When shopping for antiques, you should certainly be familiar with the various eras of art of the period . Websites such as Phoenix Ancient Art will give you a great overview of the many cultures you might encounter.
Archaic antiques come from Greece and were made during the prosperous 6th and early 5th centuries B.C. The most common pieces from this period, as antique dealers Hicham Aboutaam and Ali Aboutaam explain, include statues of human figures and pottery.
One very unusual feature of the statues of this period is that most of them are smiling. Thisexpression is the well known “archaic-smile” and was, historians think, supposed to convey a feeling of peace. Large statues from this period include monumental statues in marble and bronze that were created to decorate temples such as the Parthenon in Athens. You can also find red-figure and white-ground pottery from this period.