Recommendations for Antique Shops in Istanbul
Coming to Life with Antique Shops Full of History
If you are interested in antiques or vintage items, there are markets and shops in Istanbul to suit every pocket and taste. What's important here is that you know the difference between used items and antique items, and you know the places. Antiques are items whose production has stopped, are unique, sometimes products of a master craftsman or a lost brand. They carry a meaning beyond just evoking nostalgia. If you are interested in collecting or want to use them for decorative purposes, you should first visit the shops. Fatih, Bey Beyoğlu, Üsküdar, and Kadıköy are the main districts where you can find items like records, furniture, gramophones, porcelain, and paintings. Mecidiyeköy Antiques Bazaar and Üsküdar Zeki Antik are places where you can more easily find such elite items. The historic Horhor Antiques Bazaar in Aksaray also houses valuable restored antiques. Zeki Antik offers rental options for most of its products. Besides these, Beyoğlu Çukurcuma is very rich in terms of shop variety. There are very interesting jewelry and electronic items in Çukurcuma. Üsküdar and Horhor stand out with furniture, clocks, Islamic items, tiles, and decorated objects. In addition to stamp collecting, which was once popular, collections of coins, banknotes, and pocket watches are also available. By obtaining the phone numbers or visiting the websites of all these shops, you can establish contact and be notified when the product you are looking for becomes available. The information so far is for those who have no problem with the economic aspect, such as collectors of old coin collections or painting collections. We can call these places the stopping points before going to an auction. More modest objects, unimaginable items, in short, everything that can be called knick-knacks, are available in the markets.
Where Can We Find What?
The Kadıköy Antique Market, held on Saturdays, and the Bomonti Antique Market, held on Sundays, are the main ones. There are affordable items at these markets, as well as expensive valuable pieces. Old books, glasses, clocks, cameras, records, toys, typewriters, and porcelain products are the items that most fill the market stalls. Cameras, especially in Bomonti, are very diverse. You can find hundreds of types of analog cameras. The prices of cameras with different features and from different periods are also affordable. By researching without haste and comparing prices, you can also find quality vintage items. In today's world, the speed of technology causes time to speed up, and an item can become old and antique very quickly. As the number of items increases, it becomes more difficult to value them. The value of an antique object depends on its availability, i.e., whether it is rare or not. So, by visiting these markets and shops, you can gain more knowledge about the prices of antique items and the quality of the products. It seems the best thing to do is to visit...
