Throughout this website, you will see the words Antique and Vintage being used to describe the machines & attachments that this website is dedicated to. It is often asked what classifies any of these machines as antiques or vintage. Many things are classified as antique when they reach one hundred years old after the last production date. But sometimes even the experts in the field can't agree on this point.

And when it comes to things like cars, tractors & attachments there appears to be even greater confusion and disagreement between the experts. As collectors, I think we like to say that we have a collection or a single piece of equipment that's an antique, or vintage. I'm not sure about this, but I think at one time I read an article that said if a tractor is fifty years old it can be called an antique. This sounds like a reasonable benchmark to go by. It would Make the very earliest tractors like the Two Cylinder A's & B's unstyled & styled into this distinctive class, as well as all the other models produced all into the 1950's in this classification. This sounds like a reasonable benchmark because when Deere started to build farm tractors with three cylinders & more, it was in the 1950's. And those three cylinder models were designated as the "New Generation" tractors.

When it comes to Lawn & Garden tractors the distinction is not as clear as it is with the Two Cylinder line. Deere did not enter into the consumer market with a starting lineup of tractors & attachments until the 1960's. I believe 1963 was the introduction of the Model 110, the grand daddy of the John Deere Lawn & Garden line. While it is now approaching some forty six years after the first 110 rolled off the assembly line, I guess you could say it is nearing antique status. But much of the L & G line is not nearly as old. The L & G line of Deere tractors really did not take off until the tail end of the sixties era. So that leaves an awful lot of machine out there waiting their turn at being classified as an antique.

And it's that long line of machines & attachments built in the late sixties into the nineties that we now refer to as being the Vintage years. But some will argue that machines which were built as late as the nineties can not possibly be a vintage machines. Well I say maybe yes, maybe no. It all depends on what kind of a spin you put on the words antique & vintage. Personally I tend to use the vintage classification when discussing L & G equipment simply because I don't think much of it at this point can really qualify for antique status. Even though much of, if not all of these machines & parts are officially classified as obsolete & unavailable from the manufacturer.

However when it comes to the Two Cylinder line I think the antique classification is the way to go. And don't forget that prior to the Two Cylinder line, there was Deere's Waterloo Boy. Now some will still argue that an antique is not an antique until it's at least one hundred years old. Again this is strictly my own viewpoint. I'm not sure that everything can be classified with a strict time line. Certainly we would not say that our model year 2000 SUV is an antique or vintage. But then again in the eyes of some it very well may be if you just consider what's going on in the arena of public opinion over SUV's.

So, in the end, I will continue to classify these machines as either antique or vintage depending on how I see it here at the barn. But that does not make me any kind of authority on the subject. I'm far from that. But when talking about these machines I need a sense of where they belong on the time line. And placing a label on them helps me in how I think about them. And if the label you place on them is different, that's fine. If these so called labels do noting more than start a lively conversation or friendly argument then it's well worth it.

The main goal here is to keep a small part of our american industrial history alive for generations to come. Without this record of our past, we are certainly never going to know our future direction. So regardless if it's tractors or federal period furniture, it's not how old it is. It is far more important to remember what it is & the great people before us like Washington, Franklin & John Deere who gave us our roots in american society.

Jerry