Finding Antique Windows, Shutters, and Sash Locks for Your Home or Project
If you are searching for vintage windows for sale on eBay, you can find a wide variety of options of vintage windows, shutters, and necessary hardware such as sash locks or sash chains from worldwide listings. Understanding the time period of your home or building will help you find historic windows for sale. Additionally, there are many ways to upcycle old glass windows for sale by repurposing them into shabby chic decor elements.
What type of glass has value in historic windows for sale?If you are looking for affordable historic window glass for sale that has value to both collectors as well as installers and repairers of vintage windows in period homes, wavy glass is often sought-after for the authenticity to the historic period as well as its inherent craftsmanship. Wavy glass will vary in value based on these features:
- Age - Wavy glass dates to the 1700s and these panes of glass were hand-blown, causing the wavy distortion as well as bubbles known as seeds.
- Distortion - Older wavy glass has higher levels of distortion.
- Handcrafted versus machine-made - Most wavy glass of the 1700s and 1800s was hand-blown; as the rise of manufacturing increased in the late 1800s and early 1900s, wavy glass was machine-produced and was a major component of urban buildings in the early 1900s.
Antique windows have unique hardware needs; many hardware pieces for these vintage, historic windows were handcrafted by metalsmiths of the time period. Some common hardware used in antique windows includes:
- Sash lock - Used to pull both the top sash of the window and the bottom sash of the window together and lock them.
- Sash stay - Used when the window was open, this piece of hardware is typically attached on the outside of the sash and works to keep the window open by providing tension against the window frame.
- Transom operator - Transom windows are high windows set at the top of the wall line, below ceiling level, and served to vent hot, rising air from rooms during the summer months; a transom operator is a long, wand-like apparatus to open and close a high transom window.
Shutters predate glass windows; in early dwellings, shutters allowed people to close off their window openings that lacked glass against weather such as rain, wind, snow, and even the heat of the sun. Shutters also allowed for security by locking the window entry to the home against intruders. Vintage and antique windows share some common features, including:
- Made of durable wood that could hold up against the elements; woods such as old-growth pine and fir are common.
- Shutters for first floors of homes generally featured solid panels for privacy and security; some first-floor shutters might also feature a mixture of a paneled lower portion for privacy and a louvered upper portion for airflow.
- Shutters for second floors of homes generally featured louvered panels for airflow in and out of the home; often, these shutters were painted a dark color to help block ambient village or city light from the sleeping chambers.