Defining "antique" when buying furniture in Indonesia

[Puspawarna]

Way back in the 1990s, when we bought most of our furniture in Indonesia, we somehow "knew" that the "legal" definition of "antique" in Indonesia was "more than 40 years old." (Overuse of quotation marks entirely intentional.)

I don't know where we got that idea, although the two most likely sources would be a friend who was a connoisseur of actual antiquities (for the record, he thought a lot of items being passed off as genuine old rice pounding receptacles, totems, etc. in Indonesia were fake), or an overeager salesperson from a high-end shop such as Galeri 59.

Does anyone have any idea whether this forty-year definition is actually true or not? Or is it just a sort of urban legend that expats were passing around in those days?

 

[Bad_azz]

I always thought it was 100 years... shows what I know. Here ,I got the impression anything more than 5 minutes old could be described as antique

 

[William King]

Antique style?

 

[Puspawarna]

I always thought it was 100 years... shows what I know. Here ,I got the impression anything more than 5 minutes old could be described as antique

We used to live on Jl. Pasuruan in Menteng, which means we were practically living on top of Jl. Surabaya, and often strolled through examining their wares for entertainment. We'd usually be mistaken for tourists, and were always earnestly told, in broken English, that most everything we looked at was "antique." We'd look at the sellers skeptically and respond, "ya, betul...itu antik baru." This was usually met with a good-natured laugh and sheepish agreement.

Antique or not, they had a lot of stuff I liked, but I rarely bought anything there because the prices were insane and didn't come down even when we became familiar faces (I guess the sellers figured, why sell to a local bule who is on to their pricing practices, when at any moment a gullible tourist willing to pay 4 times more might come along).

Only once did we ever buy something at a fair price on Jl. Surabaya, and I know why: it was one of those ubiquitous marble-topped octagonal tables, too large and heavy for a tourist to take home. Their only possible market was people like us, who had the sense not to over-pay.

 

[dafluff]

"Antik" in colloquial Indonesian means anything that isn't cheap mass produced stuff. It is also synonymous with unique, eccentric or just weird. I have heard Joger being described as "toko barang antik", for example.

I have even heard it used to describe a strange person, such as "Antik banget itu orang..."

 

[mick mentawai]

Antique is widely considered 100 years or older.

Vintage 50 years or older. (but you can also say vintage1975 etc)

Retro more just the style.

But I think it's all just subjective and depends on the object.

I met some antique collectors in Solo once that really seemed to know their stuff and they said almost everything at that antique market thing in Solo were just items made to look old.

 

[El_Goretto]

I saw a 2010 Mazda CX-9 with 60,000km described as antik on various online ads...

 

[Jaime C]

I furnished our new house with lots of stuff from mostly expats moving out sales. I saw lots of "antique" stuff. I always based my purchasing on what I liked, and thought it worth. I don't recall ever paying more than 3-4 jt for any one piece. I'd be shocked if anything was over 50 years old.

 

[Puspawarna]

I always based my purchasing on what I liked, and thought it worth.

That's always been my approach too. I didn't pay a lot of attention to salespeople anxiously trying to convince me to buy something because it was (supposedly) an authentic antique. I was more concerned with what I saw in front of me: did I like it? Did it look like it would last? Was there any interesting story behind the design? Did the price seem fair?