs five dollars and some cents... plus maybe another five or so for shipping. You'll get something shiny and new... oops, VINTAGE... I meant to say you'll be getting something antique and vintage that's surely worth the total cost... Sounds like a steal for something that could even be one of a kind, right?

    Okay, so I'm not really going to scam anyone. While using eBay as a reference (and totally not thinking about buying stuff) I found many sellers offering hooks labeled as vintage. So. Much. Vintage. The problem is, I noticed a few that are easily identifiable as new hooks. Although some might not be malicious scammers (perhaps just misinformed sellers), I think you shouldn't be selling something as vintage if you don't know for sure if it really belongs in that class. 

    I know I can purchase a whole set of those hooks for pretty darn cheap, so I did a quick Google search. Indeed, you can buy singles of these hooks for just $1.98. 

    The main purpose of this post isn't to shame random internet sellers. There's that old adage about how you should never contribute to malice... something, something... because maybe they just don't know any better? Right? But this one listing really got to me. The hook for sale is clearly labeled "Vintage BOYE Pale Blue Metal Size K / 10 1/2 - 6.50mm Crochet Hook". The hook shown in the first three pictures uses the Boye logo that wasn't put into production until after the company moved its manufacturing to China. 

    Attached to the listing is another photo with an assortment of hooks that actually are vintage. I'm not sure if this is placed to intentionally mislead the buyer. I sure would love to throw $5.95 at a handful of truly vintage crochet items. But how would you feel if that's what you thought you were buying, and you received a single "not vintage" hook?

    I can't identify every hook in that pile. There's only one thing I need to know: Boye discontinued use of the trademark with quotation marks in 1962. Some of the items in that photo are definitely vintage. I got excited and nearly bid on the listing before realizing the last picture isn't included in the sale.

    Despite the disappointment, I always do like seeing things that are old or different. Two of the hooks in that pile have piqued my interest. Number one has the logo without quotation marks, meaning technically it isn't vintage. But do you notice how used that hook looks? The "fancy" trademark without the quotation marks was used for a while after the old logo retired in 1962, so I bet this hook is still really old. I just want to hear its stories.

    Hook number two leaves me with more questions. I can't see the trademark on it, so who knows about its age, but... Why so dark? That's way too shiny (and not dark enough) to be black oxide finish, isn't it? Have you ever seen a Boye aluminum hook in that color? I have not, and that's why I would love to find out more about this mysterious dark hook. 

    Alas, I have no interest in engaging with a seller when I kind of just accused them of maybe scamming people, so... Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: "Never contribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." I would much rather concentrate my energy on continuing my research for the Hooks with a History series of articles I started in 2015. After all, there are some truly vintage hooks of my own to finish investigating!

    

    I completed what I wanted to know about my Boye and Susan Bates hooks, but there was still so much to learn. What I never anticipated while writing an article about what I wanted to learn about my new vintage items, was that so many other people want to identify their own. My original resources for the information are no longer available. I try to help answer questions, but I'm no expert. I've been scouring the Wayback archives for any pieces of "Lace Buttons" with no success. The "ForCrafts" site I used seems to direct to a malicious bad thing that Google doesn't want me to go to. And "Simplicity" still exists, but those pages aren't found.

    Never mind the last two... Although they were great resources, I bet I can find that stuff somewhere else. (Back to patent researching, yay.) But oh, please, not Lace Buttons! The person (people?) who created that had put together such a beautiful collection. Tell me I'm doing something wrong and somebody can recover all the work that went into that site? I'm so afraid that it will be lost forever. I can't imagine so many details just disappearing with no trace. Please, for the sake of vintage... please tell me someone can find it.

    Perhaps we don't always think to preserve the little bits of history as much as our descendants would like. Ancient cave people valued their food sources enough to paint pictures of themselves hunting and gathering. The purpose could have been to say "Hey, you. Eat this", or just "Look what we did. Big cool." But did they leave us any recipes for how to best enjoy roasted mastodon? 

    Many cultures have managed to pass down extensive information about their knowledge and history. In a world where entire civilizations have been wiped out with nothing to show but some bones and pieces of pottery, it seems like we have it too easy with all this information available at our fingertips. That is, until we can't find it anymore. 

    If only everything in life had an instant archive button for the sake of whoever might want to know that... Well, maybe not everything, because I think we all can afford to lose the recipe for Grandma's "famous" pork and Jell-O "salad". But who knows? Someone in the future might actually want to know the answer to what the crunchy pieces were.

Happy Crocheting!