"Aaron Fude" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have purchase an antique piece on ebay and now I have grave doubts
about its being antique. It's a tea kettle and the claim is that it
was made in the 1800's. However, the pieces are being held together by
nuts and bolts. I have (low quality) picture that I took with my
camera phone he

http://freeboundaries.com/bolt.jpg

Now I'm sure that the nut has been replaced, but the "bolt" part is
actually part of the handle - the threads are on the piece itself. And
the threads on the "bolt" part are a modern gauge and thread count.
Now, my question is this: can one tell when the contemporary thread
sizes were finalized? Was it in the 1800's or was it more like in the
1970's. And by looking at the picture that I provided, can one put a
lower bound on the time period in which this piece was made.


I had some old copper pots and kettles that I bought in Europe years ago.
They were around 200 hundred years old, but some of the handles looked newer
and there were some rivet repairs. I surmised after asking around that
these things would get repaired after something broke off and the blacksmith
would use the more modern repair method rather then restore the piece to its
original construction and design. You might have the same situation. Maybe
it was repaired or replaced 50 years ago.

Can you post pictures of the entire piece?