About Antique Identifier
Some objects refuse to give up their secrets. A silver tray bought at an estate sale, an unmarked porcelain teacup inherited from a grandparent, a brass handle salvaged from a barn — they sit on shelves for years until someone finally asks the question every collector eventually asks: what is this, and is it worth anything?
Antique Identifier exists to answer that question.
We are the editorial home of Antique Identifier: Appraise, an AI-powered iOS app that identifies antiques from a photo and returns market value estimates pulled from real auction comparables. Snap the hallmark, the maker’s mark, the underside of the saucer — the app reads what generations of seasoned collectors had to learn the hard way.
Why This Actually Matters
Most people only think about antique identification when something real is at stake. We see the same scenarios over and over:
- Clearing out a parent’s house. Boxes of “old stuff” go to the donation truck because nobody knows that the sterling tea service inside is worth $4,000. The app stops that from happening.
- Selling on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. List a piece for $40 when it’s a $400 piece and you’ll get one bid in five minutes — from a dealer who flips it for triple. Knowing the maker, period, and comparable sales lets you price correctly the first time.
- Estate sales and thrift shop scouting. The piece is in your hand for 30 seconds before someone else grabs it. The app gives you an answer in that window.
- Inherited pieces with no story attached. The mark on the back is a clue to where it came from, who made it, and what it meant. Identification is often as much about history as it is about money.
- Insurance and downsizing. Before you give a piece away, donate it, or write it off, you should know what it is. A two-minute scan can change a decision worth thousands.
How We’re Different
There are plenty of identification apps. Most of them treat every object as a one-shot guess from a single photo. We do it differently:
- Automatic hallmark and maker’s mark detection. You don’t have to crop or zoom. Point the camera at a piece and the app finds the stamp, the punch, the foundry mark on its own — even on tarnished silver or weathered pewter.
- Multiple photos per item. A teapot has a lid, a body, a base, a spout, and a handle — each tells a different story. Most apps only let you upload one photo. We let you stack as many as you want for a single identification, so the AI sees the whole piece.
- Unlimited scans. No daily quota. No “you’ve identified 3 items, please upgrade.” Scan a whole estate sale in one afternoon.
- No ads. Ever. No banners, no full-screen popups, no “watch a video to unlock.” The app is clean and stays clean.
- 3-filter data verification. Every value estimate passes three checks: auction comparables (Heritage, Sotheby’s, Bonhams), price-guide references (Kovels, WorthPoint sold data), and condition-adjusted recent sold listings. If a number can’t survive all three, we don’t show it.
- A proprietary antique library that keeps growing. Our identification database expands every week — new makers, new patterns, new period variants — based on what real users are scanning. The app gets sharper the longer it’s in the field.
What the App Recognizes
- Silver hallmarks — American, British, French, German, Scandinavian, including period and town marks
- Porcelain and pottery marks — Meissen crossed swords, Sèvres, Limoges, Wedgwood, Chinese reign marks (Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong)
- Period furniture — Federal, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, Mid-Century, plus joinery and hardware dating
- Costume and antique jewelry — Weiss, Trifari, Eisenberg, Edwardian, Art Deco, Bakelite, Georgian
- Glassware — Depression glass, Carnival, EAPG, milk glass, art glass
- Coins, militaria, ephemera, and decorative arts
Why We Built This
For most of the 20th century, antique identification required a library: Kovels’ price guides, reference books on marks, dealer mentorships, and years of hands-on browsing. That kind of knowledge took decades to build.
The truth is, most objects on most shelves aren’t valuable. But you can’t know that without checking. And the cost of being wrong — selling a $5,000 silver coffee pot for $50 at a garage sale because no one read the maker’s mark — is the kind of regret collectors talk about for years.
We built Antique Identifier to compress that gap. Take a photo. Get an answer. Decide what to do next.
Who’s Behind This
Articles on antiqueidentifier.org are written by Arthur Sterling, an antique identification specialist and lifelong collector with 20+ years of experience in silver hallmarks, porcelain marks, and period furniture. Arthur writes in the voice of a working dealer — warm, hands-on, opinionated where the data supports it.
The app and website are built and operated by Obzena LLC, a Wyoming, USA limited liability company that builds focused tools bringing expert-level knowledge to everyday users. Our sister product Coinara handles coin identification on the same iOS platform.
What This Site Covers
The blog publishes long-form guides on the topics our app users ask about most: how to test silver vs pewter at home, dating Ming porcelain, spotting fake Civil War buttons, valuing Wallace Grand Baroque flatware, reading Tiffany hallmarks, and dozens more. Every article is written to be useful at the moment a real piece is in your hand.
Important: AI Identification
The app’s identifications and value estimates are produced by AI models trained on auction comparables and reference data. They are excellent starting points, but they are not professional appraisals. For high-value pieces — anything over $1,000 — always consult a qualified appraiser or auction specialist before buying, selling, or insuring.
Get in Touch
Press, partnerships, corrections, app feedback, or a story about a piece you found: email antiqly@obzena.com. We read everything and reply within 1–3 business days.
