Ancient: Anything before the year 1400- which is the year the Mongol-Turkic leader Tamerlane sacked Aleppo, one of the glass centers of the ancient world, and seemed to mark the ascendancy of Venice as the premier glass bead-making center of the world.

Antique: 1400 to approximately 100 years ago (WWI as the cut-off)

Vintage: From the end of WWI to about 20 years ago. Based on browsing around flea markets and "antique" stores, it appears that most of the items are much less than 100 years old. And although I don't feel items that are only 20 years old deserve any special label - there is some merit to distinguishing them from "new".

So yeah, pretty soon the new repro beads from China and Indonesian that we've been complaining about for around 10 years, will be regarded as "vintage". Maybe a caution to never, ever throw anything out!

Tempus fugit!