Dating Your Vintage: Shifting Sovereign States

Global politics on the tags of your vintage

One of the first things I look for on a vintage label is where something was made. The “Made In” country is a great place to start when it comes to dating a piece - see my past letters about Made in China and Made in America. The manufacturing country can tell a complex story about international trade, the rise and fall of specialty textile markets, the history of localized art trades, and more. Sometimes, just the name of a country can give you a specific window for accurately dating vintage.

The official designations of sovereign states are a constantly shifting vocabulary, as humans have and always continue to draw borders, to colonize, to take and trade and extract and exploit. Along with these disputes come name changes, and looking for these shifts on vintage labels can clue you in to exactly when something was made.

History is happening as I write this. The Israeli colonization project, backed by America and other Western interests, continues their violent attempt to destroy the State of Palestine and its people. Please visit Operation Olive Branch to connect with someone to support in Gaza, or join a local group advocating for Palestinian safety and liberation.

No one is free until we are all free.

When it comes to vintage goods, there are a handful of now-defunct or newer State names that I come across pretty often. The specific uses of these names tell me that an item is definitely vintage, and often narrows down a specific window of years during which it would have been made and sold. I’ve listed the “regulars” and their time frames below! There are certainly others out there, but I haven’t personally come across them in my many years of vintage collecting and sleuthing. Or I’ve forgotten - I’ll update you if I think of any I may have missed.